HIV Patients Giving Up Medicine at Urging of Pastors

[Colanth]

They shouldn't get away with this. They should spend some good time in jail. :(

Only if you want enraged fundies decrying their infringed freedom of religion by the evil secularist totalitarian marxist atheist orwellian nanny state.  Persecution, I tells ya.  

And the downside would be?

[Hydra009]

Nothing, really.  Not much of a difference, either, come to think of it.  But unfortunately, the way it works is that you can pull this stuff and get away with it under the auspices of religion.  Religion is that elephant in the room that tends to trample anyone who tries to shoo it away.

[Jason78]

I sometimes think this is the game many doctors play. 'You don't have insurance so please rely on god..'

Healthcare is practically free in the UK.

[Brian37]

Fuck those assholes.

[Colanth]

Healthcare is practically free in the UK.

Yes, but because <insert some stupid inanity here> having the government pay for healthcare is wrong for the US, according to Republicans.

[Colanth]

But unfortunately, the way it works is that you can pull this stuff and get away with it under the auspices of religion.  Religion is that elephant in the room that tends to trample anyone who tries to shoo it away.

I wonder what would happen if someone died of a definitely-curable disease because a pastor told him to stop taking medicine and pray instead - and the family sued the pastor for wrongful death.  And the plaintiff's attorney objected any time religion was mentioned as a defense due to the constitutional violation.

[stromboli]

I wonder about the fact that they single out HIV, which is a sexually transmitted disease, versus Tuberculosis or other diseases transmitted as airborne or contact vectors. I guess they think that HIV is a "sin disease" and that it can be reversed by anti-sin methods. Somebody needs to refer them to the fact that HIV was also not treated properly in Africa and see the result. Talk about living in a vacuum.

[You Only Live Once]

That's truly disgusting and I can only assume if the good pastor himself was to become terminally ill he would give up the medical treatment in a heart beat for god.......maybe not ?

[gomtuu77]

As a Christian, I can say that Pentecostalism is so filled with error that it typically succeeds in doing little more than dragging the name of Christ through the mud.

[Fidel_Castronaut]

More proof that something is wrong with the south of the UK. I have had discussions about the south of the UK with a friend in Yorkshire in the north. The south is more squeamish. Like Margaret Thatcher, when honouring the soldiers who fought in the Falklands,  hid the wounded soldiers, many without arms or legs, in the back of the room behind large columns, where their physical damage would not make her look bad or frighten people. That this sort of Pentecostalism has picked up in London makes sense. Its part of some denial of physical disease or injury, as if to say "I am not really sick, or there is no such thing as HIV". It's sort of a denial of HIV.

I literally have no idea what you're talking about. What evidence do you have for this? And what on earth does this have to do with Pentecostal preaching which, by the way, is in no way exclusively linked to London, which also happens to not be exclusively 'the south'.

[Colanth]

As a Christian, I can say that Pentecostalism is so filled with error that it typically succeeds in doing little more than dragging the name of Christ through the mud.

And the fact that Pentacostalists say pretty much the same thing about "mainstream" Christianity doesn't give you a clue, does it?

[Eric1958]

My first thought on reading this was :evolution at work. It's a little hard to feel sorry for people that gullible.

[Hijiri Byakuren]

My first thought on reading this was, "Evolution at work." It's a little hard to feel sorry for people that gullible.

Yeah, the cold-blooded bastard in me is tempted to say something along the lines of, "Faith-healing is a self-reducing process." The educator in me just wants to get these people some help.

[ApostateLois]

As a Christian, I can say that Pentecostalism is so filled with error that it typically succeeds in doing little more than dragging the name of Christ through the mud.

Quite a lot of Christians do that, actually. If there really were a God, he would be so pissed off at what people are doing and saying in his name, that he'd blast the whole planet into oblivion just to make sure nobody ever did it again. (And if there is a God, then it's obvious he doesn't care.)

(from the article) He has since gone back on his medication and said he believed he needed to combine his drugs with his belief in faith healing.

 Why doesn't he just use drugs and forget the faith healing? You can piss in one hand and pray with the other and see which one fills up faster.

[Colanth]

(from the article) He has since gone back on his medication and said he believed he needed to combine his drugs with his belief in faith healing.

 Why doesn't he just use drugs and forget the faith healing? You can piss in one hand and pray with the other and see which one fills up faster.

Lois, you've been there, haven't you?  Some people just need the prayer thing all their lives - they NEVER grow up.  Not praying, not thanking Jesus, not praising God - that would be like not having their blood circulate.  They wouldn't know how to do it.