Jesus never sent anyone to a doctor or a hospital

[_ludwigm]

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/21/us/21faith.html?_r=4

Trials for Parents Who Chose Faith Over Medicine
By DIRK JOHNSON Published: January 20, 2009

WESTON, Wis. — Kara Neumann, 11, had grown so weak that she could not walk or speak. Her parents, who believe that God alone has the ability to heal the sick, prayed for her recovery but did not take her to a doctor.
After an aunt from California called the sheriff’s department here, frantically pleading that the sick child be rescued, an ambulance arrived at the Neumann’s rural home on the outskirts of Wausau and rushed Kara to the hospital. She was pronounced dead on arrival.
...
About 300 children have died in the United States in the last 25 years after medical care was withheld on religious grounds
...
The Neumanns, who had operated a coffee shop, Monkey Mo’s, in this middle-class suburb in the North Woods, are known locally as followers of an online faith outreach group called Unleavened Bread Ministries, run by a preacher, David Eells. The site shares stories of faith healing and talks about the end of the world.
...

[Guest]

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/21/us/21faith.html?_r=4

Trials for Parents Who Chose Faith Over Medicine
By DIRK JOHNSON Published: January 20, 2009

WESTON, Wis. — Kara Neumann, 11, had grown so weak that she could not walk or speak. Her parents, who believe that God alone has the ability to heal the sick, prayed for her recovery but did not take her to a doctor.
After an aunt from California called the sheriff’s department here, frantically pleading that the sick child be rescued, an ambulance arrived at the Neumann’s rural home on the outskirts of Wausau and rushed Kara to the hospital. She was pronounced dead on arrival.
...
About 300 children have died in the United States in the last 25 years after medical care was withheld on religious grounds
...
The Neumanns, who had operated a coffee shop, Monkey Mo’s, in this middle-class suburb in the North Woods, are known locally as followers of an online faith outreach group called Unleavened Bread Ministries, run by a preacher, David Eells. The site shares stories of faith healing and talks about the end of the world.
...

Jesus never sent anyone to a doctor or a hospital
Because he was an arrogant, ignorant jerk, that's why.
Granted no one knew medicine then, he made things up, created demons to fit his delusional Father-Son relationship.
That's nothing compared to his sending pigs, beset by demons, over the cliff.
Way to go Jesus.

[_John Larsen]

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/21/us/21faith.html?_r=4

Jesus never sent anyone to a doctor or a hospital
Because he was an arrogant, ignorant jerk, that's why.
Granted no one knew medicine then, he made thing up, created demons to fit his delusional Father-Son relationship.
That's nothing compared to his sending pigs, beset by demons, over the cliff.
Way to go Jesus.

Jesus never microwaved his dinner, either. But I don't think we can hold that against him.

However, I have never understood the clear bias against innocent swine. ;)

[_Inconceivable]

33 And Christ hath said: If ye will have faith in me ye shall have power to do whatsoever thing is expedient in me.
34 And he hath said: Repent all ye ends of the earth, and come unto me, and be baptized in my name, and have faith in me, that ye may be saved.
35 And now, my beloved brethren, if this be the case that these things are true which I have spoken unto you, and God will show unto you, with power and great glory at the last day, that they are true, and if they are true has the day of miracles ceased?
36 Or have angels ceased to appear unto the children of men? Or has he withheld the power of the Holy Ghost from them? Or will he, so long as time shall last, or the earth shall stand, or there shall be one man upon the face thereof to be saved?
37 Behold I say unto you, Nay; for it is by faith that miracles are wrought; and it is by faith that angels appear and minister unto men; wherefore, if these things have ceased wo be unto the children of men, for it is because of unbelief, and all is vain.
38 For no man can be saved, according to the words of Christ, save they shall have faith in his name; wherefore, if these things have ceased, then has faith ceased also; and awful is the state of man, for they are as though there had been no redemption made.

(Book of Mormon | Moroni 7:33 - 38)

My mind reflects upon the several thousand 'aints that died during the exodus from Nauvoo.. Typhus, Cholera, exposure etc.

You know, the ones that are revered today in the Mormon church for their faithfulness.

A church is only as true or as good as it's members.

[_Jason Bourne]

Jesus never sent anyone to a doctor or a hospital
Because he was an arrogant, ignorant jerk, that's why.
Granted no one knew medicine then, he made things up, created demons to fit his delusional Father-Son relationship.
That's nothing compared to his sending pigs, beset by demons, over the cliff.
Way to go Jesus.

