In Oregon recently, a man was sentenced to 60 days in jail for failed faith healing on his daughter. She died.
Balancing the rights of individuals to practice their faith and the rights of a society to protect all its citizens is difficult.
In this case, I think we should consider if we would have allowed a person of faith to sacrifice a child in a volcano or modify a girl child's genitalia based on faith.
Since volcano sacrifice and mutilation are not based on Christian faith practices, perpetrators in those cases would, I believe, be given a much harsher penalty.
For that reason, I don't think we should consider faith based practices as a defense.
I know it doesn't allow for freedom of religion, but until we can treat each religion equally, we should treat them all secularly.
(Additionally, how do you separate cultural traditions from religious traditions? After so many years, its hard to tell the difference. I believe some of the ideas I have about the Islamic religion might be culturally based rather than religious (black burqa, female mutilation, etc).
I heartily believe in the separation of church and state, AND the possibility of faith healing, but where the practice of each intrudes on the practice of the other we are left with a mystery that I'm not sure how to resolve.
We have to do the best we can.
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