The following are excerpts from a hearing before the Judicial Committee of the General Court of Massachusetts on March 25, 1991. The subject was the legality of Christian healing. The committee was considering legislation (still pending) that would remove current accommodation for spiritual healing from the criminal code. Counselor on Religious Liberty for the National Council of Churches, was the speaker.
It sometimes seems that the average person is willing to give lip-service to religious liberty until confronted by someone who really needs it for beliefs or practices the least bit unconventional.
"The subject of this hearing—the excision of the protection for spiritual healing from the criminal law ...—is of great concern to me....
