Oh Ye Of Little Faith: Bethel Church, a “faith-healing” California megachurch that teaches that the power of prayer can “raise the dead and cure the sick,” admits that they are no match for the coronavirus.
Raw Story reports:
A megachurch in California that regularly conducts “faith-healing” sessions at local hospitals apparently doesn’t believe the power of prayer is strong enough to cure coronavirus.
The Bethel Church in Redding, California, which serves as the spiritual home to an estimated 6,300 weekly worshipers, announced this week that it is canceling its regularly scheduled visits to hospitals as fears of the coronavirus pandemic take hold.
The Sacramento Bee reports:
A prominent Northern California mega-church whose members believe their prayers heal the sick and raise the dead is advising the faithful to wash their hands, urging those who feel sick to stay home, canceling missionary trips and advising its faith healers to stay away from local hospitals.
In a statement: Aaron Tesauro, a church spokesman, said:
Through email communications, signage, and church announcements, we are actively encouraging health practices and precautions to our whole community. We believe that wisdom, modern medicine, and faith are meant to work together, and express the value for each in the pursuit of continued health and healing.”
Though we believe in a God who actively heals today, students are not being encouraged to visit healthcare settings at this time, and moreover, are taught that even under normal circumstances, they must receive permission from both the facility and the individual before engaging in prayer.
However, not all religious institutions are responding well to the coronavirus crisis. For example, in a disastrous public health move, the Greek Orthodox Church has issued an official statement declaring that the coronavirus is not transmitted via communion.
And, as must be expected, some conservative Christians are blaming the gays for the coronavirus. For example, conservative Christian Pastor Steven Andrew, pastor of the USA Christian Church, claims that the coronavirus is punishment for “LGBT sin.”
However, there is some good news: Christian Prophet Cindy Jacobs declares that the coronavirus “will cease worldwide” because the virus is now “illegal” in the name of Jesus.
Bottom line: Bethel Church, a “faith-healing” California megachurch that teaches that the power of prayer can “raise the dead and cure the sick,” admits that they are no match for the coronavirus.
(This article was published on patheos.com on March 10, 2020 and has been reproduced here in full.)
HinduPost Note
Hindus and Hindu Dharma are often mocked, both in Bharat and the world, for being ‘superstitious and backward’. Every once in a while, some random statement about ‘gau-mutra’ (cow urine) miracle cures or an arcane Hindu practise will be splashed in the news to slyly denigrate all Hindus. The way Hindu Dharma was stereotyped in a negative light on the CNN show ‘Believers‘ vis a vis other faiths, is indicative of the deep-seated bias.
But superstitions and irrational beliefs of many fundamentalist, practising Christians and Muslims hardly receive similar coverage. Quackery, i.e miracle cures is a central tool of mainstream evangelical Christian sects like Pentecostals, Southern Baptists etc. In Bharat, unscrupulous missionaries often con poor people with such ‘faith-healing’, which left-liberal media and secular intelligentsia completely ignores.
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