When Intense Belief Kills

An intriguing article in The Atlantic reviewing Sherry Adler's Sleep Paralysis: Nightmares, Nocebos, and the Mind Body Connection. Most interesting here is the discussion of how dozens of Hmong immigrants died in their sleep in the early 1980's. According to the piece, "Adler, a professor at the University of California, San Francisco, comes to a stunning conclusion: In a sense, the Hmong were killed by their beliefs in the spirit world, even if the mechanism of their deaths was likely an obscure genetic cardiac arrhythmia that is prevalent in southeast Asia." Read it here.

Medicine v. Miracle

A great story here in the American Medical Association's amednews.com on religion-based medical neglect. The story focuses on events in Oregon, where members of the Followers of Christ Church have been implicated in dozens of apparently preventable child deaths. (I focused on the church in my book When Prayer Fails.) There are great quotes from a variety of experts. The full story is available here.

The Warren Jeffs trial in Texas Monthly

Katy Vine has written an excellent account of the most recent Warren Jeffs trial for Texas Monthly. Her story, published in the August issue of the magazine, is available here.

RNS "10 Minutes With . . ." Feature

I'm featured for a second time in the Religion News Service's "10 Minutes With . . ." feature, which is accessible here. The interview (which I did last week) focuses mainly on the aftermath of the Worthington trial in Oregon.

When asked, for instance, about the potential ramifications of the verdicts in the Worthington case, I told RNS, "It remains to be seen what the implications will be, both in Oregon and nationally. It surprises me because Oregon had revamped its laws to make it easier to prosecute parents. This was going to be the first test of that revamped law, and the first test did not work. It demonstrates how unsettled these legal and ethical questions remain even though the courts have been grappling with them for over 100 years."

PBS program "Religion and Ethics NewsWeekly" focuses on faith healing cases

A recent segment of the PBS program "Religion and Ethics NewsWeekly" was devoted to faith healing cases in Wisconsin and Oregon. It featured a variety of experts (including me and Rita Swan of the advocacy group CHILD) as well as a representative of the Christian Science Church, Joe Farkas. The show is viewable online here

Mother Jones article on faith healing cases

With the first of the Neumann trials beginning this week (jury selection in Leilani Neumann's trial begins on Thursday, May 14), there promises to be renewed media coverage of the legal and ethical issues implicated in cases when children die after being denied, because of their parents' religious beliefs, conventional medical treatment.

A case in point is Deena Guzder's story "Should Parents Who Call God Instead of the Doctor Be Punished?" in the current issue of Mother Jones (accessible here).

TIME article on faith healing cases

TIME's Deena Guzder has written a concise piece on recent faith healing deaths -- most prominently, that of Kara Neumann in Wisconsin last Easter Sunday -- and the criminal litigation that continues to unfold (accessible here). "When Parents Call God Instead of the Doctor" is among several recent articles in national publications tracking the phenomenon of religion-based medical neglect of children.

Interfaith Voices appearance

I'm one of this week's guests on the nationally-syndicated radio program "Interfaith Voices" (program accessible here). My segment is entitled "Faith Healing: Miraculous Cure or Deadly Gamble?"

New York Times article on Neumann case

Dirk Johnson on The New York Times has written a very thorough article on the Neumann faith healing case in Weston, Wisconsin (accessible here). I'm quoted about halfway through regarding the potential legal issues that might come into play as the case goes to trial.

Rotary appearance on Madison City Channel

My Oct. 1 appearance at the Madison Rotary Club was taped by Madison City Channel, and streaming video is available here. In my talk, I discussed the Kara Neumann faith healing case in Wausau and put it in historical context, viewing it against a backdrop of repeated efforts by states to regulate (not always successfully) religious conduct.