So welcome back to the Great Midwest and the next best thing to Evangelical heaven. Ask me what it’s like to go to the doctor and receive, a couple of days later, a letter from the doctor telling you his office is willing to pray for you to make you all better:
Our entire staff would like to welcome you to our office…We would also like you to know that we are happy to pray with you at any time, and if you complete a prayer request card while you are in the office, we will pray for you in our morning staff prayer time. Our providers and staff consider it a privilege to care for you in this manner.
Gosh, and here I thought doctors used modern medical science to heal people. I bet there are no atheists in that particular foxhole. I mean, what happens if you’re on the staff and you refuse to pray?
Turns out that at this office they’re perfectly content with Bronze Age medical treatments. It also turns out that though this is my first encounter with doctor-prayer it is not something new, or even limited to the United States.
But I wonder what happens if they decide you’re cursed or possessed by demons? Do they fill the syringe with holy water instead of penicillin? Do they really believe in the germ theory of medicine or is it merely optional?
You know, I have nothing against people praying. I pray to my gods. I ask Thor to ward my journeys and the journeys of those close to me who also honor Thor (I won’t bother him with the safe travel of followers of the White Christ, because frankly, why would he give a damn?).
But come on. You’re a doctor. You went to medical school and even if you went to seminary, you still also studied to be a doctor. So why the prayers? Aren’t they redundant? Do you not trust medical science? Or is your role as a doctor evidence that you don’t trust prayer?
If, as a patient, I want prayers, I know where to find them. I can pray for myself according to my own traditions, and after all, if I want prayers to the White Christ, I can’t pee around here without hitting a church. I don’t need my doctor to solicit them.
And if conservative Christians feel their religious freedoms are being stepped by when required to provide contraception, etc, why do they feel it is perfectly alright to step on the religious freedom of others by sending letters to them offering to pray?
That’s a rhetorical question, of course. We already know they think you don’t possess any religious freedoms. It has been well established that from their perspective, religious freedom is uni-directional. Their beliefs are privileged. The Constitution established their religion as a state-sponsored religion, after all. Haven’t you read the First Amendment?
Sadly, this is not the sort of nightmare you can wake up from. Our beloved America has really fallen into this shithole of a reality bubble.
And no, this witch-doctor will not be treating anybody in this family ever again.
“Ministering the love of Christ through health care,” the letterhead says. Great.
How about ministering the sick through medical science? You’re not Jesus. Laying on hands ain’t gonna work.
You get used, in the Midwest, to seeing pictures of Jesus, and stray Bibles in physicians’ offices and in hospitals but the proselytizing is something you don’t expect unless you’re helpless in a hospital bed. at which point the sky pilots become vultures.
Richard Sherman, a cornerback on the Seattle Seahawks whose play I really admire, said in response to his critics,
Everybody has haters..People think Jesus didn’t exist. They think he wasn’t a miracle worker. There are people who say he didn’t walk on water, or he only walked on water because he couldn’t swim. Those people’s opinions mean dirt to me.
I’m okay with that, because I have a similar opinion of his opinions with regard to the divine. I just don’t care. As Thomas Jefferson said, it neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg. And Richard Sherman isn’t sending me letters offering to pray for me.
This knowledge of not-necessarily-shared beliefs should apply to doctors as well, as a doctor, Robert Klitzman, wrote in the New York Times in 2008:
I would argue that your doctor’s personal beliefs don’t matter. What matters is that your doctor recognizes that your beliefs are important to you. Training cannot convince doctors to become more spiritual. But it can, I hope, make them more aware of the range of views that their patients have.
I wouldn’t normally care if a doctor believed Jesus tap-danced or back-flipped or even cart-wheeled across the Sea of Galilee either. Most of my doctors have been Christians after all. But again, they’re not proselytizing. They’re acting as doctors should: treating my medical condition through application of medical science.
