how sensitive should we be as a society to respect unique cultural practices (e.g., religious practices, child upbringing, negotiations between intimate partners), while still upholding state and national laws. in particular, what are the dangers, if you believe there are dangers, of cultural relativism,, vis-a-vis the role of the state as “father of the country”?

The “Focus” on page 420 in Chapter 12 of your text, highlights a case of an “exorcism” that went terribly wrong. In particular, two Korean Christian ministers were found guilty of involuntary manslaughter as they performed this ritual on one of the minister’s wife, resulting in her death from blunt force trauma. Even the presiding judge stated that the case represented the collision of California law with honestly held Christian beilefs. As you read the particulars of the case (drawn from an L.A. newspaper article ), how sensitive should we be as a society to respect unique cultural practices (e.g., religious practices, child upbringing, negotiations between intimate partners), while still upholding state and national laws. in particular, what are the dangers, if you believe there are dangers, of cultural relativism,, vis-a-vis the role of the state as “father of the country”?
Source: M.D. Havies, “Priests Found Guilty in the Exorcist Case,” Los Angeles Daily Journal , April 17, 1997, p. 1

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