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Philidelphia couple Herbert and Catherine Schaible have been convicted of involuntary
manslaughter in the death of their eight month old son Brandon. The couple has been sentenced
to three and a half to seven years in prison and thirty months of probation for allowing
Brandon to die of treatable pneumonia. The Schaibles belong to the Pentecostal First
Century Church in northeast Philidelphia, where they are third-generation members, and
teachers at the church school.
This church's followers believe that asking doctors for medical help is sinful, prescribing
prayer in the name of Jesus to heal the sick instead. The Schaibles were already serving
a ten-year probation for the 2009 death of their then-two-year-old son Kent, whom they
also allowed to die of treatable pneumonia. In 2011, they were put under court order to
seek medical care from a doctor if another of their children fell ill.
When giving his sentence, Judge Benjamin Lerner rejected a claim that the court order to seek
medical care violated the Schaibles' religious beliefs, saying, "You killed two of your children.
Not god, not your church, not your religious devotion. You."
Pastor Nelson Clark of the First Century Church holds the Schaibles responsible as well, blaming
a "spiritual lack" in their lives for both Kent and Brandon's deaths. When asked by a
reporter for ABC News, Pastor Clark said the couple would not seek medical care for their
children in the future.
In a police statement following Brandon's death, Herbert Schaible explained that he
didn't seek medical attention because, "[w]e believe in divine healing ..." His wife Catherine,
who has been free on bail while her husband has served the last year in jail, reports
that her religious views have changed since Brandon's death.
The United States District Court in Knoxville, Tennessee, has sentenced three anti-nuclear
activists for breaking into the Y-12 National Security Complex in July of 2012. 84 year
old nun, Sister Megan Rice was sentenced to 35 months in prison for her role in the break-in.
Her two accomplices, Michael Walli and Greg Boertje-Obed, were both sentenced to 62 months.
District Judge Amul Thapar explained that the differences in sentencing were based on
the relative criminal histories of the convicted. Of Sister Rice, the judge said, "Her crimes
are minimal in comparison to the others." Rice, Walli, and Boertje-Obed were convicted
by a federal jury in May 2013 with crimes of sabotage, including damage to government
property, endangering national security, and disrupting operations at a nuclear facility.
The Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, is the primary government
facility for the processing and storage of enriched uranium in the United States. In
July 2012, the trio cut through a fence at the complex, and once inside, vandalized the
exterior of the building with spray paint and hammers. When they were approached by
security personnel after two hours, the activists offered them food and began singing.
At the sentencing hearing, neither Sister Megan nor her fellow conspirators expressed
any remorse for their actions, even though at 84 years, this may be a life sentence for
the nun. She asked the court not to show her leniency, calling life in prison for the act
"the greatest gift" the court could give her, and saying her only regret is not having acted
sooner in her life.
In October of last year, two students at Pisgah High School in Canton, N.C. petitioned to
form a secular club in the high school which already had an established fellowship for
Christian athletes. 17 year-old Ben Wilson and his sister Kalei, 15, claim that there
were eleven students in addition to themselves who desired "to be treated the same as everyone
else." Initially the school denied the request calling the club "a bad fit" but the district's
lawyer announced in February that the school had reconsidered after a letter of complaint
was sent by the Freedom from Religion Foundation and the American Civil Liberties Union.
Pisgah High will now have a branch of The Secular Student Alliance, a national society
for nonreligious high school and college students. Executive director of the alliance, August
E. Brunsman IV, was quoted saying, "We fight every day to ensure students' rights aren't
infringed upon, and are pleased with this response from Haywood County Schools."