Doctors are not pastors. They should not pretend to be. If they intend to function in both roles, they ought at least to inform you of that: John Smith, M.D., D.D. Because honestly, the doctor of divinity isn’t why I came to see you, doc. If I saw a sign like that, I’d head elsewhere without ever touching the door handle.
Can someone, perhaps, make an ap? Let’s put our smartphones to use in our own defense. There is a lovely symmetry to it: science defending science; humans inventing science, science defending humans.
I knew I was in for it with this move when I saw a Romney sign in my neighbor’s yard. I just didn’t realize how deep in. This isn’t Kansas, but the evil that infests Kansas is the same evil that infests Colorado Springs and many other places, places that have tossed the Constitution and its ideas about religious pluralism under the bus, and embraced the idea that we all ought to believe what they believe; places that, while they were at it, tossed the entire post-Enlightenment world and everything it represents under the bus as well, and embraced Bronze Age values instead.
I am beginning to wonder how long it will be before I’m trapped in a dentist’s chair and the technician or dentist starts in with the prayers and exorcisms to eradicate the demons in my teeth, or flushes my mouth with holy water. I really hate the idea of a team of surgeons chanting and praying over my body while my chest cavity is opened up. My heart needs your medical knowledge, not your prayers.
Speaking of which, there is a wonderful essay at the Dawkins site, by a heart-surgery patient and his thoughts on intercessory prayers and how to deal with them:
[W]e now have quite solid grounds (e.g., the recently released Benson study at Harvard) for believing that intercessory prayer simply doesn’t work. Anybody whose practice shrugs off that research is subtly undermining respect for the very goodness I am thanking. If you insist on keeping the myth of the effectiveness of prayer alive, you owe the rest of us a justification in the face of the evidence. Pending such a justification, I will excuse you for indulging in your tradition; I know how comforting tradition can be. But I want you to recognize that what you are doing is morally problematic at best. If you would even CONSIDER filing a malpractice suit against a doctor who made a mistake in treating you, or suing a pharmaceutical company that didn’t conduct all the proper control tests before selling you a drug that harmed you, you must acknowledge your tacit appreciation of the high standards of rational inquiry to which the medical world holds itself, and yet you continue to indulge in a practice for which there is no known rational justification at all, and take yourself to be actually making a contribution. (Try to imagine your outrage if a pharmaceutical company responded to your suit by blithely replying “But we prayed good and hard for the success of the drug! What more do you want?”)
I’m just wondering how what an atheist version of this doctor’s letter would read like and how it would be received:
Our entire staff would like to welcome you to our office…We would also like you to know that your God doesn’t exist and that we won’t be praying with you at any time, and if you complete a prayer request card while you are in the office, we will tear it up at our morning humanist meeting. Our providers and staff consider it a privilege to care for you in this manner.
The day they think a letter like that is just fine and dandy is the day letters like theirs will no longer vex me.
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Brigita Petrutis
Jan. 5th, 2013 at 3:14 pm
I have to disagree on one point — it DOES pick our pockets, and it DOES break our legs (so to speak) when religious views interfere with administration of scientific method.
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fedded-up
Jan. 5th, 2013 at 3:15 pm
I used to know a surgeon who routinely prayed with every patient and before every surgery – well, at least it wasn’t DURING surgery…that I know of. I thought it was a bit silly, more than a tad pretentious, perhaps presumptuous, but mainly I thought it was funny to see the patient startle. At least I did until I heard at least a dozen different stories from nurses who were sick of trying to explain to terrified patients and families that ‘NO, he does NOT believe you are going to die!!’ He scared the bejeebus out of a bunch of people. Sure, there were some who were actually comforted – i.e., the ones who were of the same faith. The rest? Not so much.
It’s a very illustrative example – he didn’t question for a nanosecond his absolute RIGHT to practice his religion along with his medicine. To me, it was a glaring example of why this should not happen and a flagrant ethics violation.
