Faith Healing: It's a Scam, Get Over It.

I hate people who take advantage of the desperate. They rank right up there with pedophiles. So I think you can understand why I have a special disdain for faith healers, those scam artists that combine the desperation of the incurably ill with the credulity of the faithful. It's a vile business. I have only pity for the desperate who turn to scam artists for help because I understand them. There have been times in my life I would have drunk motor oil if somebody somewhere said it would help. I won't list all the different herbs and supplements and such I have tried. It's embarrassing. Therefore, I have only contempt for those who take advantage of such despair and frustration for those who support it.

This morning I read Luke18:31-43. Jesus told his disciples that
he would be murdered by the Gentiles and then rise from the dead on the third
day. Also, as he walked by a blind man called out to Jesus so he could heal him
of his blindness. Jesus gave him his sight back.

I have witnessed one miraculous healing in Mexico back in August 2006. Our
group was praying for a while for a man paralyzed in his wheelchair. I don't
know how long we prayed but it was for maybe an hour. At the end of it he got up
out of his wheelchair and began to walk. At the end of the mission trip he was
pushing his wheelchair around while his non-paralyzed brother sat it in. Months
later he got a job at a factory. I don't know how he is doing now, since it was
almost four years ago, but I am sure he is doing fine.

It would be difficult to describe everything that is wrong with the above paragraph. First of all, we have no proof the man in the wheelchair was indeed paralyzed. He may have been a perfectly healthy plant. He could have suffered from any of a number of disorders or illnesses that require wheelchair use for medium or long distances, but allow one to stand or walk for short distances, such as pain, fatigue, heart or lung diseases, etc. We don't know and I doubt the writer did either.

Months later he got a job at a factory.

How does the writer know this? Did he see the man at the factory? I doubt it. He was told this and accepted it without question. However, even if the man were legitimately in need of a wheelchair, he could very well have had a self limiting disorder that required him to use a wheelchair and then improved to the point where he was healthy enough to work in a factory. That's assuming the man was ever in need of a wheelchair at all.

I don't know how he is doing now, since it was almost four years ago, but I am
sure he is doing fine.

He could be dead for all the writer knows. That's a ridiculous assumption. If the man has a relapsing/remitting disorder like Multiple Sclerosis, he could well be using a wheelchair as we speak. We have no way of knowing. I don't know if this is more of a study of the scam that is faith healing or the extremes of credulity.

I actually did comment on this post, pointing out all the things we don't know about this story, and this was the response:

Personalfailure... I understand your argument but it is not possible to
scientifically explain miracles because they can't be explained scientifically.
Miracles go above and beyond science. You have to have faith.

LALALALA- I can't heeeeaaaaar you! And really don't waaaaaaaant to!

This wouldn't bother me, but the people harmed in these scams aren't just the faithful, they are the desperately ill. People like me. We've got enough problems, we don't need scam artists preying on us.

Oh, Really?

As someone who is chronically ill, you can imagine how I feel about Revival or Riots Ministries (props on the name, though) beliefs concerning illness and healing. (You'll have to click on the picture to really see it as it was designed to be a 5' x 7' card.)

Sickness is always from the devil . . .

First of all, this is so ignorant, I want to hit somebody over the head with a medical journal wrapped around a brick. We've only known about bacteria since 1683, when Antony van Leeuwenhoek took a look at the plaque from his teeth under a microscope. We've known about viruses since 1892, when they were discovered by Dmitri Iwanowsk while studying mosaic tobacco disease. We've known about genetic abnormalities since the first time, doubtless tens of thousands of years ago, somebody said, "Hmmm . . . those Smiths all seem to bleed to death after a scratch. Weird."

So to say that Satan causes everything from common colds to cancer is just astoundingly ignorant. It also leads nowhere good. It's not far from "Satan is rotting your joints" to "you are evil because Satan is rotting your joints. It's also not far from "I can cure your rotting joints" to "I failed at curing your rotting joints because you are evil", which is, coincidentally, where RoR Ministries is headed with their helpful instructions on healing.

The instructions on healing take advantage of two facets of illness and one of modern life. (1) Most illnesses are temporary in nature. With or without prayer, you're going to get over a temporary illness eventually. Colds only last a week or two, food poisoning works itself out fairly quickly, and even things like gout will resolve themselves eventually. (1) Chronic illnesses are continuous, but not constantly the same. Anyone with a chronic illness will have good days and bad. This is why it can be hard to tell if a treatment works or not. The sufferer may be crediting a treatment or prayer with improvement, when in reality they simply entered a better phase independent of treatment. (3) Most people will pray and go to a doctor, but if you have a certain mindset you credit god instead of the medicine.

Let's see how faith healing takes advantage of the above:

Command the sickness or pain to leave in Jesus’ name and continue to do so until it does. Do not back down! The devil is very patient and is much more willing to stick it out in a fight with us if he knows that we’ll give up before he does.

In other words, keep at it until the person gets over the illness on their own, has a better day or the medicine starts working.

Ask the person after you tell the sickness or pain to leave how they are feeling. I usually ask, “On a scale from 1-10, if 10 is 100% better, how are you feeling now?”

and

Thank god for any progress. 5% improvement is IS PROGRESS.

Continually pressure the person for evidence that prayer is working because most people like to please other people and will convince themselves that they do feel a little better even if they don't. Take that as a victory.

Above all, don't stick around. Eventually, the good day will cede to a worse one and the placebo effect will wear off, and then your victim patient is left exactly where the were wondering why god has forsaken them.