Hill on faith healing: ‘It will be a topic of discussion’

Asked about faith healing and Idaho’s religious exemption from prosecution when children are denied medical care in favor of prayer, Senate President Pro-Tem Brent Hill, R-Rexburg, was non-committal. “We put together that working group for the purposes of studying the issue more fully, seeing how other states are handling it,” he said at today’s AP Legislative Preview. “Now that working group did not come back with specific recommendations to the Legislature; that’s OK. But they will come back with information and a better understanding of the issue and so forth, and I think it will be a topic of discussion here. Where it will end up, I am like the governor, I can’t say where it will end up.”

He added, “Remember, folks, we’re not interested in putting parents in prison. We’re interested in protecting children. And I think that there are some things we need to discuss there. It’s a very emotional issue, it’s a very important issue, it’s a difficult issue to come up with just the right verbiage, just the right words in just the right statute to cover every situation. Because most of the people in this room believe that God can help heal, and we don’t want to step on those religious beliefs but at the same time we want to protection children. I think it will be a topic of discussion.”