Tomah Journal - Printable Version

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Published - Friday, April 18, 2008

Letter: Doctors agree, prayer is effective

There are thousands of Americans who use faith healing on a daily basis, but maybe not for typical religious reasons. Adults and children are dying simply because they either do not have medical insurance and have been turned down for appropriate medical care or their health insurance company will not pay for their life saving surgery, medication, or treatment. How different the scenario might be if that same family was praying with all their faith for healing for their daughter because they fell into one of those categories? Would you then call the insurance company “child abusers,” or should the United States government be responsible for abusing a child or an adult to death because the current health care system does not cover all?

There are studies that have been done in hospitals which show to even the most unreligous doctors that patients who pray for their recovery, or who are prayed for, often heal at quicker rates than those who don’t have prayers said for them. There are also many documented cases where tumors or other ailments disappear and doctors are unable to explain why, except that those patients were having fervent prayers said for them.

Everyone dies, and that is a part of our mortal existence. Horrible accidents occur every day where loved ones, young and old, are maimed for life, or die. Some take tragedies and turn them into something positive for others -- that’s where laws such as the “Amber Alert” come from. Or, consider the man in the news right now, Randy Pausch, who has been given six months to live because he has terminal cancer. He is out showing people how to live life with grace and dignity and in the process he is inspiring many others to live their lives more fully. Though he may prematurely lose his life, his faith is healing many others and motivating them to reach out and do good.

What might you do if the doctors told you there was nothing more they could do to save either yourself or one of your loved ones from dying? Who knows, you might even find yourself turning to prayer!

Dawn Schanze

Belleville, Mich.