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Sandra
Jan. 6th, 2013 at 12:07 pm
I can’t speak for American hospitals but here in Canada, there are Priests/Pastors, religious laypeople in the Hospital who visit patients and pray with them and offer Holy Communion (Catholic). I’m certainly more comfortable with having someone from my faith joining me in prayer esp. before surgery than my Surgeon…that’s kinda scary.
I’m kinda disappointed though reading the article, as I thought Hrafrnkell was about reveal a bombshell ie billing patients for the prayers a ‘prayer bill’ so to speak.haha…guess I’m just too cynical.
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PSzymeczek
Jan. 5th, 2013 at 3:23 pm
If my doctor offers to pray for me, it’s time to find a different doctor!
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djchefron
Jan. 5th, 2013 at 4:44 pm
If my doctor started praying,talking in tongues or handling snakes,I’m calling a lawyer and I’m paid.Jus sayin
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UncaJoe
Jan. 6th, 2013 at 2:45 am
Ya’ think that doc may have been nippin’ a little heavy on the strychnine?
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Shanadeen Begay
Jan. 5th, 2013 at 3:27 pm
I hope you feel better Hrafnkell! Also, I agree with most of the sentiment. Being very non-religious myself, and grappling with many of the issues of religion vs. culture I can see how this is a concern. It is always good to see where the doctor got their degrees from as well when you decide on a doctor that is your primary care physician as this will clue you into the kind of practice they have and the knowledge they possess. As for the churches, just know that from a recent trip in Europe I know for a fact that some being used for scientific purposes and not for worship. As you say, religious affiliation is not appropriate for medical discussions.
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RMuse
Jan. 5th, 2013 at 3:33 pm
A noted surgeon once told me the success of a giant operation was dependent on my belief and faith in Jesus Christ. I reminded him Jesus Christ was not scheduled to do my surgery and promptly walked out of the consultation room when he denied his name was Jesus Christ.
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UncaJoe
Jan. 5th, 2013 at 3:55 pm
How much does Jesus charge for a consultation fee and does my insurance cover it? Can I name Jesus in the lawsuit if complications arise after three days?
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Johnee
Jan. 5th, 2013 at 3:55 pm
Eeehhhh, as you know Hraf, I agree with you 99.99999% of the time. I’m slightly torn on this one (just slightly, mind you).
I’d be willing to bet the Doc is very aware of his demographic, and he knows this may comfort most of his patients on an emotional and mental level. Whether or not he believes in the bullshit himself is questionable. It never states what kind or type of prayers and I would be willing to bet that he is a “I treat the whole patient” type of guy.
That being said it would turn someone like me off to the point that I wouldn’t see him as a patient.
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wildee7
Jan. 5th, 2013 at 4:02 pm
Husband just got out of a faith based hospital. The place was filthy, they treated him terribly and I will NEVER take him back there! Yes, they did a lot of praying in there but people were dying from incompetence and indifference. One woman went in for routine gall baldder surgey and came out on a respirator for life. So if you get sick, and they offer to pray, RUN LIKE HELL TO ANOTHER HOSPITAL!
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Churchlady
Jan. 5th, 2013 at 4:21 pm
I see the card or letter as an offer to take up or reject at will. That crosses no particular line. It DOES give you orientation to who the doc is, and then – if you aren’t stuck in a one hospital system town with all docs of the same stripe – you can opt out if you wish. No harm, no foul.
However, I shudder at the very idea of this being forced on you, of your having NO choice at all. NO one has the right to tell you your HEALTH depends on your religious belief.
That is why all this rat noise about employers having “rights” in the contraception flap are so disgusting. It utterly violates the Civil Rights laws of equal access, and when said employer takes our tax money and hires a diverse body of people, they MUST give all employees the right of their moral values, too. There is NO wiggle room.