You cannot blame this utter and total stupidity on Jesus. Nothing in the Bible stories where Jesus healed the sick say anything about him being against whatever were to available treatments back then. He even conformed the the accepted rules when he healed lepers telling them to go see a priest.

People can get all sorts of supid ideas from various beliefs. I know of a woman who has stage four colon cancer who refuses chemotherapy and is doing all sorts of herbal and other homeopathic things to cure herself. No what? She will most likely die. And she could have been treated sooner but she ignored her symptoms again because her IQ is -50 when it comes to medical issues. He stupidity was not based on religion but some whocky ideas she gets from all natural healing type schemes.

People just can be dumb.

But it does make me mad when people take religion to the utter extreme. The parents ought to be criminally prosecuted.

[_truth dancer]

Hey Jason,

But it does make me mad when people take religion to the utter extreme. The parents ought to be criminally prosecuted.

To you it is stupidity and should be prosecuted, to others it is demonstrating their utter trust and complete faith in God.

It is not stupidity Jason, that makes for bad decisions like this, it is FAITH in God.

You know, "your testimony doesn't come until after the trial of your faith"?

Maybe these people who allow their children to die and rely on God, are actually demonstrating the most faith of anyone, (think Abraham who was not only willing to see a child die but willing to murder his son)? Maybe these sorts of devoted followers are the actual chosen and have passed the test with flying colors?

I'm just saying, based on some scripture it is totally possible.

Who knows?

The above preacher may claim it is so, while the LDS prophets may claim the true test is to have a harem and know certain password and handshakes, or Muslim extremists thinking it is about suicide bombings and martyrdom.

Seems people act in accord with their beliefs, regardless of how they may appear to those outside their community.

~td~

[_cinepro]

Something tells me God is going to be much more interested in their having owned a coffee shop.

[_ludwigm]

Jesus never sent anyone to a doctor or a hospital...

...
You cannot blame this utter and total stupidity on Jesus.

That sentence (the subject) only a fitting citation from the article.

I didn't aim this case against Jesus. It is against this type of faith.



by the way

They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick

This is an implicit sending to the doctor ...

[_bcspace]

Jesus never sent anyone to a doctor or a hospital

I'll bet he did on several occaisions.....Mark 11:15

He even prescribes actions that lead to such...Proverbs 26:3

In addition, considering his use of metphor, I'll bet he had no problem with people going to the doctor for any sort of injury or condition....Matthew 9:12

[_cinepro]

It should also be pointed out that back in Jesus's day, going to the doctor was probably about as effective as faith healing anyway. Heck, faith healing may have been more effective in some cases.

LDS should also tread lightly on the subject, since it would have been very easy for early LDS leaders to take an strict "anti-scientific-medicine" approach as well. Certainly, there are many LDS who eschew scientific medicine in favor of homeopathy, chiropractic, and other systems of dubious merit and discredited origin.

In 1979, Dialogue published an article titled "Herbal Remedies: God's Medicine?" which shared this anecdote:

A recent listener-response radio program in Salt Lake City discussed the death of a young father from bleeding ulcers. Believing it wrong to seek medical help, he had sought a cure from an herbal practitioner. His widow called in on the radio program and strongly supported her husband's decision (despite the extreme rarity of such a death with orthodox care) because it was "part of our faith and religion to use natural means." It became evident as she went on that she and her husband were devout Latter-day Saints, and that they had somewhere picked up the notion that "natural cures" are a part of the restored gospel and equivalent to God's means for healing his children.
............................


Significant numbers of Mormons wanting to live by faith quietly shun orthodox medicine and seek "natural cures" as a tenet of their faith. An occasional general authority lends further credence to the herbalist argument.

...........................

The Mormon Reformation of the latter 1850s brought a renewed emphasis on priesthood healing. The Saints were attacked from the pulpit for their undue "trust in the arm of man" as evidenced by excessive reliance on doctors (of all types). Jedediah M. Grant, who replaced Willard Richards in the First Presidency, led the Reformation evangelization--and apparently died from the overexposure attendant upon his prolific rebaptizing of hundreds of recommitted Saints.

There is an interesting article here that explores Brigham Young's feelings about doctors in that same issue:

The Imperfect Science: Brigham Young on Medical Doctors (page 26)

Also check out Lester Bush's and other articles in that issue on the subject.