9-year old girl hearing voices of the Devil.

[Joods]

Don't bother.

Please don't blame me for other peoples' inanities and/or insanities.  I am just "the Messenger", in the most general terms.  Of course, if you don't want to read my posts, there's always the ignore option.

I said in a previous post that I was going to say some things I wasn't sorry for saying and here goes. I find it really pathetic that you bothered posting her situation at all if you weren't going to woman up and do something to help her.

Just the messenger? No - sorry. I can't give you a free pass on this. And I will not stay silent so that you can stay comfortable. You had no problem making your OP. You had not one single issue with posting it here - for the world to see. Which, by the way, even if all 9000+ members didn't see it - guests visiting this site still can and not only can they see it, but they can also take screen shots of the page, share it, copy the url and send it out to anyone else they want to see it. So much for being concerned about breaking your friend's confidentiality with this issue.

Here's the irony:
Unless someone you personally know, knows you are a member here and knows the name of that child, I highly doubt anyone is going to link you to that child, should you decide to help her. You have not given out any personal details about who this child is, who her parents are, what their address is or anything. If you can't be bothered to step up and do the right thing to possibly save a life, then shame on you.

As a victim of abuse, I don't know what I find more bothersome - the fact that you are more concerned about losing your friendship with the person who told you, or the fact that you continue to insist that you can't risk getting involved - even after it's been pointed out to you that it can be done anonymously.

Your silence is only helping this child be further abused. To continue that is siding with her abusive parents, which makes you just as guilty. If you were really as concerned as you say you are you'd do the right thing and make the damn phone call instead of pondering all of the "what ifs" and being so worried about yourself, your friend and some stupid appointment.

And, so, the only category that seems to fit this situation would be "denial of critical care," and for that to be child abuse, the fundie parents would have to be denying their daughter medical and/or psychiatric care, and I have no idea whatsoever if that is the case or not.  And, so, I doubt that DHS is even going to consider my report.  The fact that the girl's parents are fundamentalist Christian loons does not meet the definition of child abuse, not yet at least.

bold mine.

I agree that the situation falls under denial of critical care. The child believes the devil is talking to her. Clearly, there's a mental issue going on and her parents are refusing her the care she has a right to receive. If she's being suicidal, not only is there the risk of her harming herself, but others. Suppose she's got a sibling and the "devil" has told her to kill that child? I'd say this absolutely qualifies for some sort of a phone call to the DHS. You won't even bother reporting yet you automatically assume DHS won't consider your report? On what grounds do you know this to be true? They can't do anything if they don't know what's going on, so who's to say they won't help? Try thinking about all of the other people who potentially stand in harm's way if you and your friend's silence continues. What if one of those other people was someone you loved? Would you step up and do something then?

Honestly, after what you've had to say about not wanting to get involved, is it really surprising that you're taking so much heat from this?