Followers of Christ, faith healing versus life.

The Followers of Christ is an unorthodox fundamentalist Christian denomination based in the U.S. state of Oregon. The church has attracted controversy for its practices of faith healing and of shunning members who violate church doctrine, including those who seek medical care.

According to authorities in Oregon and other places where church members are found, numerous children have suffered premature deaths from treatable causes due to their parents' refusal to seek medical care; a former Oregon state medical examiner claims the infant mortality rate within the Followers of Christ community is 26 times greater that of the general population

Church members and others have argued that parents should have the right to select whatever methods of healing they deem appropriate for their children; and that public policy which requires use of conventional medicine over faith healing constitutes a violation of freedom of religion.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Followers_of_Christ



Oregon City teenager Neil Beagley died in June 2008 following complications from an untreated congenital urinary tract blockage that flooded his system with urea, causing renal failure, heart attack, and death.
Neil Beagley didn't die in a hospital. He didn't die surrounded by doctors who were stumped regarding his next stage of treatment. Sixteen-year-old Neil Beagley didn't die peacefully with an IV in his arm pumping in morphine to lessen what must have been excruciating pain. He died in his grandmother's bed, without having received any medical treatment of any kind. Doctors say that Neil's illness was treatable right up until the day he died.

Jeff and Marci Beagley, Neil's parents, are members of Followers of Christ Church of Oregon City - a fundamentalist organization that teaches a literalist interpretation of scripture, and relies heavily on faith healing. The cemetery behind the church contains graves belonging to seventy-eight minors. It is estimated that at least twenty-one of these children's lives could have been saved with medical treatment.

Maybe in a few years they will just breed there cult out of existence do to lack of treatment from disease.

http://www.randi.org/site/index.php/swift-blog/858-to-the-followers-of-christ-oregon-city.html

 

This reminds me of a story:

One day there was a great flood in a city. All of the townsfolk were warned well in advance, to leave but one man stayed with his house knowing "God will send a way". Well the flood came and soon the man was on the top floor. Out his window he saw a boat with a person in it. The man in the boat called over and offered the man in the house a ride to safety. "God will send a way", he said. The flood waters rose and soon the man was on the roof and a helicopter came and attempted to lift the man off the roof, but his reply was "God will send a way". Well the flood kept comign and soon the man was swept away and drowned. He arrives at the pearly gates and he demands to see God right away--he is furious. He storms up to God and says "I was very faithful. I never took your name in vain, I loved everyone--why didn't you save me?"...God's reply, "I warned you with plenty of time, I sent a boat, and I even sent a helicopter. You said no to those. What did you want, a limousine?"


Basically the jist is. God gave us knowledge. We have learned a whole bunch about how the world works. God doesn't want zombies, he wants people. We are meant to think. Medicine is a gift from God.

Prayer does play a role in sickness--because medicine cannot heal the soul.

 

:cheers2:

 

The Bible does not reject the use of doctors or medicine, in fact Luke was, himself a doctor.

But the question is where to draw the line. At what point do we take the decision out of the hands of the patient or in the case of a minor, his parents? And who is to decide when to do that and what to do? The doctors? A judge?

What if you decide for medical treatment that would allow you to continue to live and a doctor or judge decides that it's your time to go and that your best medical treatment would be to euthanize you?

The problem is your OP has simplified the whole subject but it's not as simple as, take this decision out of the hands of religious fanatics, because in doing so you open a whole can of worms about patient's rights for every one else.

 

I know of a few types of medicine that work wonders on the soul.

 

Again who is to decide there is "probable doubt"? What standards are to be used?

No, Nazi Germany all by itself is a perfect example.

Again how do you decide who is a religious fanatic? For you it is easy, because you seem to believe that anyone who is religious is a fanatic but for other it is not that simple.

If you read more carefully what was said, you would see that I did not say taking a child from a negligent home automatically equals dropping them into a can of worms, I said that you open a whole can of worms about patient's rights for every one else.

Again you are making a complex problem black and white. Medicine is never black and white, Doctors always talk percentages, such as you have 75% chance of a full recovery but what about the other 25%?

My brother had elective back surgery and died two days later in the hospital, he was the .001% that doctors shrug off.

So again who is to decide what is best for you?

I don't even know where you came up with this. All I said was, do you really want the government to start making medical decisions for you?

The trouble is you are so fanatical about religion that you don't see the consequences for everyone else, yourself included.

 

So the money comes from the people of the past justice in the World:the lovers paid for their sins, when they paid back the dowager meanie.rettyplease:

 

I just read this ironic existence for temporal advantage for OlderWaterBroth.. The miser picks up the piper in all fields of common sharing wealth courtesies and investment. But the health one now goes straight to the supreme court over our Bond worth at loans to the appropriate hospital institution.