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Open Honors Thesis COMPLETE.Pdf THE PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY SCHREYER HONORS COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY CHRISTIAN SCIENCE IN THE COURTS: SPIRITUAL HEALING AND THE WELFARE OF CHILDREN JOHN M. SATIRA SPRING 2014 A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for baccalaureate degrees in History and International Politics with honors in History Reviewed and approved* by the following: Anne C. Rose Distinguished Professor of History and Religious Studies Thesis Supervisor Michael Milligan Director of Undergraduate Studies Head of Undergraduate History Intern Program Senior Lecturer in History Honors Adviser * Signatures are on file in the Schreyer Honors College. i ABSTRACT This thesis investigates a series of state-level court cases from the 1980s and 1990s where state prosecutors charged Christian Science parents with criminal offenses after their children died after being treated with spiritual healing and not traditional medicine. In a general trend throughout the cases, the Christian Science parents saw the prosecutions as violating their religious freedom, citing religious exemption laws that protected their right to practice spiritual healing. The prosecutors, however, argued that state laws did allow criminal prosecution, and that religious freedom was not at question in the cases. The cases highlighted a specific subset of First Amendment concerns where issues of religious freedom, parental rights, and the welfare of children all converged. While state courts provided differing views on the individual cases, the decisions were intricate and addressed concerns of religious freedom, clarity of laws, and due process rights of the prosecuted. My method in this thesis utilizes case studies of individual state court cases. The selected cases are California’s Walker v. Superior Court in 1988, Florida’s Hermanson v. State in 1992, and Massachusetts’s Commonwealth v. Twitchell in 1993. The analysis of each case focuses on the state Supreme Court final decisions and explains each individual case’s reasoning and justification, while also acknowledging the significance of the cases to Christian Scientists and their prayer healing practices. Ultimately, the trends in all three of the cases are analyzed together for their broader significance on the state attitude toward religious exemptions when child welfare was at stake. State prosecutors were willing to criminally charge parents who chose spiritual healing over conventional medical care to show that child welfare was more important than religious free exercise. Nonetheless, state courts were unable to interpret the legislation in question in a straightforward and uniform way. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgments ................................................................................................................... iii Chapter 1: “We Ourselves Are Not Perfect Creatures”: Introducing Major Themes of the Cases ................................................................................................................................ 1 Chapter 2: Laurie Walker and Religious Exemption Challenges in California....................... 23 Chapter 3: The Hermansons and the Fairness of Florida Laws............................................... 40 Chapter 4: The Twitchells and Procedural Concerns in Massachusetts .................................. 57 Conclusion: State Desire, Legal Inability................................................................................ 75 BIBLIOGRAPHY............................................................................................................ 80 iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS First and foremost, I would like to thank Dr. Anne C. Rose, Distinguished Professor of History and Religious Studies, for serving as the advisor for my thesis. I sincerely could not have imagined completing this thesis under the tutelage of anyone else. Dr. Rose is responsible for initially piquing my interest in these Christian Science court cases when I took a constitutional history class that she instructed during my sophomore year at Penn State. Dr. Rose has truly been by my side as I worked on my thesis every step of the way. From being the first person I reached out to when I considered applying for the Schreyer Honors College to sending me the edits on my final thesis draft, this piece of work could not have been completed without the hard work, patience, and dedication that Dr. Rose exhibited. Dr. Rose has also been unbelievably helpful outside of work on my thesis. Each and every single time that we met, Dr. Rose showed a genuine interest in all aspects of my life, which was especially welcome when I often felt overwhelmed by the daunting academic requirements that were usually the primary purposes of our meetings. Now, thanks to her advice and guidance, I am proud to say that I will be attending law school beginning next year. I would not have been able to accomplish that goal without her invaluable help throughout the entire process. I would also like to thank Michael Milligan, the History Honors Advisor, for the support that he has given all of the undergraduate history students in our pursuit of completing our honors theses. Dr. Milligan provided structure to the honors History program that was invaluable and extremely helpful. His willingness to speak honestly and frankly with me about my progress effectively kept me on track to finish my endeavor in a timely and efficient way. I am indebted to him for his guidance, as I know I would not have been to stay on track by myself. Thanks to Dr. Milligan’s combination of both patience and encouragement, I am proud to say that I was able to complete the initially daunting task of finishing an undergraduate History thesis. iv Finally, I would like to thank my family and friends for your constant support while I was working on my thesis. Your simple words of encouragement meant so much more than each of you know. 1 Chapter 1 “We Ourselves Are Not Perfect Creatures”: Introducing Major Themes of the Cases After having been injured from a traumatic fall in the winter of 1866, Mary Baker Eddy found solace in praying to God and believed that she overcame her injuries through reading the biblical stories of Jesus’ healings. Unsure of how exactly how she had been healed, Eddy began her own spiritual journey and was keenly interested in the fact that she had been healed in a way outside of physiological remedies and believed instead that her cure to have resulted from her faith. Continuing to delve into her newfound religious interests, between the years of 1872 and 1875, while not consulting any other writers and reading nothing but the Bible, Eddy wrote the book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, with her inspiration being insights from her biblical studies and early morning visions. Eddy’s writings stated beliefs that there was “no Life, Substance, or Intelligence in matter. That all is mind and there is no matter.”1 Science and Health has often been reissued to the present day, and Eddy’s beliefs found an audience that accepted her message of spiritual supremacy over the physical world and the promise that faith could heal both bodies and spirits. Mary Baker Eddy, a woman from a humble town outside of Concord, New Hampshire, had created such powerful words and strong teachings that she has been credited as the founder of a brand new branch of Christianity in the United States: Christian Science. But the religion of Christian Science has not gone unchallenged in the theater of United States religions. Throughout the next century, the Christian Science religion found itself both under fire and sometimes vindicated in conflicts with entities that combated its ideas and practices. In dealing with such 1 Rennie B. Schoepflin, Christian Science on Trial: Religious Healing in America, (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003), 28. 2 tribulations, the Church showcased a unique perspective that Christian Scientists had to manage in order to practice their beliefs. As an indigenous American religion, the Church of Christ, Scientist, faced a variety of government regulations, legal proceedings, and changing public attitudes in response to its followers’ practices. One high profile and disturbing controversy centered on Christian Science parents who declined to secure conventional medical treatment for their children and instead opted to utilize the Christian Science practice of spiritual healing. In a series of legal proceedings concentrated in the 1980s, parents faced criminal charges after the death of a son or daughter in state courts across the nation. The cases revealed the meaning of the First Amendment to be at stake: did the First Amendment rights of parents include not to seek ordinary medical care for minor children in the name of religion? A variety of issues converged to affect the cases, ranging from the history of Christian Science practices to societal attitudes toward the effectiveness of medical treatment. While each legal decision was complex and addressed many legal questions in making final decisions, the courts on the whole held that the First Amendment did not legally exonerate these Christian Science parents. In fact, the ability of states to clearly construct child abuse statutes came into question, and the meaning of due process, clarity of laws, and fair warning all became pertinent to the cases. Through the difficult and intricate court proceedings, the final decisions of state Supreme Courts indicated that child welfare laws and policy, particularly with reference to spiritual
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