February 17, 1999
Christian Scientists promote
legal shields for faith-healers
___The Christian Science Church, the nation's largest religious organization favoring spiritual healing over medical care, has been effective in promoting the protection of faith healing in both state and federal laws. Its lobbying has helped keep religious immunity alive for other, less politically active faith-healing churches.
___ChristianScientists, with a largely upper-middle-class membership of 200,000 across the nation, are considered more mainstream than many of the smaller faith-healing churches.
THE MOTHER CHURCH of the Christian Scientists and the surrounding complex in Boston is a serene setting. But the church is in the middle of a vexing church-state debate: At what point does a parent's right to exercise free religion conflict with the state's duty to protect every child's basic right to life? (RNS photo)
___Critics argue the church's mainstream status should not offer legitimacy to religious shield laws that protect faith-healing parents if their children die from a lack of medical care.
___But Gary Jones, manager of the Committee on Publication, the Christian Scientists' public relations and publishing arm, says such laws aren't just to protect faith healing but to protect everyone's constitutional right to religious freedom.
___"I don't think we're talking about religious immunity, we're talking about accommodation," Jones said. "The reason for the accommodation is that there's a public demand for it."
___Christian Science lobbyists played a behind-the-scenes role in getting the religious defense into the 1995 Oregon law and again in 1997 when Oregon legislators strengthened penalties in the murder by abuse law but also added religious shields to the state's first- and second-degree manslaughter statutes, giving faith healers a legal defense to those crimes. Before 1974 only a few states included such shields in their statutes. But that year, in response to Christian Science lobbying, the federal government required states to include religious immunity in their civil and criminal codes if they wanted to continue receiving federal money for child abuse prevention programs.
___Most states complied.
___It wasn't until 1982 that prosecutors began challenging the laws. A year later, the federal government rescinded the requirement, leaving it up to states to decide. Massachusetts, Maryland, South Dakota and Hawaii have rescinded the religious exemptions from their requirements that parents provide medical care for sick children. In most other states, the influence of the 1974 federal law remains. (RNS)
___Christian Scientists believe sickness is a result of fear and the symptoms of an illness have no ultimate reality and can be overcome by the spiritual powers of a person's mind. The way to heal or prevent disease is to draw closer to God, they say.
___Disease in young children is caused by the fears, ignorance and sins of the parents, in the Christian Science view. Disease is an illusion, and recognition of it gives it reality, according to church literature. So when a child becomes ill, a practitioner prays not only for the child's well-being but for the thoughts of the parents.
___By doing that, critics say, the church is pushing parents into withholding basic, necessary medical care from children. They argue the church's strict doctrines and rules offer little wiggle room for parents.
___But Jones said the No. 1 message the church directors want members to receive is that they have free choice. There are no absolutes, and individual decisions are respected and supported. He said parents must always make the choice that they feel is best for their children.Frontpage / Contents/ Masthead / Why We're Here / Links / Archive / E-mail us/ SUBSCRIBE!