Most hospitals are tax supported – they cannot impose a set of religious beliefs upon you. Bad enough they can opt out of providing some services as Catholic hospitals do. But to tell anyone that their outcome depends on their acceptance of a very warped and erroneous view of Jesus is beyond disgusting. I think it would require a major law suit.
An offer to take or reject, fine. A mandate? OVER MY LIVING BODY.
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Reynardine
Jan. 5th, 2013 at 5:11 pm
If I wanted that, I’d go see a Christian Science practitioner. As I have not been a Christian Scientist in quite some time, I don’t (though I still believe that, nine times out of ten, doctors make you sick).
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GeneralLerong
Jan. 5th, 2013 at 5:11 pm
Now, Santa Muerte, there’s a gal worth praying to.
I’m thinking of finding some handy holy card of her to buy a gross of and hand out whenever someone says they’ll pray for me. “Here, direct your invocations to her.”
Priceless.
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Valerie
Jan. 5th, 2013 at 5:59 pm
Wow. I guess you folks need to be more careful where you choose to get your healthcare. There ARE religious hospitals and care networks that are faith-based. I had both of my daughters at St. Joseph’s in Tacoma, Washington, and the doctor that delivered both my girls prayed with me before surgery. I’m not terribly religious myself, but she was nothing short of an awesome doctor who draws her strength from Christ. Many people find comfort in that as surgery and their health are very fragile things. If you don’t want prayer with your healthcare, don’t go to one that’s faith based and don’t work there! It’s as simple as that!
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Evil Ferret
Jan. 6th, 2013 at 2:27 pm
Except that, you know, there aren’t always options to go elsewhere, depending on where you live and your insurance coverage. So saying “go elsewhere just doesn’t cut it.
The doctor’s office could have sent out a letter that still would have mentioned praying while respecting the different beliefs of his clientele. They could have easily stated something like this:
“We believe in an integrated approach to healthcare, understanding that patients may have emotional or spiritual needs that go beyond the physical. To that end, we provide or refer you to the following services. (Provide list)
Yes, it takes a little more work and might require them to get volunteer help, but it would serve the needs of ALL the patients, not just the Christian ones.
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SinghX
Jan. 5th, 2013 at 6:12 pm
…”But I wonder what happens if they decide you’re cursed or possessed by demons? Do they fill the syringe with holy water instead of penicillin?…
Yes, of course they would opt out of medicating you properly! Why waste good medicine on a non-believer(s)? They wouldn’t kill you, but, why allow non-believers precious medicine (or food, housing, jobs) that could go to a “good christian?” Imagine what would happen if left with medicine to make you healthy; all you’d ever do is continue doing Satan’s work!…and that would be a sin. They would decide that it would be the “christian” thing to do in letting you suffer until you came to your sense…
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Adalia Woodbury
Jan. 6th, 2013 at 1:17 am
If they don’t have holy water, they might prescribe an exorcism.
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Rosemarie Benintend
Jan. 5th, 2013 at 6:24 pm
When I became too sick to maintain my expensive healthcare, I found that, in Pittsburgh, PA, where I was living, no free or low-pay clinics existed. I was deeply shocked that, in this day and age, the City just allowed people to die in the streets, without minimal healthcare.
(The concept of free ER care is a LIE. The hospital treats you, but then charges you exponentially more than they do insured patients (which charges are already usurious) for amounts they KNOW you can’t pay, then ruin your credit, and pay professional debt collectors to dog you for decades.)
One attorney I temped for told me of a clinic of which he was a founder. It was an evangelical mission, in East Liberty, PA. I told him that I definitely was NOT a believer, but that I respected the right to religious freedom of any others.
I assumed they wouldn’t take me because I was both a non-believer AND nonconvertible.
They welcomed me. The doctor, a Yale graduate, was in the “Best Doctors in Pittsburgh” list, and has proven to be a highly competent practitioner (even though my necessary healthcare is highly complex), and a good man, whose clinic cared for me when I couldn’t pay for the care.
