Legislators study religious exemption

Idaho’s religious exemption from charges of child abuse, neglect, child injury and manslaughter, passed in the 1970s to accommodate faith-healing groups, came under close scrutiny at a legislative hearing Thursday.

“The religious exemption is the only place in the child protective act that places the parent’s right before the child,” Mary Jo Beig, an attorney with the Idaho Attorney General’s office who has dealt with child protection matters since 1991, told a 10-member legislative panel on faith healing and children at risk.

The lawmakers heard powerful testimony from an array of presenters, from an Ada County prosecutor who told of children suffering needlessly and prosecutors unable to act, to a faith-healing proponent who shared his deeply held beliefs/ Betsy Russell , SR. More here.