Sunday, 05 July 2009
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Do You Rely on Faith Healing Instead of Going to Doctors?
I was reading an article in the Athens Banner-Herald about court cases against parents whose children have died because the children wouldn’t get taken to the doctors. The parent's belief in prayer and faith healing was what kept them from going to get the medical attention needed in the cases. Here are some of the highlights from the article “Courts face new challenges in faith healing cases: using prayer instead of medicine” written by Rose French.
Existing laws have gradually accounted for more well-known and established faiths, such as Pentecostalism, Christian Science and Jehovah's Witnesses.
But recent cases in the news have judges and child care advocates dealing with parents who claim adherence to lesser-known faiths, such as the Minnesota family following an Internet-based group's American Indian beliefs, and an independent Oregon church that has been investigated in the past for the deaths of members' sick children.
Legal and religious scholars say it's becoming more difficult for courts to decide when to honor the religious beliefs of parents and when to order conventional medical treatment for extremely sick children…The manslaughter trial of an Oregon couple who claim they were following their religious beliefs in the 2008 pneumonia death of their 1-year-old daughter began Monday. A state medical examiner has said she could have been treated with antibiotics…In Tennessee, Jacqueline Crank and her minister Ariel Sherman face child neglect charges in the death of her 15-year-old daughter, Jessica, who died in 2002 with a basketball-sized tumor on her shoulder. Prosecutors say based on Sherman's advice, the girl's mother relied on prayer instead of medicine…Believers in faith healing point to a Biblical verse in the Epistle of James, which describes how church elders should be called in to pray over the sick. There's no mention of doctors, and literalists interpret it to mean medical treatment should be eschewed over prayer.
Do you rely solely on prayer for healing when it comes to medical issues?
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- From: mr_twenty_something
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Comments (47)
Being creatures of intellect and free will the person must be aware of those maladies that are spiritual and those that are physical.
During my life I have experienced death. It was only prayer, Confession and Eucharist that brought me back from the dead.
But when I had physical maladies I prayed AND went to the doctor. One time the situation was so desperate that I had to demand that the doctor perform medicine. It was my charm and insistence that beckoned him to do his duty.
God help you if you need a doctor or a lawyer. Our society has become so disordered that justice and healing are a matter of luck.
The old adage "God helps those who help themselves" comes to mind. I believe in praying for a remedy, but we shouldn't be stupid. Sometimes God uses the pills the doctor proscribes to help us.
"Whether through a miracle, a doctor, or death, I know God will heal me..."
There is zero Scriptural basis for refusing medical help. God created doctors, also, and gave them their gifts. Luke himself was a physician! I mean really, a doctor writes two books of the New Testament, but that's not enough to convince someone that seeing doctors is OK? "Faith healing" is as legitimate a religious conviction as human sacrifice.
I think it's a little bit off to say that "literalists" interpret James that way-- the absense of something from scriptural accounts do not communicate a command.
Generalizations aside-- I pray over sickness and I take my medicine (if I ever get sick). Laying in suffering is silly. Either God will miraculously heal you, or he wont-- you don't have to sit there with a basketball sized tumor to the very end wondering if God will heal you.
That's just my innitial thoughts on it at least.
There have been times in my life where I had to rely on God's healing touch. I very much believe that God can heal.
seems to me that refusing normal treatment and expecting a miracle is the same thing as tempting God. not to mention, it's saying that you're too special of a Christian to need common medical treatment.
I think it's silly.
Also: I love Athens. The end.
@LoBornlite@xanga - During my life I have experienced death. It was only prayer, Confession and Eucharist that brought me back from the dead.
What happened? That sounds like an interesting story?
God gives us advances in life to help us preserve life. Use medical help. Doctors are given by God to make us well!! Reminds me of the Latin phrase "ora et labora" .......pray AND work. We do both, hand in hand ........and even with medical intervention, it's still GOD who heals - He is the GREAT Physician who works through other physicians as well. I like what scrambledmegzntoast said too ....... Luke himself was a physician and he wrote two books of the Bible, I think that Jesus endorses medical use.
I can't tell you the numerous patients I have seen with cancer who would refuse chemo/radiation and only do the natural/prayer thing.
