Healing power

Peter

Yes, it is difficult isn’t it? I worked in cancer care for many years and grew rather tired of hearing the overly religious tell me God, Jesus, Allah etc. would heal them. They all died of course. Many of these people were young, with families of their own and their death would mean a child would be motherless or fatherless or be stuck in the UK with no near relatives (I was involved in a lot of asylum seeker or ‘leave to remain’ because of suffering AIDS defining cancers cases – often single parent families). There was also the odd case of someone without any religious conviction or belief, suddenly going into remission. The human body is a marvellous machine, and we don’t really know its full potential. Who knows what is at the heart of these ‘healing’ stories. They are not just the possession of Christianity: there are similar stories to those of Craig Marsh’s found in contemporary Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Sai Baba etc..

The main issue, that needs addressing, is the theology of miraculous healing. What is the purpose of it? My own take would be that of the ‘sacrament’ – here I don’t mean the word in the sense that it has in ‘anti-Catholic’ circles, of some ritualistic action. But rather an action in time and space that expresses something of the Kingdom. Perhaps it is because of the selfish reasons at the heart of a lot of request for healing that we don’t see evidence of it? Personally I am sceptical about much that is said to be ‘healing’.

Alas, miraculous healings raise more questions than they answer. The main question being why are so few healed and so many left to die or languish in a life time of pain and disability. I worked in palliative and disabilities’ social work for many years; I saw people suffer horrific illnesses and disabilities. So much so that I find it difficult to believe in a personal loving God. Hence such stories as that of Marsh’s healing irritate, rather than edify. I am reminded of the last lines of Wilfred Owen’s poem ‘Dulce et Decorum est’:

‘ If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie; Dulce et Decorum est
Pro patria mori’

Too long I have seen others suffer similar fates, yet without the excuse of war for their mangled bodies and unspeakable suffering. Too long I have prayed and not been answered…

Mitchell Powell

The frustrating thing is that generally when charismatic folks cite proof for their claims, it's not proof they can physically show you. For example, one might say that scans verified that body parts grew back, and that it amazed doctors, but the doctor himself is never available to tell you about it. If you watch folks heal on TV, you see all sorts of science-defying healings, and you may even see people get out of wheelchairs, but you never see an undeniable physical deformity healed, or a skin sickness healed, or anything else that would demonstrate clearly and openly that a healing is happening. There's even folk who have claimed to raise the dead, but always either people in a far, far off country, or else people they can't track down now to verify the story.

Can God heal? Most definitely. But after all the silliness I've seen, the outrageous testimonies, the emotional hype, and the missing or fragmentary nature of the 'evidence' always presented, I've just quit listening when someone starts talking about a healer.

And the last thing people who aren't willing to produce physical proof should do is to try to guilt us into believing. I've got at least one friend you says that it is God's will to heal all sickness on earth, and that it is his job to pray for people, and that God will always heal when asked in faith. And yet this man has repeatedly turned down my insistence that he should go to the hospital three blocks down by the street and make his claims undeniable. Don't tell me stories. Show me.

Geoff

I like your approach. I was a guest on a Christian radio show that featured Marsh's stomach healing claims; it seems he either (a) never had the healing medically verified or (b) had the healing verified, but refuses to show the records. I've discussed both his conflicting statements here: http://geoffsshorts.blogspot.ie/2012/06/craig-marshs-response-more-than-i-can.html

Geoff

Hi Red,

Good to talk with you! would you be interested in a guest post on my blog? I think in the interest of balance it's only fair that I allow space for a Christian attendee to describe the event.

Or if you prefer, if you review his visit on your own blog I'll link to it from mine.

Thanks!

Geoff