They helped me to get on temporary Medicaid, and helped me, FINALLY, to get on permanent Social Security Disability. He continues to be my doctor, even though I now have choices. He’s that good.
Don’t look a gift-horse in the mouth. My doctor is what a “Christian” is SUPPOSED to be.
And, there is much clinical evidence that any group meditation aimed at the welfare of an individual, WORKS. I take it, honestly stating to them that that my beliefs are different, and that other than being a good person, I don’t subscribe to the specifics of any religion.
If they want to pray for me, they are invited to do so.
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Jennifer J
Jan. 5th, 2013 at 6:58 pm
This post is enough to make me unfriend Politicus. Not only does my doctor pray for me, but I pray for my doctor. I also pray for emergency responders, and any other person who helps people – that they will be inspired to do the very best thing possible for the person they are helping. Hope you all have a very nice day.
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sammy
Jan. 7th, 2013 at 2:36 am
To each his own.
Does your doctor pray for his Jewish, or Muslim patients, or Hindu patients, or Jain patients? Does he say prayers that are appropriate for these different religion?
How many of your doctor’s patients have had their cancers go into remission or dissapear. Or many kidney transplants or open-heart surgiers were no longer necessary after the patients were prayed over. Were any patient’s who had lost an arm or a leg had the arm or leg regrow after prayer?
Do you even have a clue as to the issue here? That some people DON’T WANT PHYSICIANS TO PRAY OVER THEM. They want medical help from someone who is supposed to be trained to provide that help.
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Leah
Jan. 5th, 2013 at 7:29 pm
It has been my experience that when the doctor offers to pray for you…it’s because they don’t know enough about medical science to help you and usually don’t, won’t, or can’t because there’s more money in treating the symptoms than providing effective treatment towards a cure. God has become an excuse for greed for centuries…and when people can’t get enough wealth through religion, they will branch out into other things….corporations, pharmaceuticals, medicine,etc.
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Mark Phillips
Jan. 5th, 2013 at 9:44 pm
I have to disagree with this article. It seems to be of the mindset that prayer can’t work with medicine and that by OFFERING to pray for someone that you are distrusting medicine. That isn’t the case. I am gay. I am very liberal. I also pray for and with others often. (I belong to a very progressive modern thought church.) The doctor isn’t using prayer instead of medicine. It’s often actually something that some people find calming. And it isn’t like he is pushing it on people…He is offering it as an addition to his service that people have the freedom to decline. If he was doing it without asking or berating someone for declining it, I would have a problem. But offering it without any strings attached? Not a problem indeed.
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SinghX
Jan. 6th, 2013 at 6:51 am
I disagree…there are always strings attached somewhere along the line.
I agree as a liberal that there are those who practice their faith as it was meant; several years ago, I might agreed that an “offering was an offering” and the person doing to offering was not attached one way or the other.
However, times have changed dramatically. In our current zeitgeist this is no longer the case as fundamentalist are intentionally usurping, steeple-jacking, plotting, etc. a take over in the name of their brand of sky-god …in other words, you’re living in the past; there is over-whelming evidence that strings are attached via covert or superficial channels by these christians…
I could tell a very long story of a doctor I’ve seen for many years who “acted” very liberal, open-minded
progressive and didn’t hide “the bible”;never bothered me…until recently.
This person went off on a lengthy rant (with very little provocation) on how they didn’t believe in evolutions, cave men or any of that “bullshit” as that stuff is not in the bible. I was blown away by how one day, this person was open, supported Obama, the right to choose, etc. but, the next?? Huh???
I felt deeply disrespected and betrayed, as if I had been “cheated on” by someone who secretly couldn’t keep their pants and was nothing but a hypocrite.
