Children in a Faith-Healing Sect Keep Dying. The State Lets It Happen.

According to ProPublica, at least fifteen children in Idaho's Followers of Christ faith-healing sect died between twenty fifteen and twenty twenty-five from illnesses doctors say were treatable — and the outlet found that figure is likely an undercount, with several more deaths unconfirmed due to incomplete records. Since the nineteen seventies, Idaho law has exempted parents who rely on prayer instead of medical care from child neglect and manslaughter charges that would otherwise apply. Oregon closed the same loophole nearly thirty years ago and saw more parents seek care afterward, but Idaho lawmakers have repeatedly rejected similar changes since twenty fourteen. Records reviewed by ProPublica show at least five families have lost more than one child this way, a pattern the outlet reports has not been previously documented.

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