In the Name of God: The True Story of the Fight to Save Children From
Faith-Healing Homicide
By Cameron Stauth
Reviewed by Elmer J. Thiessen
New York, NY: St. Martin’s Press. 2012. ISBN-
10: 1250005795 ISBN-13: 978-1-250-00579-3
(hardcover). $20.96 (Amazon.com). e-ISBN:
978-1-250-03760-2 (ebook). $14.99 (e-Book
Agency) $12.74 (Kindle). 480 pages.
The story told by Cameron Stauth is sadly an
unfinished story. But Stauth has captured what
is perhaps the climax of the story, some
important legal victories in the state of Oregon,
which will hopefully play a part in ending the
tragedy of hundreds of children dying at the
hands of their own parents because the parents
don’t believe in modern medicine, but in the
power of prayer to heal. Stauth is the author or
coauthor of 25 books, including several national
and international best sellers. I have no doubt
that this book too will become a best seller.
Stauth begins by tracing the origins of two
churches that he highlights in the book, the
Christian Science Church and the Followers of
Christ Church the two churches practice faith-
healing, which in many cases leads to children
dying unnecessarily. This historical overview is
unfortunately too brief, and it tends to
overgeneralize with regard to fundamentalist
Christian churches. For instance, the Great
Awakening and the Second Great Awakening
did much more than spawn bizarre and “ultra-
secretive radical-fundamentalist” churches (p.
2). The Awakenings also involved a revival of
healthy religion.
The first and shorter part of the book deals with
faith healing as practiced in the Christian
Science Church. The Christian Science Church
believes that disease is “a figment of the
imagination, made real only by the belief” that it
is real (p. 28). After all, it was Shakespeare who
gave us this postmodern ditty: “There is nothing
either good or bad, but thinking makes it so,” as
Mary Baker Eddy quotes him in one of her
books (p. 63). Part One of the book centers on
Matthew Swan, who was born on March 3,
1976, to academic parents who were members of
the Christian Science Church. Sadly, Matthew
died 16 months later, from bacterial meningitis,
a condition that was in fact treatable. Matthew’s
death affected his parents deeply, leading his
mother, Rita Swan, to lose interest in life as
depression overwhelmed her (p. 40). But
eventually she recovered, in part because she
became aware that she was not alone in her
grief. 1979 was the International Year of the
Child, and Rita discovered that children all over
the world were suffering from any number of
causes, including faith-healing abuse. So she
dedicated her life to bringing the issues posed by
Matthew’s death to public attention, writing The
Last Strawberry, an eloquent reminiscence of
Matthew’s life. The Matthew Project was
transformed into a foundation called Children’s
Healthcare Is a Legal Duty (CHILD) (p. 66).
Rita is one of the heroes of this book—a
testament to what one person with a strong
commitment can do to bring about significant
change in a democracy (p. 83).
How does one bring about change? Early on in
her crusade, Rita knew what solving faith-
healing abuse would require:
First, she needed to find a state with a
weak shield law—or to successfully
weaken one herself. Second, she needed
a district attorney in that state who was
willing to aggressively prosecute a
prominent church, such as the Faith
Tabernacle or the Followers of Christ.
Third, that prosecutor needed to have a
police force that had developed an
inside source within the church:
somebody who was trusted by the
churchgoers, and willing to betray that
trust. (p. 84)
All three conditions were eventually met in
Clackamas County in Oregon, which was “the
epicenter of faith-healing abuse in America,”
70 International Journal of Cultic Studies ■ Vol. 5, 2014
Faith-Healing Homicide
By Cameron Stauth
Reviewed by Elmer J. Thiessen
New York, NY: St. Martin’s Press. 2012. ISBN-
10: 1250005795 ISBN-13: 978-1-250-00579-3
(hardcover). $20.96 (Amazon.com). e-ISBN:
978-1-250-03760-2 (ebook). $14.99 (e-Book
Agency) $12.74 (Kindle). 480 pages.
The story told by Cameron Stauth is sadly an
unfinished story. But Stauth has captured what
is perhaps the climax of the story, some
important legal victories in the state of Oregon,
which will hopefully play a part in ending the
tragedy of hundreds of children dying at the
hands of their own parents because the parents
don’t believe in modern medicine, but in the
power of prayer to heal. Stauth is the author or
coauthor of 25 books, including several national
and international best sellers. I have no doubt
that this book too will become a best seller.
Stauth begins by tracing the origins of two
churches that he highlights in the book, the
Christian Science Church and the Followers of
Christ Church the two churches practice faith-
healing, which in many cases leads to children
dying unnecessarily. This historical overview is
unfortunately too brief, and it tends to
overgeneralize with regard to fundamentalist
Christian churches. For instance, the Great
Awakening and the Second Great Awakening
did much more than spawn bizarre and “ultra-
secretive radical-fundamentalist” churches (p.
2). The Awakenings also involved a revival of
healthy religion.
The first and shorter part of the book deals with
faith healing as practiced in the Christian
Science Church. The Christian Science Church
believes that disease is “a figment of the
imagination, made real only by the belief” that it
is real (p. 28). After all, it was Shakespeare who
gave us this postmodern ditty: “There is nothing
either good or bad, but thinking makes it so,” as
Mary Baker Eddy quotes him in one of her
books (p. 63). Part One of the book centers on
Matthew Swan, who was born on March 3,
1976, to academic parents who were members of
the Christian Science Church. Sadly, Matthew
died 16 months later, from bacterial meningitis,
a condition that was in fact treatable. Matthew’s
death affected his parents deeply, leading his
mother, Rita Swan, to lose interest in life as
depression overwhelmed her (p. 40). But
eventually she recovered, in part because she
became aware that she was not alone in her
grief. 1979 was the International Year of the
Child, and Rita discovered that children all over
the world were suffering from any number of
causes, including faith-healing abuse. So she
dedicated her life to bringing the issues posed by
Matthew’s death to public attention, writing The
Last Strawberry, an eloquent reminiscence of
Matthew’s life. The Matthew Project was
transformed into a foundation called Children’s
Healthcare Is a Legal Duty (CHILD) (p. 66).
Rita is one of the heroes of this book—a
testament to what one person with a strong
commitment can do to bring about significant
change in a democracy (p. 83).
How does one bring about change? Early on in
her crusade, Rita knew what solving faith-
healing abuse would require:
First, she needed to find a state with a
weak shield law—or to successfully
weaken one herself. Second, she needed
a district attorney in that state who was
willing to aggressively prosecute a
prominent church, such as the Faith
Tabernacle or the Followers of Christ.
Third, that prosecutor needed to have a
police force that had developed an
inside source within the church:
somebody who was trusted by the
churchgoers, and willing to betray that
trust. (p. 84)
All three conditions were eventually met in
Clackamas County in Oregon, which was “the
epicenter of faith-healing abuse in America,”
70 International Journal of Cultic Studies ■ Vol. 5, 2014