Won’t be going back there EV-VER…
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Mark Phillips
Jan. 6th, 2013 at 7:47 am
And yes, that doctor went way over the line. I have many opinions that I have held back over the years even when asked (I work in healthcare) because it wasn’t an appropriate time or place. But OFFERING to pray isn’t hiding anything from the person who is being treated. In fact it’s being open with them about an aspect of the doctor’s life. The patient is more than free to not see this doctor and go to another. If a person doesn’t want to be prayed for, then the entire subject should be dropped and not brought up again. But I think that it’s fine to offer.
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BeeEss
Jan. 5th, 2013 at 11:05 pm
Had a great dentist for ten plus years – then googled him in 2008 and found out he gave to RW orgs. He retired before I had a chance to think about quitting him. Am now looking for a new dentist but want to know what her/his thinking is before I commit my money (free market and all). I guess I will go to a dental clinic and take my chances.
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Irene Haralabatos
Jan. 6th, 2013 at 8:48 am
I offer my patients some comfort but I am careful not to tread into religion for multiple reasons…including the fact that I’m an atheist. And of course, this is all on the periphery. As a physician I have this weird habit of concentrating on medical care of my patients. Imagine that. If I received that letter from my physician, I’d switch too.
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Shiva (Moderator)
Jan. 6th, 2013 at 9:30 am
Damm you physicians that care regardless of personal opinions!
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Gregg L. DesElms
Jan. 6th, 2013 at 2:45 pm
[sigh] Oy. I get tired of prefacing what I write, here — because this site is so thoroughly aggressively and intolerantly-of-anything-less liberal/progressive — what I write, here with that I’m a lifelong liberal/progressive and Democrat-who’s-never-voted-Republican who’s sufficiently so that he routinely gets chided for it everywhere else but here (so that maybe, just maybe someone won’t jump down my throat for deviating from the intolerant norm of this place). [sigh... again] At any rate, my point, simply, is this…
As long as the physician practices normative, modern medicine (and I’ll bet dollars to donuts that he does), then that he can’t seem to so do without foisting his religion on patients, while irritating, is at least not dangerous or sub-standard. Most physicians like this one (and I’ve seen a bunch) are perfectly good at what they do, but it’s just a pain in the rear to have to deal with all the conservative Christian witnessing and proselytizing.
It’s worthy of not, though, that many very scientific studies have shown that prayer can somehow help the sick. I’m sorry, but it’s true. I’ll bet yet more dollars to donuts that this physician, like most to behave as he’s behaving, have read those studies and feel empowered by them.
Sadly, you’re right, many medical offices like this routinely violate the civil rights of employees who won’t play. Of course, most of those offices are careful not to hire anyone but those who see things their way… which, of course, is also a civil rights violation. So, then, there’s much to dislike, I agree.
Still, most at least practice proper and fully scientific medicine, so there’s usually nothing to worry about on at least that count. The prayer, for them, tends to just be gravy.
_________________________________
Gregg L. DesElms
Napa, California USA
gregg at greggdeselms dot com
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Shiva (Moderator)
Jan. 6th, 2013 at 3:30 pm
You are welcome to jump from the norm. Anyone is if they can do it without non-screaching abusive non-name calling methods
However everyone has an opinion and if stated in the a tone of voice that invites discussion it goes
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fedded-up
Jan. 6th, 2013 at 3:50 pm
Good lord – aggressive and intolerant libruls. Who’da thunk it?
Seriously, I believe there’s a big, fat elephant in the room that you’re overlooking (and, no, I’m not referring to anything political with that…). There is a BIG reason why a physician is held to a high ethical standard that goes beyond the obvious, i.e., if he/she screws up, it could kill the patient. No, I’m referring to the fact that the physician holds a position of influence and power that already puts a person who NEEDS their services in the position of a supplicant. Nobody discusses this much because it’s a danged uncomfortable thought – but it is very much true.
