Official finding Christian institutions & contexts Other or denomination not established Elkhart and Kosciusko Counties, IN, USA · 1984

Faith Assembly mortality investigation: 40 confirmed deaths amid avoidance of medical care

Record class

Institutional event

Evidence status

Official finding

Authority role

religious leadership teaching spiritual healing in place of medical care, church community organized around prayer-only treatment

Organization

Faith Assembly of Wilmot, Indiana, Indiana State Board of Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Spiritual nexus

The public-health investigation describes a fundamentalist church whose members avoided all medical attention in favor of spiritual healing. Pregnant members received no prenatal care and delivered at home without medical assistance. The documented practice was therefore the exposure being measured, not an incidental religious identity.

Spiritual healing or treatment
Institutional obedience or isolation

Evidence structure

Proceedings

1984-06-01 · epidemiologic investigation and MMWR report

Indiana State Board of Health and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Investigators confirmed 40 deaths among Indiana members during 1975-1982: 21 perinatal, seven infant and child, six maternal and six nonmaternal adult deaths. In Elkhart and Kosciusko Counties, estimated perinatal mortality was 48 per 1,000 compared with 18 statewide, and maternal mortality was 872 per 100,000 compared with 9 statewide.

Documented coercion mechanisms

avoidance of all medical attention in favor of spiritual healing
no prenatal care
home labor and delivery without medical assistance
religious norm against medical treatment

Primary record

Sources

official public health report epidemiologic finding Indiana State Board of Health and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 'Perinatal and Maternal Mortality in a Religious Group, Indiana,' Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report 33, no. 21 (June 1, 1984): 297-298.: The official public-health report confirms 40 deaths, describes the spiritual-healing practice, states the investigation methods and reports perinatal and maternal mortality rates with statewide comparisons and denominator limitations.
peer reviewed public health study methodology and corroboration C. Spence, T. S. Danielson and A. M. Kaunitz, 'Perinatal and maternal mortality in a religious group avoiding obstetric care,' American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology 150, no. 7 (Dec. 1, 1984): 826-831, PMID 6507508.: The indexed peer-reviewed study identifies the group as Faith Assembly, verifies the death review and reports the markedly elevated maternal and perinatal mortality associated with avoiding obstetric care.

Contextual record

Background & context

Institutional and pattern-level sources on Christian institutions & contexts, not specific to this one case.

John Jay College of Criminal Justice (2004) 'The Nature and Scope of Sexual Abuse of Minors by Catholic Priests and Deacons in the United States 1950-2002' [the 'John Jay Report'], via Bishop-Accountability.org. Available at: bishop-accountability.org (Accessed: 15 July 2026).: The American bishops' own commissioned study — 'authorized and paid for by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB)' — found that 'the total number of Catholic priests and deacons in the United States who have been accused of sexual abuse of children is 4,392' and that 'A total of 10,667 individuals made allegations of child sexual abuse by priests.' Because the study relied on the dioceses' own files, these figures are widely regarded as a floor, not a ceiling.
Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse (2009) 'The Ryan Report' [Irish statutory inquiry, summarized at Wikipedia; primary at gov.ie]. Available at: en.wikipedia.org (Accessed: 15 July 2026).: Ireland's ten-year state inquiry into Catholic-run residential institutions — the strongest tier of documentation there is, a statutory commission chaired by a judge — found that 'Sexual abuse was endemic in boys' institutions' and that 'testimony had demonstrated beyond a doubt that the entire system treated children more like prison inmates and slaves than people with legal rights and human potential.'
Al Jazeera (2021) 'French clergy sexually abused 'over 200,000 children' since 1950', Al Jazeera, 5 October [reporting the CIASE/Sauvé Report]. Available at: aljazeera.com (Accessed: 15 July 2026).: France's independent CIASE commission (the Sauvé Report) produced the largest estimate ever made of clergy abuse in one country: 'About 216,000 children are estimated to have been sexually abused by thousands of French Catholic priests, deacons and other clergy since 1950' — 'a number which could rise to 330,000 when including abuse by lay members.' The commission called the abuse 'systemic' and found the Church had shown 'deep, total and even cruel indifference for years.' Note: these are the commission's epidemiological estimates, not case-by-case adjudications — an independent commission established at the bishops' request but operating independently.

Show 2 more context sources

FLOODLIT.org (2025) 'Christopher Michael Jensen' [LDS abuse case database; settlement documents made public 2025]. Available at: floodlit.org (Accessed: 15 July 2026).: Christopher Michael Jensen 'was a Mormon church member in Utah and West Virginia; sentenced to 35 to 75 years in prison for sexually abusing two children; local LDS church coverup alleged; LDS church settled civil lawsuit mid-trial in 2018 for $32 million, also spending over $27 million on legal fees; FLOODLIT.org discovered the settlement details in 2025 and made them public for the first time.' Note: Jensen's conviction is a standing criminal outcome; the $32M is a civil settlement, not an adjudication of the church's liability, and the cover-up remains alleged.
Charity Commission for England and Wales (2017) 'Investigation leads to improvements in safeguarding at Jehovah's Witnesses charity', GOV.UK. Available at: gov.uk (Accessed: 15 July 2026).: A statutory regulatory finding, in the Commission's own words: trustees of the Manchester New Moston Congregation 'did not deal adequately with allegations of child abuse made against one of the trustees', failed to identify one allegation as potential child abuse — 'dismissing it as ‘a matter between 2 teenagers’' — and abuse victims were effectively required to repeat their allegations 'in the presence of the abuser, and the abuser was permitted to question the alleged victims.' Trustees also 'did not provide accurate and complete answers' to the Commission itself. A related honesty note: a Montana jury's $35M verdict against Watchtower (Nunez, 2018) was unanimously reversed by the Montana Supreme Court in 2020, which held the organization exempt from the state's mandatory-reporting statute because its doctrine required confidentiality — the standing law from that case is the exemption, not the verdict, and it is recorded here as such.

Related record

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