Faith Healing: The Power and Politics of Belief

Abstract

When someone gets sick, a common sympathy is, “I’ll pray for you.” This is a common sentiment that extends over surgeries, chronic pain, and even more serious ailments such as a cancer diagnosis. But what happens when people look to faith healing, the practice of using prayer and spiritual rituals to replace all medical interventions? This practice, while deeply rooted in certain religious traditions, can lead to preventable and tragic outcomes, especially when it results in the avoidable deaths of children whose parents are protected from legal prosecution in states such as Idaho. In this presentation, I examine the controversial religious practice of faith healing particularly in religious groups such as The Followers of Christ's Church and The Church of Christian Science, and its legal implications in the United States. Through legal cases such as Walker v. Superior Court and anecdotes of children who have died as a result of these faith-healing practices, I will showcase the dangerous outcomes of these practices and the challenges in reforming faith-healing laws. In addition, I look at how faith healing is a placebo, offering great comfort to many people but failing to provide real medical intervention. By exploring these issues, I look at policy reform to help close the loopholes that allow faith healing, protect children from preventable harm, and still respect the First Amendment which will enable people to practice religion freely.