Pastors Falsely Arrested

This was a prayer request posted by a friend on facebook:

Please pray for my older sister Vee and her husband Aaron Rodgerson. Aaron was just arrested a few hours ago. My brother-in-law is the pastor of a small church in Kirksville, MO. A few weeks ago social workers came in and took custody of a 10 month old baby Alethia whose dad is the assistant pastor. They were accused of child abuse because their daughter weighed only 12 pounds. She was otherwise completely healthy. She was taken away from her parents and put into a hospital where all kinds of tests were done to see what was wrong with her. All the tests showed that she was a normal baby who just happened to be small. They would not accept that and so were forcibly tube feeding Alethia to make her gain weight. She actually LOST weight while in the hospital–the poor baby was only allowed to be with her parents for 1 hour a day and ONLY if a social worker was present. They were giving her so much that she stopped eating completely.

They finally got her back up to the weight that she was before being admitted to the hospital and released her to foster care. Her parents would not plead guilty to child abuse so they are going to trial (next week I believe). She is still in foster care but is only allowed to be with her parents for 8 hours a day. These are good godly people who have done NOTHING wrong. Aaron was in a meeting of Reformers Anonymous at their church tonight when the police came in and arrested Nate and Elizabeth Burns(Alethia’s parents) and Aaron.

I believe Aaron is being charged with practicing law without a license and failure to report injury to a child. Both are completely bogus charges because a pastor is supposed to counsel his flock and Alethia was never harmed, so naturally there was nothing that Aaron should have reported. Aaron has ruffled a lot of feathers in the town of Kirksville because he has taken a stand against the gay/lesbian comunity and I think they are just looking for ways to get him out of the way. Please PLEASE pray that God will be in this situation. My poor sister called my mom when she was on her way to try and bail her husband out of jail. They have a precious 3 year old son Daniel and are concerned that social services is going to try and find a reason to take him away. They have been persecuted a lot for their faith (threatening emails, angry letters…..) America was founded on Christian principles but we are no longer a Christian nation.

Update:

Isaiah 5:20 says “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” That verse swirled in my head all night long because of events that took place around 8:30pm. My husband along with Nate and Elisabeth Burns were arrested. My husband had two charges: failure of mandated reporter to report child abuse/neglect or death of child under 18 and practicing law without a license–both misdemeanors; and we were able to meet his bond at $1,000. Nate and Beth have been charged with a felony–endangering the life of a child under 18; their bonds were set at $25,000 each. They are both in the county jail until we can meet bond or get their bonds reduced or even changed to RO bond (wouldn’t have to pay anything for release). All we know are the charges but no details on any “proof” the police had in order to generate a warrant. Pray for us. The trial regarding the original incident is this Monday at 1pm; these new circumstances will be addressed at a later date but obviously are affecting our lives at the moment.

**** ”Aaron’s charge of practicing law without a license is because he told the Burns that their constitutional rights were violated when Alethia was taken away. (Police literally barged into their home and took the baby without a warrant or anything.) So apparently now you have to be a lawyer to talk about our Constitution…”