Christian parents let their baby die while awaiting a miracle. They'll be in jail for a month.

Christian parents let their baby die while awaiting a miracle. They'll be in jail for a month.

Blair and Taylor Edwards’ 30-day sentence has reignited outrage over Followers of Christ Church’s deadly beliefs

https://www.friendlyatheist.com/p/christian-parents-let-their-baby-25c

Sep 10, 2025

Blair and Taylor Edwards, two Christian parents who let their sick newborn baby die because they didn’t want to call a doctor, were just sentenced to 30 days in jail. The light punishment comes with a promise to seek out professional medical care for their three other children and a plea to members of their Christian anti-medicine cult to do the same.


Blair and Taylor Edwards (image via Clackamas County District Attorney's Office)

The tragic story began on June 24, 2023, when Taylor gave birth to her son Hayden at home. Everything was fine until the morning of June 26, when Hayden stopped eating. His lips turned blue. Hours later, he stopped breathing, only to start again after his mother poured cold water on him. 30 minutes later, he was dead.

At no point in those five hours did the parents call doctors for help. Instead, they invited over family and friends to “pray and anoint the sick baby” with oil.

That’s because all these people belong to the Followers of Christ Church in Oregon, whose members are told prayers fix everything and medical interventions for children are unnecessary. Since 2011, when Oregon’s legislature finally removed “faith healing” as a legal defense for murder, three other couples from the same church have been prosecuted for killing their own kids. And that’s an improvement from the past. Over the last three decades, at least 21 children born to members of this church have been sacrificed because of their parents’ devotion to their religious delusions. Most of those parents were not sent to prison because the law treated their faith as immunity against prosecution.
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‘They put their hopes in olive oil:’ Followers of Christ parents sentenced to 30 days for baby’s death

The Followers of Christ have been involved in a number of similar cases for failing to seek medical treatment for children.

By Holly Bartholomew (OPB, Report for America)
Sept. 8, 2025 5:58 p.m.
https://www.opb.org/article/2025/09/08/followers-of-christ-children-neglect-sick-newborn-edwards-clackamas-county/