Faith Healing Deaths Challenge Parental Rights

How would you like the government to tell you that you must discipline your child with a spanking? Or for them to mandate that you cannot celebrate any religious holidays with your child?

In a recent press release, the controversial topic of the government holding parents accountable for the death of their children, if that death could be averted with the right medical care, is once again brought to light. While for many people the initial reaction is that parents should be held accountable if the death could have been prevented, the real argument is about how much the government should be allowed to get involved with a person’s individual belief system.

Religious freedom takes on a whole new meaning when children die, but at the same time the freedom of those parents to raise their children according to their religious convictions is tied to each individual’s right to raise his children according to his own moral convictions. To convict one religion, in essence, convicts them all and therein lies the problem.

Those who believe in faith based healing inherently believe that seeing a doctor is a sign of lack of faith in God. Therefore, they won’t see doctors. There are also those who don’t believe in blood transfusions or using someone else’s organs. All of this is based in the person’s faith and their personal worldview. This is much different than denying someone medical care out of cruelty or apathy. This is a belief system, just as each of us has a belief system by which we raise our children. Whether we agree with their belief or not, we cannot judge it, because we don’t know how God may have spoken to these people. And if they’re mistaken, then they’re the ones who have to bear the weight of that responsibility and grief. The separation of church and state was created for good reason. We cannot infringe upon that.

One of the greatest things about living in America is that we have the God-given right to mess up. I say God-given because when God created us, he could have made us into robots who worshipped Him. He did not have to give us the choice between Him and the forbidden fruit, but He did. God gave us the right to mess up our lives, but at the same time we were given the right to choose the right things for our lives. The point is—God left that choice up to us. American policy has recognized this God-given right and has historically done the same.

There seem to be two main schools of thought today. The first is that the government should be involved and take care of the people even down to regulating their individual rights—always for their own good. The second is that the government should not be very involved with the life choices of individuals because this encroaches on freedom. However, should the decision be a bad one, the government will not be there to pick the individual up. The individual will have to bear and learn from the consequences of his actions.

The struggle of these two schools of thought is exactly what we’re seeing in this press release. The fight over the rights of parents to practice their faith—even if that practice leads to the death of the parents’ child—is an argument that brings strong emotions to both sides of the table. One side believes that the government needs to step in when a preventable death may occur. The other side believes that the rights of individual parents to raise their children their way outweighs the tragic consequences of those decisions. I believe there is great danger in thinking that the government should infringe on parental rights when a person’s faith and personal belief system is involved. After all, who is to say where things will stop. Will homeschooling become illegal because the government believes that you don’t teach as well as their government-run schools do? Will the government decide whether or not you can have kids based on your risk of giving birth to a child with a genetic disease?

These ideas may sound far-fetched right now, but when the door opens for the government to get a little more involved with telling any individual what personal beliefs they can or cannot act on, all Americans should be immediately wary. The government doesn’t need to intervene anyway. All parents are accountable to God for the way they raise their children. God will be the judge in the end. Do I believe in faith-healing without intervention from the medical community for my family? No. But do I believe that those who hold such convictions in their heart should be told that they are wrong by someone who holds a different worldview—no. This is because I value my rights. I value the freedom I have to teach my son my religion. I value the fact that I can choose a private school, utilize public schools, or home school. I am glad that spanking is not yet outlawed in my state because I think it can be a useful disciplinary tool when teaching my son correct behavior. I am thankful that I am able to parent the way I see fit, and I shudder to think that my son may not have the same privileges that I do.

When we do make bad choices, we are left to deal with the consequences. God always forgives when we repent, but He also leaves us with the consequences of our bad choices. Parents who have lost a child because of their belief in faith healing have a consequence—the death of their child. A pain that strikes so deep, no court-ordered punishment will ever come close. The government doesn’t need to intervene in individual lives, and that is not what the original founding fathers intended when they set up the government. In fact, they were in this wild land because they had fled from governments that intervened in the religious lives of the people. In the emotion of the topic, let’s not lose sight of the real issues at stake—parental rights and freedom of religion.

Some may argue that a child who dies when medical intervention could have saved them is equal to a child being murdered. I just can’t agree. Murder is when someone makes a choice to take the life of another person with malice. Parents who believe in faith healing are not choosing to take a life. It is obvious they love their children. But their belief is that seeking out the medical community is a show of disbelief in their God. They do not choose to make their children sick. Their children become sick because we live in a diseased world. If a parent makes a child sick for the purpose of seeing a faith healing take place, then we have grounds for murder and intervention. But if a parent believes that their faith will not allow them to seek medical intervention, no one should infringe on their rights by forcing them to seek medical treatment.

I was faced with a very big decision when I was 18 weeks pregnant. My water had broken and the doctors suspected an infection because I began running a fever. The doctors were quick to tell me that there was nothing to do and that we had to induce my labor so that I would not die from septicemia as well. There was no sure way to tell if I had the infection. No tests could indicate what I had or why. The only thing that made them suspect an infection was that I was running a fever. But since I didn’t feel sick or feverish, it was difficult for me to believe them.

As a patient, I had the right to refuse an induction that would surely lead to my son’s death. I also had the right to induce birth and save my own life. I was torn. I wanted to live, but I didn’t want to hand my son a death sentence. My pastor’s wise words were, “You did not break your own water. It just happened. You can either both die, or your son can die. If you don’t induce, you will die and your body will not sustain your son. You are not handing him a death sentence, that was decided the moment your water broke.” For those who see medical care as something that is off-limits, once the child is ill, it is as though the water has broken and there is nothing more they can do. If they could save their child without compromising their beliefs, these parents would. That’s not cruelty. It is conviction. And trust me, I know the grief of losing a child, it is not an easy choice for those parents to make. That is how strongly they believe that they are right. And whether we agree with that conviction or not, we must be very careful about intervening and trampling on their rights, just as we don’t want anyone trampling on ours. This is why the government has no place in the individual’s life. No government can, or should, uniformly decide what is right for each unique individual.