We know how bad things get when Christian Science practitioners fail to take their children
to doctors because they believe God will heal them. Curable problems become death
sentences.
Now, according to BBC News, we have a new problem to deal with: Pentecostal preachers
who tell HIV patients to stop taking anti-retroviral drugs . The Children’s HIV Association
surveyed 19 doctors and health professionals who work with children and babies and what
they heard was shocking:
Not a cure for your HIV
Among 10 doctors who said they had encountered the problem in the last five years,
29 of their patients had reported being put under pressure to stop taking
medicine and at least 11 had done so.
…
The healthcare workers also reported that some patients had been told by their
pastors they would be healed by prayer or by drinking blessed water.
We’re only talking about a few churches affecting a few people, but when you’re battling a
disease that serious, why wouldn’t you want someone who has it to take all possible
precautions? How deluded do you have to be to take health advice from your pastor over
your doctor?
Dr Steve Welch, who is chairman of the Children’s HIV Association, said it found it
difficult to engage with the faith leaders of churches where healing was an
integral part of the worship .
Of course it was… you’re trying to talk to people who think you’re disobeying the will of
God.
It’s not just Pentecostal preachers who are the problems, either. Last fall, BBC News
reported on evangelical Christian pastors who had the same problem :
Last year, BBC London identified three people with HIV who died after they stopped
taking antiretroviral drugs on the advice of their Evangelical Christian pastors.
I remember once going to a Vineyard Church service where the pastor suggested that
members of the congregation with back problems could be healed by others whose arms
were tingling (because that was a sign God was giving us power, she said, and not just a
response to sitting in the same position during a long, dry sermon). At no point did she
suggest that anyone with a back problem should see a doctor. The Christian I was there
with later told me the “seeing a doctor” part was implied .
It’s easy to see how some people would never know that. We’re talking about the same
people who preach abstinence-only sex education because actually talking about sex would
be too “hypocritical.” If they’re telling the congregation that God will heal them, then why
bother mentioning doctors, right?
Sunday, 18 August 2013
Pentecoastal pastors tell HIV patients to rely on God instead of medicine
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