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Show The SaltLake Tribune RELIGION Saturday, January27, Supreme Court Refuses to Hear Christian Science Case RELIGION By AaronEpstein the brief said. religious freedom exists than the power of juries to punish religious groupsfor beliefs or practices that in a jury room may seem distasteful, unreasonable or outrageous.” healers becamefinal Monday when the Su- preme Court refusedto review a $1.5 milcare givers whotreated a diabetic Minnesota boy with prayer The boy died At the sametime, the justices left the 5 Science Churchitselffree of a $9 No, Ramadan Is Not a New Potluck Dish you have million judgment imposedby a jury to pun- ish the church 1 don’t personally know what whathappenedin the case, but it is a tragedy and ourhearts goout to the boy's parents,” said Michelle Newport. informationofficer for Utah's Christian Science community. “But westill feel we havearight to raise our children with a methodthat works. been too busy doing your home teaching. I wish to point out that we are smack in the middle of something ealled Ramadan. If thefirst thing that poppedinto your mind is “What the heck Newport is a third-generation Christian Scientist who says thefaith’s use of spirituling “is a proper treatment in the kind of casserole is that? you've been living in Utah too long ny ailment ave nointentionofsacrificing our children, ‘shesaid Ramadan is a Muslim holy outcomethreatens the freedomsof all religions becauseit permits ‘clergy malpractice” suits in Minnesota. The ChurchofJesus Christ of Latter-day Saints co-signed a friend-of-the-court brief time. Several other large churches said the And if that makes you want to run right out and buy a metal detector, you don't know Muslims well, either. You're obviously confusing real Muslims with the western stereo- type Mainline Muslims are se- date, peace-loving souls who supporting the Christian Science Church Firmly imbeddedin the tradition and teachin of the LDS Church arethe concepts of religious freedomand toleration 6, 1989 His mother, Kathleen McKown, a lifelong Christian Scientist, prayed for himin accordance with her religious belief in “No moreserious danger to KNIGHT-RIDDER NEWS SERVICE WASHINGTON — The first civil jury verdict against Christian Science spiritual lion award against parents andreligious ROBERT KIRBY In case 1996 Though few of the religious groups sharedthe Christian Science belief that one shouldrely solely on prayerto cureillness, theyall defendedthe right of Christian Scientists to practice their religion “without undue governmental restraint.” ‘We were hoping for a clarifying ruling,” said LDS Church spokesman Don Le- Fevre this week. Though the Supreme Court chosenot to provide that clarification, Utah's Christian Scientists are “grateful that the LDS Church has been a friend and supported us The decision “leaves four individuals to shoulder the extraordinary burdenof paying $1.5 million in damages for practicing their religion in good faith,” said Michael Born, spokesman for the Boston- based First Church of Christ Scientist But James H. Kaster, a Minneapolis lawverfortheboy's father, whofiled a wrongful death suit, said the legal lesson of the case is that “exclusive reliance on prayer atment instead of medical carefor a seriouslyill child can give rise to liability.” The conflict between religious freedom and the government's dutyto protect the lives of children originated in Independence, Minn., where 11-year-old lan Lundman complained of stomach pains on May spiritual healing without medical intervention. The next day, when theboydid not improve, McKown obtained help from Mario Tosto, a Christian Science practitioner, and Quinna LambGiebelhaus, a Christian Science nurse. On May9, three days after his initial complaint, Ian died. A police officer summoned to the McKown home said the boy looked ‘very fragile. like he had lost weight recently, very skinny, and just basically to tell you thetruth, didn’t even look human.” An examination showedhe suffered from diabe- $9 million in punitive damagesagainst the Christian Science Church, which teaches that conventional medicine interferes with the effort to heal through spiritual methods. Churches aren't exempt from damages intended to punish them, the court said but in this case “the risk of intruding upon the forbidden field of religiousfree. domis too great.” On Monday, the Supreme Court turned down a petition seeking to restore the punitive damage award against