Big Time Faith Healing, Well intentioned or deliberate Fraud?

Faith healing, like the fundamentalism it is often associated with, is a generic term, rather than a specific one. The New Guinea tribesman consulting a witch doctor for a potent spell to cure him, the quiet prayer meeting for a friend in hospital, the Indian girl who immerses herself in the waters of the Ganges to aid her infertility are all exercising faith healing. The oft- reported efficacy of placebos on people suffering from chronic pain serves as a reminder that the power of faith may sometimes outdo rational, modern medicine.

I have used the term 'big time' in my title because it is not the cultural attitudes of Melanesia or India towards disease or the quiet meditation of the worried friend that should concern the skeptic. Intrusion into these fields may appear culturally insensitive and even callous. Of far greater concern to me personally are the en-masse "healing" activities of the "professionals". As with many other businesses, there are some well-known persons who have made a very fine living out of their globe-trotting faith healing, like Osborne and Roberts. Mimicking them are many smaller-scale practitioners including one very wealthy Auckland businessman, one of whose meetings I attended. Fear of legal proceedings prevents me being specific in terms of names. Suffice it to say that the meeting I attended was one of several drawing a few hundred people about nine years ago. | went with a university acquaintance who called himself a 'born again Christian' and who challenged me to 'see for myself'.

We arrived early to find the hall already jam packed with chorus singing people. The lights were dimmed except for those above the stage, which was brightly lit. At the appointed time, the healer appeared to cries of "hallelujah", "praise the Lord" and similar utterances. He shouted through the microphone that the devil would be exorcised and that the Spirit would come. First, however, Jesus would have to come. For the next three-quarters of and hour, he traversed the stage continually shouting slogans from the King James version of the Bible as the congregation became increasingly vocal.

After about an hour, the spirit came. People started raising their arms and waving them from side to side. We were told to raise our hands and hold the hands of those on either side of us. Soon the hall was alive with frenzied, shouting people, waving clasped hands above their heads. The unmistakable uninhibited staccato of glossolalia filled the place. Two people up front flung themselves off their chairs and writhed on the concrete floor, "Jesus is here", the healer announced, "Listen, are you here, Jesus?" The healer spoke to Jesus and in the next period of comparative calm, my eye fell on a thick curtain, behind which was some movement. It was in a dark rear corner of the hall. I went over to it and flicked the curtain aside to see a somewhat angry young man fiddling with electronic sound gear from which wires trailed to the stage.

It was now time for the miracles to begin. The sick were preceded by witnesses. One had had cancer and had stunned doctors by his total spontaneous cure; This was a young fellow of about 25 who I had seen with the acquaintance who had brought me. A sobbing girl told of her deliverance from an incurable skin disease and others followed. Each story was almost drowned by cries of praise and shrieking entreaties, amongst which I was starting to pick out re~curring voices strategically placed around the congregation.

The first sick (sic) folks to come up onto the stage for healing were rather young and healthy looking and played their parts to perfection. Each was placed between the healer and a strong young man whose function was to catch the patients as they fell. The "patient" was asked to tell what was wrong, the healer would shout for deliverance, congregational frenzy would rise to pandemonium as the demons were ordered to come out of the sufferer. The afflicted person would then fall into the brawny person's arms. who would then lay him/her on the stage where he/she would write about frighteningly for perhaps quarter of a minute. Then he/she would wake up and then -be asked if cured. The answer was always 'yes' and to this the audience responded frenziedly and ecstatically. Then came people who were mostly older and who did not look healthy. About half went through the fainting stage but very few followed this with the writhing act. The other half did not respond to the treatment at all and were whisked off the stage quickly, having been told that they lacked faith or that Jesus had other plans for them.

After about two and half hours, a succession of about 4 or 5 people failed to swoon and be healed. Exhaustion was also taking its toll on the audience and the emotionally charged atmosphere was tangibly weakening. The healer faced us and announced that "the demon of doubt" was present. "There is someone here who doubts," he said. From the corner of my eye, I saw a shadowy hand beckoning my way. People turned to face me and there were voices of anger and dismay. I kept quite still as the healer preached to the recovering audience. When they had regained their earlier energy and enthusiasm, I was forgotten and the healing continued.

When the queue had been worked through we were invited to pray for those who had not gone forward. In the ensuing fanatical frenzy, I saw a little old woman trying to hoist herself out of her wheelchair. She slumped forward and struck her head on the back of a chair and was hurriedly replaced in her wheelchair by a couple of young men who quickly appeared. The healer came off the stage and went among the crowd. He stopped at another elderly woman who sobbed into the mike that one of her legs was several inches shorter than the other. The lights above were brightened and the crowd flocked round. I was about two-and-a-half metres

When the queue had been worked through we were invited to pray for those who had not gone forward. In the ensuing fanatical frenzy, 1 saw a little old woman trying to hoist herself out of her wheelchair. She slumped forward and struck her head on the back of a chair and was hurriedly replaced in her wheelchair by a couple of young men who quickly appeared. The healer came off the stage and went among the crowd. He stopped at another elderly woman who sobbed into the mike that one of her legs was several inches shorter than the other. The lights above were brightened and the crowd flocked round. I was about two-and-a-half metres away. He took the long leg and with a quick flick of the wrist loosened the shoe away from the heel. He took the other leg and placed it beside the long one, with the toes up and the heel forward. To onlookers' cries of wonder and shouts of praise, he slowly pushed the shoe back towards the heel. Unfortunately, the woman was not convinced. Cries of anguish arose and the healer turned squarely to me and bellowed that he would not continue his ministry while Satan was present. I was taken outside by several powerful young men and told that the Devil was in me and made me see things. One of them told me that the woman had been seen walking by several people, but as Satan had distorted my vision I had seen her fall. I was 'advised' not to return.

Not that I intended to. 1 went with an open mind, expecting to encounter well intentioned love in action. What I saw was a sickening display of mass emotional manipulation aided by electronic tinkering, professional actors and a strategically placed claque, a gross insult to human dignity and to genuine religion.