It seems insane to me. The unfortunate thing is that this kind of event tends to make people who are very adamantly religious try to defend it on freedom of religion grounds. I understand their fears: if this religious practice (snakehandling, eschewing medical care, etc.) is made illegal, where does it stop? What religious practice of mine is next to be criminalized by the state?

But it is indefensible, IMO. The child has no choice. The parents are welcome to make their own decisions wrt refusing medical care for themselves. If they did not claim religious reasons for this neglect, there would be no question that their actions would be seen as criminal neglect.

At the very least, I think the state should have an obligation to ensure that children be allowed to grow up before having extreme religious beliefs put their lives at risk.

And yes, those of us who are not religious are sickened by faith based extremist behaviour like this, and put it in the column marked Bad Things Religion Supports. It would be nice to see some church leaders of various denominations step forward and say outright 'we think this kind of behaviour is wrong and evil, and not supported in any way by the Bible or any other teaching from God'.