A Matter of Faith

Lawrence Parker, 34, is an unemployed aerospace worker in Barstow, Calif., whose family trusts deeply in its Pentecostal faith. Though their son Wesley, 11, had been suffering from diabetes for five years, Lawrence and Alice Parker took the boy two weeks ago to their local Assembly of God church to be treated by a visiting South American minister who claimed that he had healed himself through prayer. "We believe in faith healing," says Parker. "The preacher felt that he was healed and Wesley felt that he was healed." So sure were the Parkers that the cure had worked that they threw out Wesley's insulin.

Within two days, Wesley was lapsing into periods of unconsciousness. The Rev. Gary Nash, the Parkers' pastor, came to pray, but Wesley spoke only a few words. When Alice Parker decided to buy some fresh insulin, her husband prevented her. Wesley died, and was buried last week with only an undertaker and a gravedigger looking on. His family, believing that he will be resurrected from the grave, stayed home. "I think God is letting it go this far so he can receive the most glory from this when Wesley comes back," Lawrence Parker explained. Pastor Nash, however, was shaken. "There is no reason for Jesus to resurrect this boy," he said. "I think the Parkers have been deceived by Satan." At week's end the Parkers had been arraigned on charges of manslaughter, and Wesley was still in his grave.

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