FAITH VS. MEDICINE
Is it all or nothing? Or is there a fine balance?
The Christian gospels are filled with stories of Jesus Christ healing those who flocked to him as he wandered and taught.
And Christians of all stripes – Protestant, Catholic, Evangelical and Orthodox – have believed through the centuries that praying to Jesus can help in healing.
However, these same Christians generally believe God has blessed medical practitioners with the ability to help sick people regain their health.
That’s not the case, however, with members of Followers of Christ Church in Oregon City, who discourage the use of modern medicine in favor of “faith healing” – including prayer, the laying on of hands and the anointing of oils.
Church members Carl Brent Worthington and his wife, Raylene Marie Worthington, were indicted last year on charges of second-degree manslaughter and second-degree criminal mistreatment following the death of their daughter, Ava Worthington, on March 2, 2008, from pneumonia and a blood infection.
Authorities charged the Worthingtons because they did not call 9-1-1 or seek medical treatment for their daughter.
The judge in the case denied a defense motion that prosecuting the Worthingtons violated their religious rights. In 1999, Oregon deleted the religious defense in cases of second-degree manslaughter involving children under 14.
The jury acquitted Raylene on all charges, but Carl Worthington was convicted of criminal mistreatment. He served 60 days in jail and also must serve five years probation. An appeal has been filed.
The Outlook was unable to arrange interviews with any members of the Followers of Christ. However, Mark C. Cogan, who served on the Worthingtons’ defense team, noted the Followers of Christ are “not seeking to be part of any larger movement or larger cause.”
On that note, the defense did not enlist the aid of any religious rights organizations during the trial, but the lawyers believe the case is a test of religious rights.
“The prosecution of the Worthingtons does raise larger issues of religious freedom in our state,” Cogan said.
In God we trust
Constitutional law aside, do the Followers of Christ have a scriptural leg to stand on? Not if you survey several East County churches.
Ray Young, outreach pastor for Gresham’s East Hill Church, said his congregants “regularly see miraculous healing as a result of the prayers of the faithful.”
However, East Hill members also believe God “created humans with amazing skills and intellect.
“To believe that God gave us the ability to develop medical care and pharmaceuticals, but not to use it, dishonors the wonderful abilities he created in us,” Young said.
The Christian scriptures affirm medicine, he added, noting one of Jesus’ apostles, Luke, was himself a physician.
“Nowhere does Luke renounce his God-given gift of medical ability nor does Jesus tell him to stop practicing medical care,” Young said, adding: “When a person is ill or injured we believe the Bible teaches us to both pray and seek medical attention. One does not cancel the other.”
One of two Gresham Episcopal churches takes its name from St. Luke the Physician, noted its rector, the Rev. Jennifer Creswell. Episcopalians believe “God’s healing love” can take different forms, she added.
“If we know someone who has been diagnosed with cancer, we will pray for God’s healing love to fill that person,” she said. “We pray this with the understanding that God’s healing love may take the form of curing the cancer. But we also understand that God’s healing love may take other forms for this person.”
Those “other forms” include reconciling with loved ones, she said.
Pastor Larry Jorgenson of Trinity Lutheran Church in Gresham said his church is doing a Bible study on healing and also is planning a series of seminars on mental health. The church staff includes a nurse, and Trinity also has “a very active health committee.”
Jorgenson said “Jesus is the healer of our every ill,” but this “ministry happens through people, some of whom are doctors, nurses, pharmacists and health care professionals of other sorts.”
The Rev. Patricia Berger, pastor of Covenant Presbyterian Church in Gresham, noted her members “believe that our faith can be very important in our healing.
“God hears our prayers; God answers prayer, although the answer is not always the answer for which we were praying,” she added. Presbyterians believe “there are physical healings that can be explained in no way other than that God answered prayer.
“Clearly, Jesus believed he could heal people, and that others who believed could also heal,” she noted. “I cannot imagine that Jesus would have issues with people seeking medical help of any kind. Physicians are God’s beloved children. Scientists are God’s beloved children. Some people have brains that are capable of coming up with solutions to physical and mental ills.”
Berger said the issue is personal for her, because her son had lymphoma cancer.
In addition to her gratitude for God, church and friends, “I was more than grateful for an oncologist who was a man of faith,” she said, noting she was also grateful for “the 15 other physicians who ultimately were a part of our son’s treatment.”
Scott Crane, program director for Menucha Retreat and Conference Center in Corbett, an ecumenical outreach mission of First Presbyterian Church of Portland, said Presbyterians “would not close the door on direct intercession by any one person or persons filled with the spirit of God to do healing work,” he said. “Neither would we close the door on an interpretation of healing today to mean the gifts that medical personnel have been trained to use as a part of their vocation to the medical field.”
“Scripture strongly affirms ministries of spiritual healing,” noted Greg Nelson, spokesman for the Oregon-Idaho Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church.
However, United Methodists also support medical universities and hospitals, a position similar to the one taken by the Catholic Church, according to Bud Bunce, spokesman for the Archdiocese of Portland.
“Catholic organizations provide a large percentage of health care in Oregon and throughout the U.S.,” he said. “Catholics value the professional care offered by those in the medical professions. As such, the Catholic Church does not prevent anyone from receiving medical care.
“We can’t explain miracles that happen,” Bunce added. “We do believe that prayer and one’s spirituality can have an effect on the healing process in conjunction with medical professionals. We see both as essential.”
Religious rights
The Christian leaders surveyed did not seem to see the prosecution of the Followers of Christ Church members to be a threat to their own religious freedom.
“When it comes to life-and-death decisions for minors, we must err on the side of protecting the physical health of children,” Young said. “In this limited arena the church’s ability to practice its faith, unimpeded by government intrusion, must take a back seat.”
“It is terribly sad when a child dies, and even sadder if simple treatment could have saved that child,” Berger said. “And it is terribly sad when people are convinced by a charismatic leader that it would be wrong and less than faithful for them to consult a professional who might make their child well.”
Creswell had a slightly different take on the issue, noting she believes the Followers of Christ Church seem to consist of “loving, caring families who are able to support their children.
“While I don’t have the same understanding of faith healing as the Oregon City families, I respect their faith and their struggle to live the life they are called to,” she said, noting it’s not just children of a minority faith who may be endangered by their parents’ actions.
“It strikes me that there are children all over Oregon who are hungry, who don’t have permanent homes, who are exposed to drug abuse and who are themselves abused,” she said. “And I wonder if the media and government attention to these cases might be more effectively focused elsewhere.”
Crane noted it’s important not to “only see the work of God as defined in narrow boxes easily identified with this or that scripture or some religious tradition,” questioning the reasoning behind faith healing.
“To close the door to other ways of God working though the world in which we find ourselves narrows the freedom of God’s sovereignty to be wholly present or to choose to allow other natural causes to take place,” he said.