“And all wept, and bewailed her: but he said, Weep not; she is not dead, but sleepeth. And they laughed him to scorn, knowing that she was dead. And he put them all out, and took her by the hand, and called, saying, Maid, arise. And her spirit came again, and she arose straightway: and he commanded to give her meat. And her parents were astonished: but he charged them that they should tell no man what was done.” Luke 8:52-56
Recent news has raised a fundamental question regarding religion and the rights of parents.
The most recent case was a polygamist sect in Texas. There were claims that girls below the legal age of consent were being forced to marry older men. As the result of an anonymous phone call, now regarded as a hoax, the state of Texas protective services got a court order to take all of the kids except for newborn babies away from their parents. That order was overturned by the Texas appeal courts because Texas protective services was unable to prove that the children were actually at risk.
There are also usually a couple of cases a year where parents choose to pray rather than involve a physician in the care of their children. The state intervenes in an attempt to force a particular course of medical treatment when it appears the child’s life may be at risk.
In cases of child custody, the state usually has a significant bias, based on research, against removing a child from their mother’s care. Generally that preference is overcome only when the state feels that the child may be at significant physical or emotional risk. Just to put that in perspective, significant risk (as long as there is no obvious violence) has to be more than children whose parents are drug addicts or criminals.
As someone who believes in freedom of religion, the power of prayer, and cultural diversity; I’m really torn, because I’m also someone who believes that there is a role for government in modern society. The temptations of personal gain are just too great for the private sector to handle in some cases.
In the case of monogamy, there is nothing explicit in the Bible prohibiting it. Given the history of Abraham and others, however, I think that it is fairly obvious that if there were a problem with polygamy, it would have been spelled out pretty clearly in the same way as incest. There are clearly other cultures in the world where polygamy is legal and appears to work fine for all involved.
Similarly, there are a lot of passages in both the old and new testament where prayer healed those whom the physicians had failed to heal. There are also plenty of examples every day around the world of healing through prayer.
So in my mind, it comes down to culture and not religion. We have a culture where monogamy is the only legal form of marriage in most places. We also have culture where medical science is viewed as superior to prayer.
If you choose to be a polygamist, many people in our culture will assume that it is because (if you are a woman) you have been either brain-washed or coerced. Similarly if you choose to rely on prayer to treat yourself and your family, you are assumed to be a delusional fanatic, or at least naïve and misguided. So, in the interest of protecting children, we give the government fairly wide latitude to impose our cultural biases against both practices.
Imagine how the government would respond today if Jesus walked into a Ronald McDonald house and offered to heal all of the kids in there with terminal diseases. What if He told them all to get out of their beds, pull out all of their tubes, get dressed, and call their parents for a ride home? Just like Bethesda, some of the kids would believe Him and do as He asked and some wouldn’t. As a result, some would be healed, and some would continue to depend on their physicians. He, on the other hand, would likely get arrested and thrown in jail for reckless child endangerment.
So where do we draw the line between legitimate government involvement in the private lives of citizens and invasion of privacy/coercion to conform to the norms of the majority?