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SPECIAL FEATURE
The Power of Prayer, Denied
Stephen L. Carter is a professor of law at Yale University, Connecticut, and is the author of The Culture of Disbelief and the forthcoming Integrity. Here is the text of an article he wrote for the op-ed pages of The New York Times of January 31, 1996. Reprinted with permission. Copyright © 1996 The New York Times Company.
When Thomas Jefferson described religious freedom as "the most inalienable and sacred of all human rights," he could not have imagined that the time would come when American citizens would be forced to pay ruinous damages for exercising it.
But that is the result of the Supreme Court's decision last week not to review the case of McKown v. Lundman. That decision let stand a Minnesota Court of Appeals ruling upholding an award of $1.5 million to the father of [eleven]-year-old Ian Lundman, who died in 1989 after his mother, stepfather, and [a] Christian Science practitioner tried to use prayer to heal his diabetes.
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March 4, 1996 issue
View Issue-
Supporting righteous government
Ellen Moore Thompson
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Responsible citizenship: it takes two wings to fly
David C. Driver
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Reestablishing values
by Kim Shippey
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The Power of Prayer, Denied
by Stephen L. Carter
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Peace begins in your own corner!
Carolyn Hill
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Pool rules, God's rules
Patti May Cangiano
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You can be healed of smoking
Margaret Coleman Brown Poyser
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"Daddy"
Mary Metzner Trammell
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In the presence of God
Mark Swinney
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In Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy...
Robert A. Herlinger with contributions from Patricia A. Herlinger
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Christian Science is a way of life for me
Caroline John Elmgren