A significant percentage of these healings have been of medically diagnosed diseases. The article also focuses on the recent litigation about the federal Medicare and Medicaid statutes, arguing that many religious accommodations will be successfully challenged as violations of the Constitution's Establishment Clause. The constitutional problem found by the Court, however, was that the provisions accommodated only Christian Science and no other religion, and not that accommodating religion is an Establishment Clause problem. In fact, the Court's concern was whether similarly situated religions would also receive accommodation in the law, not that Congress could not accommodate any religion. The other prong of the constitutional provisions on religion, the Free Exercise Clause, should mean at least that the healing record in Christian Science must be known before any decision as to whether its healing method is a responsible approach to health care can be made.
Children do have the right to effective health care.
Parents who choose Christian Science for healing do so because, based on their experience, it is just that. Neither church policy nor the practice of individual Christian Science parents supports that implication. Our parents know to turn immediately to an understanding of God's all-power for effective healing. Parents in Arkansas have reported a solid record of children's healings, including polio, diphtheria, tuberculosis, scarlet fever, whooping cough, scoliosis, and several newborns not expected to live. They have resorted occasionally to medical care when serious cases did not yield to prayer, but due to their overall past successes, their natural first choice is spiritual treatment.