Dan Sevy, a member of the Followers of Christ in Idaho, is a key figure in the Emmy-nominated 2018 documentary "No Greater Law." (Courtesy of A&E)

You could describe “No Greater Law” simply as a documentary about the Followers of Christ, the fundamentalist church whose members interpret the Bible as requiring them to reject all medical treatment in favor of faith healing.

But to Jesse Lichtenstein, the film’s Portland-based producer and one of its writers, it’s much more. It’s about devout family men whose deep losses have failed to shake their faith. It’s about a sheriff who craves accountability for the preventable deaths of scores of children. And it’s set in Idaho, which Lichtenstein called an “archetypically American” place with “a culture of pride and resilience,” with “tough people living tough lives.”

“The vision of the film was to make a Western,” Lichtenstein said. “It was a story of this clash of ideologies between two patriarchs who are trying to protect children in different ways. … The film is really about lack of compromise more than anything.”

"No Greater Law" is one of five nominees for this year's Emmy Award for Outstanding Politics and Government Documentary, to be presented Tuesday, Sept. 24, at the 40th Annual News and Documentary Emmy Awards in New York City. The 90-minute film takes viewers inside the lives of a group of Followers as Idaho lawmakers consider repealing legislation that exempts faith-healing parents from prosecution for withholding medical treatment from children.

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Lichtenstein and the film’s director, Tom Dumican, were originally inspired by news accounts about Followers of Christ in Oregon. Lichtenstein, who’d worked in television development, was looking for stories in 2015 when he heard about Syble Rossiter, a 13-year-old Albany girl in the church who had died two years earlier from complications of Type 1 diabetes. An Oregon jury convicted her parents, Travis and Wenona Rossiter, of first- and second-degree manslaughter.

A journalist who’d written about the Rossiters and their church, Shane Dixon Kavanaugh, then a reporter for Vocativ and now a reporter for The Oregonian/OregonLive, introduced Lichtenstein and Dumican to Linda Martin, a former member of the Idaho church who is now one of its most passionate critics. Lichtenstein said he and Dumican became “obsessed” with the “whole human side that was unexplored ... that had to do with the parents” in the Followers cases.

“It was just a story that really grabs you and has so many dramatic elements, from a character perspective and a storytelling perspective,” Lichtenstein said. He and Dumican decided to try to tell it with a 360-degree view, from both outside and inside the church. They considered interweaving Oregon and Idaho stories to show how public support in Oregon for dropping its faith-healing exemption put pressure on Idaho, but “that was more of a historical film and in the end it was the Idaho story that really just came to the forefront,” Lichtenstein said.

Gaining access to the Followers wasn’t easy. “There was a lot of skepticism,” Lichtenstein said. After an initial introduction by a state legislator, “we just slowly talked with members of the church more and more and just approached them very respectfully. … We heard ‘no’ many, many times.”

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A scene from "No Greater Law." (Courtesy of A&E)

Church members who said “yes” included Dan Sevy, an outspoken rancher. In “No Greater Law,” Sevy says, “The biggest thing is to walk by faith. Whatever is not of faith is sin.” Later, he lays out his personal hierarchy: God, then family, then country. He also says, “Our goal is eternity. It’s not here.” In his view, he’s protecting his children from damnation.

While Sevy is a key character, his is far from the only perspective. Martin, the former Follower, gets a lot of screen time, as do the county sheriff, Kieran Donohue, and the county coroner, Vicki DeGeus-Morris, who receives the bodies of the Followers’ children and tells their parents that she’s on their side – because, she says later, she doesn’t want those deaths to go off the radar. The film also tracks the 2017 legislative hearings on Idaho’s faith-healing exemption, in which Sevy, Martin and Donohue all testified.

Whatever Lichtenstein might think of the various perspectives, he said he and Dumican worked to keep their opinions out of the film.

“I think it’s just as dangerous for people outside of a small group to judge them as it is for religious fanatics to have zero empathy for mainstream society,” Lichtenstein said.

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A scene from "No Greater Law." (Courtesy of A&E)

He hopes those who see the film take away “a better ability to challenge their preconceived notions,” as well as a recognition of “the complexity of the legislative process and the political process behind changing laws that affect religion and religious freedom.”

He hopes, too, that they see the humanity behind all that.

"No Greater Law" is available for streaming on Amazon Prime and Google Play and to A&E network subscribers.