Prayer Doesn’t Cure?
It appears as though the greatest stumbling block to the fight against the AIDS pandemic in Africa is, in fact, spiritualists and faith healers claiming to be able to cure the virus. Several folks in rural areas opted for faith healing instead of taking the anti-retroviral (ARV) treatments to slow the progress of the disease.
Prior to this, the article states, poverty had been the greatest stumbling block to fighting the disease. Now, it is a religious culture of faith healing.
This is the point where the atheist reader would expect me to hop on my soapbox and start into the whole religious thing about prayer really healing and not to discount miracles, and how God will work in His time.
While all of that is true, I think that it is simply ridiculous not to take advantage of modern medicine if it is made available to the person. Here the atheist and I see to eye to eye: religion is harmful and must be set aside if we are to contain this pandemic.
I would be in good company in declaring this. I believe that Christ would lead the battle in putting aside religion and taking advantage of modern medicine. Why? Because Christ very often did tell people to set aside religion for similar purposes.
Consider the commandment “Honor your father and mother” (Ex 20:12). The Pharisees had ruled that money paid as tithes or any other money that was used in worship offerings did not have to be used to care for an elderly parent. Put another way, worshiping with a tithe or offering trumped that commandment, and thus did not incur God’s wrath. So many Jews actually used this as a loophole to avoid caring for their parents or other family members in their time of need.
Did Jesus encourage us to follow tradition here, or to set it aside in order to bring our actions closer to God’s will? He told the Pharisees
You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition! For Moses said, “Honor your father and your mother”; and, “Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.” But you say, “If a man tells his father or his mother, Whatever you would have gained from me is Corban” (that is, given to God)–then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother, thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. [Mk 7:9-13]
If your religion is causing you to lay down your life prematurely or to spread a terrible disease, then it is time to stop clinging to the traditions of men and return to the Word of God. I cannot imagine that Jesus would want us to decline treatments designed to prolong and improve your life to simply rely upon prayer.
I’ve already dealt with the issue of prayer here. Answers don’t necessarily come in ways we think or expect them to. Oftentimes the answer comes in a way that seems perfectly ordinary. The ARV treatment is, in my humble opinion, the very answer to prayer that these people are looking for. And they are turning it down, because they think that it is what is demanded by their religion. Very sad.
