ROOT: Blind religious faith places physical, psychological health at risk

Sometimes the courts come through for the people. On Thursday, Warren Jeffs, a leader of a fundamentalist Mormon church that emphasized polygamy, was convicted of two counts of sexual assault on a child.

One of the girls was 12 years old and forced into a marriage. DNA evidence also shows that Jeffs fathered a child with a 15-year-old girl. Both girls were forced into these "spiritual marriages." Both were sexually assaulted.  

So here's my question: Why did their parents let this happen to their daughters? This case brings up a lot of questions, but that's the one that sticks out to me. Religion can and is used to abuse children. Such a thing is unforgivable and must be condemned.

When we were children, those of us who grew up in religious homes generally were taught many things about the faith our parents had. We learned morals from stories. We learned how to pray. We learned how to worship our god(s). We learned many things about our faith, but many of us didn't learn how to question it. Actually, I'd be willing to bet that many of us were punished if we did ask questions.

Many parents believe they are doing the right thing in sharing their faith and traditions with their child. For many of us, this is how we show who we are as a culture or a family; religion is a way of educating the next generation on our heritage. However, sharing these ideas or traditions isn't always a great idea.

In June, an Oregon couple was convicted of criminal mistreatment of their infant daughter. The daughter developed a condition called hemangioma, where a birthmark above her left eye grew abnormal blood vessels. The growth caused the infant to lose her vision and have a goopy discharge. Now, I'm not an expert, but if something on your body is causing you to lose your vision and has a discharge, I'd say that it's time to head to a hospital.

However, Timothy and Rebecca Wyland, the child's parents, didn't seem to think so. Instead of taking their daughter to a hospital, they tried to heal her with prayer and anointing her with oils. They belong to Oregon City's Followers of Christ Church. This church rejects medical treatment because they believe accepting treatment is a rejection of faith.

This isn't the first time members of the church have had this problem. In the other two cases, the children died. Thankfully, this little girl is alive, no thanks to her parents. The court ordered medical treatment for her.

The problem isn't recent and it isn't limited to an area of the country or an area of the world. Cases like these pop up a lot. A Colorado girl died because her parents refused to get her diabetes treated on religious grounds. A young woman died in England in 1994 because her family refused to let her get a blood transfusion on religious grounds.  

There is nothing wrong with having faith. There is nothing wrong in worshipping in a respectful and courteous way. However, there is something deeply wrong in a parent refusing to give his or her child medical treatment because of faith. It's one thing if you, as an adult, choose to deny yourself a life-saving blood transfusion when you are fully aware of the consequences. It's not fair nor right if you're a child and unable to make your own legal decisions.

Now, I imagine some of you are shaking with anger right now and shouting, "But the parents were trying to save their child's soul!"  

If your god isn't kind enough to forgive such a thing that your child had no control over, perhaps your god is unworthy of praise. It's possible your child will "atone for such a sin" later in life if he or she chooses to follow that faith. Or it's entirely possible that your child will choose another faith, which means different rules to follow.

In any case, it's unfair for the parents to refuse treatment for their child on religious grounds, because that child hasn't made that choice yet.

Not all cases of religion and child abuse are as obvious as child marriage and refusal of medical treatment. Sometimes it's not a physical violation of personhood, but an emotional or psychological one. We can see this phenomenon with "Hell Houses" and Christian counseling ("pray away the gay" treatment here).

Hell Houses are over-the-top plays about the consequences of various sins (e.g. homosexuality and abortion, among others). They are pretty much designed to scare the audience into pious belief. It sounds silly and overdramatic, but the thing is, these plays are scary, especially for a child. These plays and even vivid stories about Hell can induce all sorts of nightmares and phobias.

Ditto for the "pray away the gay" counseling, which can really mess somebody up for the rest of his or her life. The American Psychological Association discredited gay reparative therapy in 2009, saying it wasn't only ineffective, but could have harmful effects.