If your car needs fixed, you go to a mechanic who diagnoses and fixes it, right? Technically, the same applies to a doctor, but, realistically? How many people can even consider going to a doctor without that little (or reallllly big) frisson of fear going up the spine? You’re waiting on a biopsy result…not quite the same as waiting for the mechanic to give you the vehicular news. Not only that, in many cases, the patient has zero chances of either figuring it out or fixing it on their own. They’re putting an awful lot of faith in a great big unknown, where they don’t have any idea of the odds, the ability of the practitioner, or the efficacy of the prescribed treatment.
So, yeah, there’s a really big reason why that physician has no business injecting his/her religious beliefs into what is already an inherently unequal lop-sided relationship. If you’re the one laying there with a condition that may well kill you, are you gonna argue or object to the prayer? Are you gonna risk pissing off the guy who’s supposed to be saving your life in a few minutes or hours?
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djchefron
Jan. 6th, 2013 at 4:15 pm
Have studies proven that prayer can help heal the sick?
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1849/have-studies-proven-that-prayer-can-help-heal-the-sick
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fedded-up
Jan. 6th, 2013 at 4:23 pm
My guess is if you’ve got a horse in the race, you’re gonna find a study to back up your conclusion. True empirical scientific studies, a.k.a., realistically? No. In >35 years in the medical field…no.
Placebo effect? Yes, believe it or not, that works for some. The ‘endorphin high,’ I like to call it. That would apply to true believers receiving prayer – they believe, therefore it works. For them.
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fedded-up
Jan. 6th, 2013 at 3:55 pm
The horror, the horror – I can’t believe we’re being subjected to yet another asshat conservative butthurt religimaniac. OMG. WHERE did I put my homeopathy journals and energy crystals?
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SinghX
Jan. 6th, 2013 at 4:41 pm
Con-Heart…is that you?
…”What’s particularly odd to me is that the whole bullshit biopsychosocial model of medicine was invented by liberal know-nothings.”
First of all, liberal know-nothings–non-existent; you borrowed a metaphor AND a term that’s based upon a bunch of conservative teabagger-types who existed during the early Lincoln days; they were woven into the Whig party as a last ditch effort to save the party. (BTW, the Whig party died, not the the social “liberals” of both parties who believed all men were created equal in a democracy).
So, your stupidity is showing…
Secondly, using weasel words like “What’s particularly odd” and, then calling a science, humanities, anything you judge as non-christian “bullshit” is not only “odd” but actually, is genuine bullshitting. You know not of which you attempt to brag. You do know a lot about hyperbole, false equivalency, not proving factual anything or providing actual evidence.
Personally, I have never met a medical professional who has inflicted their social opinions or any “social letters” on their patients…nor crystals, voodoo dolls etc. But, I bet you’d say exorcism done in a physician’s office would be “safer” in case someone got “hurt” in the name of the Jesus…
To paraphrase you’re OK-what’s-the-deal, any doctor who says, “Hello how are you today, how’s the family, did you have a nice vacation?” is incorporating social aspects of medicine…But, a covert doctor pretending to be a nice, white, polite christian puts out a letter which crosses personal boundaries, that’s what you’d considered a model of medical behavior??
You must be part of Victoria Jackson entourage…Phff.
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Christopher
Jan. 6th, 2013 at 10:37 pm
Unless I read the article too quickly I saw nothing to indicate the doctors were withholding sound medical treatment. Plenty of hospitals have religious affiliations and plenty of patients would find comfort in prayer. One need not be ordained or hold any other credentials to pray for and with a patient.
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sammy
Jan. 7th, 2013 at 2:42 am
EPIC EPIC FAIL.
Try again.
This time try to make sense.
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John Mayer
Jan. 7th, 2013 at 5:08 am
I think more appreciation is wanted in recognition of the extra effort this doctor and his staff are willing to invest for each of their patients. I would gratefully accept, and ask to meet with them a bit early to explain the proper ceremonial application of the chicken’s feet, the necklace of fingerbones and the statuette of Cthulhu.
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