ShamarS

Writing - Reflect and Connect

The Lies and Truth about Faith Healing?

Free Write

My topic question is “ The Lies and Truth about Faith Healing?” so I am interested in whatever facts I can get from the articles I have read. I don’t believe in faith healing at all, I am a Christian so I’m not just saying that without having my own Christian views. I researched this topic for a while now and I have come to a conclusion on faith healing but I won’t tell you just yet. However as I go on with this free write I will explain my reasoning behind where I stand.

Focus Sentence

Going deep into the facts of faith healing.

Free Write

In faith healing there are a lot of things they say that are just lies, however there are truth in its practice. I’m not going to get into the lies of faith healing just yet. I am going to focus on the truth in it, for example faith healing can heal some wounds. Any wounds that can be fixed in due time like broken bones, colds, flus, heart attacks, strokes, and seizures. Faith healing is useful for acting like a form of placebo by encouraging a person and allowing the person to react positively to faith healing without them even realizing it sometimes. Some people connect faith healing to magical healing but in the end they will get the same results especially with people who think they are too sophisticated for magical healing.

Focus Sentence

Learning the fiction of faith healing.

Free Write

Now let me tell you about the fiction of faith healing that I got through my research. Faith healing do have some truth to it but I think there are more lies behind it for example faith healers do lie or exaggerate about their success stories. Not only that but small parts of scripture contradict their practice even though they are following what the bible say. In a part of the bible it states that all have sinned but in the practice of faith healing you have to be sinless. On top of that according to their practice children will be held responsible for the sins of the parents or the community because God is punishing them, when in the bible it says that “ The Wrath of God has been satisfied through the death of his son.” Faith healers also encourage chronically ill people that they claim to have healed to stop taking any medicines that were given to them by doctors because they no longer have their illness. Also most healers aren’t held responsible for the deaths of children but the parents when it is them who are being scammed. Some parents who knows the risks of faith healing and force their child to participate anyways should be held responsible but not the ones who are desperate.

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Writing - Notice and Investigate

Deaths from ordinary treatable ailments or routine surgical procedures such as giving birth were a cause of failed faith healing, the article What More in the Name of God? by Courtney Campbell says:

“...were not from esoteric entities but ordinary ailments seen and treatedroutinely in community medical centers. Deaths from dehydration, appendicitis, labor complications, antibiotic-sensitive bacterial infections, vaccine-preventable disorders, or hemorrhagic disease of the newborn have

a very low frequency in the United States.”

In this article it talks about how many men women and children died because they chose to stay away from hospitals and traditional medicine and rely on faith healing. These people died from illnesses that were often performed in medicine and had good outcomes.

To support their faith faith healing parents are sometimes willing to withhold information about their child’s well being from the government knowing they may face penalization from the government if a problem was to accrue. Wikipedia “Faith Healing” find say:

“to require that a State find, or to prohibit a State from finding, abuse or neglect in cases in which a parent or legal guardian relies solely or partially upon spiritual means rather than medical treatment, in accordance with the religious beliefs of the parent or legal guardian.”

Studying this Wiki article I found that there are people who are willing to go to extremes just to hide their child’s medical condition from the government and doctors to hide signs of abuse when they could just take them to the hospital.

Faith healing does have some upsides like becoming a placebo that allows the body to heal some minor medical problems Psychologytoday.com. "Faith Healing Shouldn't Work, But It Does. says:

“A lot of medical problems can be cured with just your mind alone. Placebo accounts for half of the effects of non surgical medicines for example sugar pills are one. Some say that with these odds faith healing could become a trillion dollar industry in the U.S.”

Placebo or sugar pills creates a natural reaction of positivity into the brain that the human body have to boost the immune system. Face healing can act as a placebo for people of faith and help them recover from colds, flus, broken bones, ect.

There are people in faith healing communities that say that you shouldn’t take everything that is said in the bible literal nor can it be understood Courtney Campbell says:

“Most mainstream Christian traditions have come to the conclusion that the biblical passages in question cannot be understood as providing literal instructions to be followed in all circumstances with an assurance of healing and thus have made accommodations for professional medical treatment within their theologies.”

This quote is basically saying that the bible has some parts of scripture that can be taken seriously however to them faith healing is one of the passages in the bible that can be taken more literal than most others.

Solely relying on faith healing often led to a larger death rate among adults and children and a lower life expectancy for adults by telling the people who are went for a healing that they didn’t need to take their medication anymore, a Wikipedia article supported this by saying:

“Reliance on faith healing to the exclusion of other forms of treatment can have a public health impact when it reduces or eliminates access to modern medical techniques. This is evident in both higher mortality rates for children and in reduced life expectancy for adults. Critics have also made note of serious injury that has resulted from falsely labelled "healings", where patients erroneously consider themselves cured and cease or withdraw from treatment. For example, at least six people have died after faith healing by their church and being told they had been healed of HIV and could stop taking their medications. It is the stated position of the AMA that "prayer as therapy should not delay access to traditional medical care."

This is saying that children and adults are all at risk to when it comes to gambling with faith healing. Leaving them with two outcomes if they so choose to follow through with faith healing and those options are death or a lower life expectancy.

Faith healing is considered a placebo, which means that it affects the part of the brain that reacts to positivity and enhances the healing factorPsychologytoday.com. "Faith Healing Shouldn't Work, But It Does. says:

“By means unknown, faith healing is evidently capable of boosting immune function. This would explain why minor lesions clear up faster than would otherwise be the case. If placebos account for half of the effects of non surgical medicine ( which may be too conservative) faith healing may be a trillion-dollar industry in the U.S..”

This Psychology today article is saying that they have yet to fully understand why faith healing acts as a placebo and how it could become a trillion dollar industry in the U.S. because medical industries us sugar pills to trick the brain to heal by increasing the strength in the immune system.