I am all for people making informed decisions, But what pissed me off is when people would say "I am believeing for my healing" and then they would die. Which would leave other "faith healers" to say "well I guess he/she didn't have enough faith"
I am also really slow to claim something a medical miracle. There are unusual cases that can not be explained at this time that we can thank God for- but I don't call them miracles because I don't want to cheapen the work of God when science DOES explain the why's.
Might as well God to open the door for you as you are on the way out of the house to work. 'God gave us hands, but he wants us to have faith!'
Healing has its place in the Church, but not instead of seeking medical attention.
The only time I relied heavily on faith and didn't see a doctor was a few months ago when I got tonsillitis for the first time ever. I didn't go because I hadn't been paying my student health insurance like I'm supposed to, lol. (I'm an exchange student in Japan and was counting on not getting terribly sick for the 11 months I would be here.)
I kept praying everyday and doing home remedies, and in about a week I made a complete recovery, for which I feel very blessed. But if I kept thinking, "God will fix it," and did nothing about it, who knows what might have happened. God blessed me in that situation with the ability to do proper research so that I knew how to handle it.
I agree that we should use doctors when the need comes up-after all, that's what they were put here for.
I knew one musician/vocalist who belonged to a Christian Science denomination. She had once sang at Carnegie Hall. Once she got cancer, her health went downhill fast. It saddened me to see her go.
I know no one wants to lose a loved one, but haven't we lost our perspective when we fear death of the body? Why then was it written, "Oh grave, where is your victory? Oh death, where is your sting?" Are we, who have given ourselves to the Most High God, not eternal beings?
Speaking from within the church, this is one of the stupidest issues from within the church. Why does seeing a doctor mean one cannot have faith for healing?
If your car's broke down, do you pray for healing, or see a mechanic (car doctor)?
Stupidity. I can't take it.
@scrambledmegzntoast@hardestlevel - Well, yes, Luke is awesome!!!
I'd never ever risk my life nor my children's lives with "faith healing". There is no religion on this Earth that puts stipulations on receiving medical attention. It's cults that do so, and I'm very much against cults.
As a parent, I see to it that my children are taken to the doctor when they're ill. When a parent doesn't do so, they've lost all sense of parenting and are neglecting their children. It's unfortunate that people are brainwashed into thinking that prayer will cure illness. If a child has diabetes, cancer, that child needs medical treatment. Real parents take their children to the doctor, the hospital, when the situation arises. Those who don't and their child dies, they have killed their child and should by all means be held accountable for it.
John Travolta and Kelly Preston are great examples. Their son had medical conditions that needed treatment. They chose to kill him instead. Honoring "religious beliefs" has nothing to do with any of this... there is NO religion, as I've stated before, that puts ANY SORT OF RULES on medical treatments. CULTS do that.
God won't heal those who don't heal themselves. If you have an illness, it won't go away unless you actually use the brain cells that God has given you to go seek help from a doctor. While I believe that the power of prayer is strong, it's not God who heals... it's the treatments. My Dad was dx'd with colon cancer last July. He is now cancer free, because he went through chemo and radiation. If he didn't go through the treatments, he would not have survived the cancer, God wouldn't have healed him.
@AngelBeast777@xanga - Agreed~
@StrokeofThought@xanga - In fact, prayers and faith healing are regareded as Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) and should only be used WITH conventional modern medicine, not IN PLACE OF.
This reminds me very heavily of the Christian fiction book "The Visitation" by Frank Peretti. The main character goes to call an ambulance for a girl having a heart attack at his church and he's stopped for his "lack of faith" because they're trying to pray in tongues over her while she dies. Man I loved that book- it exposes so much of modern Christianity (especially Pentecostalism) and leaves it for you to mull over.
@crystal_air@xanga - My words exactly...
Yes God heals people but I think he gave us a brain for a reason. Medication is not evil, its smart.
I believe in both- meds (only when I have no other choice) and prayer before, during and after. And I have a theory - never go to an unsaved Dr. That would be like handing a prescription pad or scalpel to Satan and saying have it!
I am 75 and alive due to the Lord sending me to great medical teams and providing a great immune system in my body to fight disease.
No. My religion says we have to take care of our health. I would pray but I would also seek medical treatment if my kids or husband or siblings were sick.