First Church, which asserted that thousands of people have been cured through Christian Science healing. Michael W. McConnell, a University of Chicago law professor who specializes in religion issues, wrote in a legal brief that tes. more than 40 states have passed laws rec- In the 1993 trial of a suit filed by Douglass Lundman, McKown’s ex-husband and an acceptable form of health care for chil- lan’s father, doctorstestified that the boy's disease easily could have been treated with insulin. “The undisputed facts show that Ian’s care givers failed to seek medical help despite continuous and dramatic indica- tions that... he woulddie, given continued reliance on Christian Science prayer. The undisputedfacts indicatethat [they] had no lawful choice but to seek medical help.” The appeals courtleft intact $1.5 million in damagesagainst the boy’s mother and stepfather, William McKown, together with Tosto and Giebelhaus, But it struck down a jury assessment of ognizing the value ofspiritual treatment as dren. Butin the past decade, courts in California, Florida and otherstates have nullified the protections of those laws, said McConnell, who represented McKown and the other defendants. Now, “for the first time, Christian Science parents are threatened with criminal and civil sanctions for the practice oftheir religion,” McConnell declared. However, Minnesota courts dismissed manslaughter charges against the McKownsandTosto,citing a state law that allows parents to rely on spiritual treat- mentforsick children. number slightly more or less than 1.5 billion. There are the fanatical and foul-tempered News Media Muslims, or at least who like to call themselves Muslim, who number way less but who get all the press Wrong impression: I've yeen a victim of the News Me. d Muslims before. When Avatollah Khomeni died. I watched news clips from Iran of his funeral. The people there were so wrought up over their Ayatollah being deadthat they rioted, tearing open his. coffin and crowd-surfing his corpse around like a scene out of a Van Halen concert. It was seary Most Utahns. indeed most Americans, think many Muss are like that blood-kin to armed Yosemite Sam Say the word Muslimor Islam and a picture of a yam- Computer images courtesy Shannon M. Tracy Computerprofiles of Joseph Smith, left, and Hyrum Smith, right, were created using digitized versions of death masks and skulls, like Joseph’s, center. mering terrorist driving aroundincarsfull ofstuffthat goes boom. (Mormons who havethis unfavorable view of Muslims ought to know that non-Mormons in this country think only slightly better of them. A 1993 poll showed that 33 percent of Americans disliked Mormons, while 36 percert disliked Muslims. The fact that this poll was conducted right after the Trade Center bombing. when Muslimstock wasfalling about as fast as Moammar Gadhafi Book Shows Image of Joseph Smith @ Continued from C-1 1928 and moved to newgraves, and that the Reorganized Church hadphotographs of their skulls The RLDS Church provided Tracycopies of the photographs, and he retained Zygote Media Group, a Mapleton, Utah-based companythat specializes in threedimensional animation. Kent Van De Graaff, a former anatomy But | digress: Where was I” It hit me that those masks were accurate,” said Tracy, who believed they could be digitized into a computer so likenesses of them could be created from a three-dimensional model Ohyeah, the truth is that the vast majority of Muslims are a He also learned that the brothers bodies had been exhumedin professor at Brigham Young University, also helped Theirresearch convinced Tracy that the skull the RLDS Church hadidentified as that of Joseph Smith was really that of Hyrum, and vice versa. He believes the Hyrum” skull did not match Hyrum’s death mask but did match Joseph’s While unusualtoda making a face cast of the dead common in the 19th century. Tracy says the evidence suggests that Joseph Smith ground Silence give myself that time, I’m not able pushed off a minaret, should tell us Mormonsathing or two Namely that if Muslim: ste reotyped as Yosemite Sams of thereligionscene, we just have to be the Elmer Fudds.) far cry from the Middle East radicals we see in the They live according to the dictates of God, Allah The bad rap that Muslims get stems fro’ news media’s idoiatrous worship of a god Ratings, and a corre fascination with fa eligion. including Ort hodox Journalism, mask and skull further indicate that his left eyebrow and cheek wereslightly lower than