| Like yesterday, I remember that August of 1973 when the Wesley Parker case hit the news. For those of you who don't know or don't remember, the case dealt with Larry & Lucky Parker. They were a deeply religious family from a California town with four children ranging from age 1-1/2 years to 11. Their oldest, a son Wesley, was diabetic. While attending church as they always did on Sunday, the Parkers brought their son Wesley up to be faith healed by a visiting Pastor. And this is where things turned bad. Believing their son to have been cured by God, Larry & Lucky withheld his insulin - and 3 days later Wesley died. Though we've heard of these cases before, it was what followed that made this one stand out: Larry & Lucky announced to a stunned world that Wesley would rise from the dead in four days. Four days later, "resurrection" services were held for Wesley, in which he failed to resurrect, and the next day Larry & Lucky found themselves arrested for manslaughter. In time Watergate took over the airways and I never found out what happened to the Parkers. Through the next 15 years, I would remember the name Wesley Parker and what had happened to him. And many times wondered about the parents - what kind of people would let such a horrible thing happen to their own child? Which is why in May of 1988 I made every effort to watch "Promised a Miracle". I just couldn't believe a movie had been made about this incident because I thought I was the only one who remembered it. With top-notch performances by Judge Reinhold and Rosanna Arquette, an intelligently written screenplay (though liberally adapted from Larry Parker's own book "We Let Our Son Die"), and very tight direction, this managed to swing my opinion around and made me feel real sympathy for the parents. They were NOT horrible stupid people. What they were were misguided. This movie got the point across that Larry & Lucky truly loved Wesley more than anything in the world and truly BELIEVED that God would bring him back. The most heartbreaking scene for me - an hour and 10 minutes into the film - occurs when Larry & Lucky finally have to face a horrible fact: The miracle they so deeply believed in was not going to occur. They let Wesley die and they would have to live with it for the rest of their lives. I defy anybody to get through that scene with their eyes dry. You needn't worry that the movie is anti-God or disrespectful towards religion. It is neither. But it certainly makes it point about people who make a dangerous leap into presumption. Most definitely recommended. |
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