The freedom of neglect

Freedom of religion is one of the basic tenets of the Constitution that prohibits the government from interfering with the free exercise of one’s faith. Some religions, however, directly infringe upon other basic human rights, which forfeits their First Amendment right.

The Followers of Christ Church is one such religion. Some may remember the Worthington case that made headlines this summer. The case involved the death of a toddler whose parents were members of the Followers of Christ Church. Since the church shuns modern medicine, young Ava Worthington died of a preventable infection. She was not the first, nor the last, to die under such circumstances. The Worthingtons were acquitted for the death of their daughter and the father received a slap on the wrist.

Now another death in the Followers of Christ circle has been reported, and this time it was a newborn. The odds of any justice being offered, if indeed the parents of this infant even get tried, are slim. The acquittal of the Worthingtons set a very dangerous precedent and essentially ignored a statute that forbids religious defense for manslaughter cases involving children. The high mortality rate of Followers of Christ children—more than 26 times the normal rate, as reported in Time—shows how dangerous this sect of society is and that authorities need to step in to prevent such senseless deaths.

Freedom of religion is a First Amendment right and is part of the Bill of Rights. However, this right comes under scrutiny when it begins to infringe upon the rights of others. Namely, in this case, the right to live.

The Worthingtons and their friends at the Followers of Christ Church may have their religion, and I respect—to a degree—their right to practice it. But I guarantee that the children whose lives were taken from them in the name of this faith had no religion at all. Studies show that children do not even become self-aware until 15 to 18 months of age and, even then, they are certainly not old enough to ask or understand the important questions about life, the universe and everything. They are also not old enough to ask to be taken to a hospital or given proper care.

The Followers of Christ have an infamously bad track record regarding the well-being of their children. According to The Oregonian, 38 out of 78 of the children buried in the Oregon City cemetery were less than 1 year old and many could have been saved with a simple dose of antibiotics. Given this track record, it would seem prudent for the state to step in and mitigate the occurrence of said deaths, freedom of religion be damned.

These neglectful parents gave up their First Amendment right to practice their religion freely when doing so led to the mistreatment and death of others, especially those who are too young to protect themselves.

In a court case all the way back in 1944, a Jehovah’s Witness who used her daughter as a laborer to illegally sell religious reading material was forbidden to do so by the Massachusetts courts. Just because a book has Jesus on the cover does not make it acceptable to use children to sell it. Neither does believing in Christ as one’s savior give one the freedom to commit criminal acts, especially manslaughter, with no fear of prosecution.

I will grant that freedom of religion is a fundamental right established by our forefathers and deserves to be upheld so long as religion exists and exercising said religion does no harm to others. There are many Christians in the world who wish only to pray to their God and worship in their own way. These people are given a bad name by cultists like the Followers of Christ. But then, of course, defining the difference between a cult and a religion is difficult for many—or it could just be tax-exempt status.

The state needs to put statutes into place that will prevent more child deaths from occurring in the name of faith. We cannot allow the Followers of Christ to continue neglecting their children, allowing them to die with relative impunity. When measures exist to prevent death and one knowingly withholds those measures and causes death, it is criminal neglect. Pure and simple.