those on his right side. But D.J. Bawden, a Salt Lake City sculptor who has spent more than 15 years researching and rendering Joseph Smith's image, takes issue with Tracy's conclusion about the skulls. there is trajectoryandballistic evidence that the skull heidentified as Joseph's reallyis that of Hyrum,” said Bawden. “There's substantial evidence to indicate that Tracy could be wrong on this.” Still, he says Tracy's book, pub- lishedlate last year by KenningHouse in Orem, has a place “One of the good things about Shannon’s bookis that it has kind of broken down a taboo about u ing the skulls,” said Bawden. have too much respect for Hyrum and Josephto showtheir skull remains, He's takena lot of heat for Bawdensays Tracy's decision to use the skull photographs will “bring a bigger focus on what Joseph and Hyrum were really like.” Tracy says the response from historians and from patrons at book signings has been largely positive, but he acknowledges there have some some negative cial features of the Smiths and we're hoping a movement can happen where people can come together and share knowledg¢ Those who have spent years on this are interested in using this [book] as additional information for their own studies. Barkdull says Tracy's bookis a success, with more than 1,000 sold the first week before Christmas. The book, which lists for $39.95, is available at bookstores selling LDSliterature. Evenwith Zygote Media Group aeeing to a reduced price, Tra- comments about the use of the skull photographs. Larry Barkdull, ownerof KenningHouse, saysthereare different views about Tracy's conclusions: “I'mnot sure I care,” he said “There are people who havehad a lot to do with pioneering the fa- support treat this August at the Omega In- ture is part of the person.” s the project cost him more than $20,000. “This is a leased home,” hesaid of his homeon Provo’s east bench “Tused the down payment for this [project]. My wife’s a saint. She [Vicki] deserves sainthood for her news. are a hard-working peace-loving people trying to their he saw the death masks of Joseph and Hyrum in the Museum of Chureh History and Art in Salt Lake City his teeth and may have suffered fromgum disease. Joseph’s death has their nut cases How would these other reli- gions fare if world opinion of them was based solely on the behavior of people like David Koresh. Tammy Faye Bakker or Sam Donaldson Right now, Muslims are ob- says. Speaks Loud Keeney is 35, married, the mother of two young children, a At Retreats @ Continued from C-1 Thoughshe did go to Washington with her husband, they returned to California after two years. where she now works inbiofeedback and meditation. “It became apparent [on the mountain] that I really wanted to train and become a professional in more psychological. spiritual work rving Ramadan. a month period of turning away from earthly pleasures in or. Zen Mountain Monastery at the matters. They fast each day from dawn until dark, making this the equivalent of a really transformation on Nancy Keeney who liv in nearby Woodstock really long Mormon Fast Sun- year for a five-day silent retreat der to concentrate on spiritual Each night during Ramadan Muslims gather at their mosque in Salt Lake City to pray Ramadan will end around Feb 20 with an all-day Regular silent retreat at the foot of Mt. Tremperin New York state wo the same kind of Keeneygoesthereat least twice a I've discovered that I really need anintensely quiet time in my life to function at my best in a seemingly chaotic world,” “That if I don't feed myself, to focus as well on the other thingsI doactively in mylife.” she teacher and a part-time worker for a Buddhist publication Though Keeney and Ellsberg. chose different paths to the silence they needed, they share a place in a worldwide movement Fifteen years ago, Roger Housden no monasteries offered re's to lay people. “Nowthere are hardly any monastic houses that don't offer layretreats.” Housden, of London, leads retreats in England, North Africa and New York state. His new book, Retreat: TimeApart for Silence and Solitude (HarperCollins, $18) looks at the phenomenon. Searchon the Internet for RETREATand dozens come up — Roman Catholic retreats in Italy and the Mesilla Valley of New Mexico; Buddhist retreats in Que- bec, Vermont, New York and Rhode Island; Western Rite Orthodox Christian retreats in Akron, Ohio. In Christian monasteries. Zen Buddhist retreat centers and in the desert and mountains, men and womenare seeking to understand their