(H/t Politivolve) – The AP has a story out of Wisconsin about a man on trial for failing to get medical assistance for his child.
Dale Neumann told the jury he didn’t seek medical help for his child because “I can’t do that because Biblically, I cannot find that is the way people are healed.”
He added: “If I go to the doctor, I am putting the doctor before God. I am not believing what he said he would do.”
These stories about parents too religious to seek medical treatment for their children come up from time to time, and I’m always reminded of the following tale:
A devout Christian heard an urgent news report on his radio that a flash flood was within minutes of entering the valley where he lived. Immediately he went to his knees and prayed for safety. The words were still on his lips when he became aware that water was gushing under his door. He retreated to the second floor and finally onto the roof of his house.
While he sat on the roof, a helicopter flew by and the pilot asked over the loudspeaker if they could lift him off. It’s not necessary since I have the Lord’s protection, he replied. Moments later the house began to break up and he found himself clinging to a tree. A police boat, braving the waters, approached him for rescue, but he assured them that the Lord would save him. Finally, the tree gave way and the man went to his death.
Standing before the Lord, he asked, Lord, I’m glad to be here, but why didn’t You answer my prayer for safety? The Lord responded, ‘Son, I told you over the radio to get out of there. Then I sent you a helicopter and a motor boat!’
The girl had diabetes and the father didn’t take her to a doctor or get her insulin. There was a group of people standing around her praying as she died. It’s exactly like watching her drown in the bathtub, praying instead of pulling her out. I don’t get the sense that this guy was acting out of malice, but where is the line separating faith from batshit insanity? Wherever it is, I think this guy is well over the line.
The Lord helps those who help themselves… doesn’t appear anywhere in the Bible.
Some would say that wondering where the line between faith and batshit insanity is, incorrectly assumes there’s any difference.
Yeah, well, the Bible is just a book a bunch of humans compiled; so, it’s bound to have left some stuff out.
There are the batshit crazy who will sit around and pray as things get worse, rather than act. There are also the batshit crazy with their faith in government, who will sit around and wait for government rescue as things get worse, rather than act.
Two sides of the same mystical coin.
And of course there are those who worship the Market despite empirical evidence that it’s not helping their own situation much; as they produce more and get compensated less as a few guys at the top of the corporate food chain get compensated more for producing less. (“Maybe if we just *clap harder*!)
Mystics come in lots of different shapes. But most don’t sit around praying harder while their daughter dies when a simple trip to the doctor would probably save her life. That’s a special kind of crazy.
Then again, I guess my mentioning corporations is a little unfair. Hardcore anti-statists should want to abolish the corporate form — seeing as how it’s a government created fiction designed to insulate people from personal responsibility.
Right on corporations.
I had an interesting, baffling conversation with an in-law relative while camping this week. He’s been unemployed for seven months. He made the comment that “TV and unemployment really go hand-in-hand”. Within the same conversation, he mentioned how he was close to foreclosure.
Well, duh. If unemployed, it really behooves one to treat the search of employment like a 40-hour/wk job. Amazing how he can find the dough for cable tv, all the channels, but can stare foreclosure in the face. He was all praise for the stimulus package, because it contains a program that he has signed up for, that will restructure his mortgage such that the next s months will be taken off and placed at the back end of the mortgage.
But, has he looked for work in the last 3 months? No sir.
Another cut at this one: Back when I still lived in Cleveland, and got ‘treated’ to Browns football, there was a running back named Tommy Vardell, who was a Christian Science believer. Predictably, one day he blew out a knee. Did he pray for it to heal? Not a chance. He had the surgery and continued his NFL career.