I suppose we all have things in our past, that when they enter our minds we try to push them out because of the pain that accompanies it. Well, at least I do.

One such thing, for me, was my cousin, (name). She was born with polio and was bedridden for her entire life of 30 some years. I remember that when my mother, I and brother were children we would visit them. We rarely had an opportunity to visit with her and even when we did her speech was so slurred as to be unintelligible. I remember on these visits peeking in her room and seeing a virtually lifeless body lying on her bed. Her eyes were almost always open and it seemed like she always noticed me when I peeked in.

Today, all I have of her are some sad photos of her as a child on crutches and some with her in a wheelchair. Regardless, she was always smiling, a beautiful angelic kind of smile that made her one of the most beautiful humans I have ever seen in my life.

Well, in desparation my aunt took her to one of those Oral Robert's Revivals. I can't remember whether he tried to heal her, but they probably declined to even try, realizing polio didn't lend itself very well to the "power of suggestion." It's hard to imagine the pain inflicted by charlatans like Roberts, Benny Hinn, etc. who pretend to heal people (through Christ), but fail and then blame others for their lack of faith or some other bogus reason. Of course, it's never their fault.

I'm thankful for scientist like Jonas Saulk who provided the vaccine for polio and I curse the existence of people who pretend to have healing powers, but don't. Religions, evangelists, etc. that hold out "false hope" in return for money. At least in my families case, they've ended up causing more pain than happiness.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/24/2013 04:25PM by heretic.

I worked at a TV station where I'd have to sign on with Oral friggin' Roberts on Sunday morning. What a laugh! Whenever he would come out with the "if we don't raise $200K by next Sunday the Lard is a gonna call me home"......I was pullin' for the Lard to get 'er done!!

Ron Burr

I had a brother 3 years older who I adored. He was sweet and really smart and always smiled. My parents had tried everything to cure him - he had a form of muscular dystrophy that hit when he was about 7. When he was about 10, we all went to an Oral Robert's tent meeting. My parents were devout Christians (not Mormons) and really thought God would heal my brother.

I'll never forget it - people crying and praising God and praying with their hands in the air and Oral standing there in the front telling everyone to just have faith - and give accordingly when the money bucket came around.

Of course nothing changed and my parents felt betrayed. How they could continue with this bullshit is beyond me, but they did, they kept thinking God would heal my brother and they kept giving their money to churches until they died many years later.

My brother died a week before he turned 17.

Wikipedia link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jo%C3%A3o_de_Deus_%28medium%29

She had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer four months earlier and so she and her second husband spent considerable money traveling to Brazil so she could be healed by this man. Linda was a strongly believing Christian so she bought into the idea that a medium could bring God's healing power to her.

After she returned home to the USA she was 100% sure that she was healed. She canceled an appointment with her oncologist. After a couple of weeks Linda's younger sister convinced her to get an appointment with the oncologist to confirm that the cancer was cured.

She went to the doctor, and the news was completely bad. The cancer was still there and she had less than six months to live. I didn't speak to her again after she returned to the USA but she must have been devastated. Oh well, the trip to Brazil was fun and it gave her high hopes for a few weeks.

Even though we were divorced, I felt that she had a sad early death (age 59). We had two children together and they were in their early 30s at the time of her passing. That was hard for both of them.