ownlives bylistening. Housden . to the silence in “the space between the thoughts.” It’s a responsetothecollective need for a personal experience with anything we might call spirituality,” Housdens: “We need to knowexperientially what the In a world ofconstant stimula- spirit is. ‘The harshnessoflife, which is sooftenfelt, really does make one tion — radio, elevator music, rock n’ roll, 120 cable TV channels. children, spouses, automobiles in the streets. airplanes overhead spective on this race most of us newspapers, magazines, e-mail — somepeopleareturning inward ask questions about what they're doing and why they're doing it Weneedspace to get moreper seemto be so caught upin So when Housdendirects a re- stitute in Rhinebeck, N.Y., there will be 400 people there “T think the central value is the return to one’s self,” he says, “to a senseof who oneis and what one's herefor.” Michael Eller, who helped Patricia Ellsberg design her retreat, once worked with Outward Bound, a wildernesstraining program. Nowhe takes people into the mountains and, for three days leaves them to be alone with themselves. “People throughout the ages have goneto nature in solitude,” he say from his home north of San Francisco. “We may havegotten little aheadof our- selves. We comeout of nature, we are nature. After working inside with people, I continue to go back to nature becauseit’s one of the most honest places to work People reconnect with something very big both inside themselves and outside.’ Getting inside is the point “Thebasic tenet of Buddhism and Zenis that essentially what people are looking for they a ready have. Theenlightened na- says Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, a monk and teacher at Zen Mountain Monastery. The monastery hosts thousands every year in retreats that range from basic Zen training to poetry, martial arts and brush painting. ‘Just look around and yousee we'rein trouble. I think we've always been in trouble, but I think because of media and the sense that the world is smaller, we know about that trouble ina much more immediate way. There's an evergrowing sense that we need to do something, not just as nations but as individuals. That cuts to the heart of Zen. The beginning premise is if we're going to beable to helpothers, we havetobeable to understandourselves. Whichis what Patricia Ellsberg said shedid, alone for three days in the California mountains “It was so full,” she says. would love to repeat it. it's the enacting andbringing into being.” feast Granted. th ut 3.000 Musli: but 1 out of 5 people in t world is a Muslim And since the wo gettir to be a smaller Id do ey eryone in Utah some good if we got to know each other a little What better time 3260. Catholic Bishop Sees Utah as Home @ Continued fromC-1 right for the church The Rev. James Semple, pastor of Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church in Salt Lake City, de scribed Niederauer as a man of deep compassion” who is tuned to the needsof the clergy He is deeply respected by the priests of this diocese,” said Sem- Hinckley church leaders. ple. Gives Warning To Students You have been taught to think critically, to explore, to consider various sides of every question. This is all good.” he ‘He's truly a charismatic fig- ure, a compelling public speaker, a natural leader and deeply spiritual. His presencehas been a very calming onein the diocese. The Rev. Terence M Moore. pastor of Sandy’s St. Thomas More Catholic Church, said the @ Continued from C-1 really do feel they have an important share in his ministry,’ he said. “He really cares about how they and the reople — feel about peor q the church churchorin its leaders. Hinckley said that church bishop's leadership style is collab orative Priests Though they may be “enjoy- said. “But you can do so without looking for flaws in the what we speak of as dirty Finally Hinckley urged the youths to avoid criticizing 4 critics “are wearing out their lives trying to find fault with this church. Theymine its his- tory. They examine the words ofthe general authorities uv “I But I haven't had the need. It’s still unfolding. I got the vision and now ing their day in the sun, their sun will set and theywill not be remembered said Toda for good he young Mormons are part of the greatest generation we have ever had,” Hinckley said. “Your knowledge, your integrity, your standards workmanship and honesty of as youlive your future lives will reflect honor to the good name of this — the Lord's church. |
