HIV patients told by Pentecostal pastors 'to rely on God'

[cbayer]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-23729684

16 August 2013 Last updated at 14:38 ET
By Alex Strangwayes-Booth
BBC News


Some young HIV patients have been pressured to stop taking medication, a survey of doctors revealed

Medical staff told the BBC a minority of pastors in England were endangering young church members by putting them under pressure to stop medication.

Healing is central to Pentecostalism, a radical belief in the power of prayer and miracles.

But one pastor denied people would ever be told to stop taking their medicine.

The Children's HIV Association surveyed 19 doctors and health professionals working with babies and children in England; its members had reported hearing anecdotal evidence of HIV patients deciding to stop taking their anti-retroviral drugs because their pastors had told them to do so.

more at link

[FiveGoodMen]

1. This endangers public health as well as the parishioners.

[longship]

2. There are many who do this who know they are frauds.

Benny Hinn knows he's a fraud.

Peter Popoff knows he's a fraud.

Robert Tilton knows, er knew, he's a fraud.

The rest are possibly delusional. (I cannot judge what is within a person's mind.) Regardless, what they are doing is utterly despicable.

[SummerSnow]

3. The pastors aren't making any money from them using the meds so of course they want them to stop.

They care nothing for their health

[trotsky]

4. Without their meds, the patients will die.

And then the pastors won't make any money from them either.

Hard to see the financial motivation on this one - seems to be a genuine case of following one's deeply-held religious beliefs.

[SummerSnow]

5. So true....deeply religious belief and their pastors know it.

My aunt had breast cancer.. when she found out she had it she never told the family. We found out about her cancer when it went into stage 4. She never went to get treatment cause she held deeply religious beliefs and her church leaders told her to pray and if she had faith the cancer would leave her body. Now by the time it reached stage 4 this cancer spread to her brain. She got sicker and sicker. She no longer could take care of herself. So we did of course.Not one church member from her church paid her any visits and she donated thousands to this church and was a regular member. Her church leaders never visited or called. We put her in the hospital and the doctors told us they can't do anything for her but make her comfortable. We went to her church and spoke to the Reverned about her he seemed sorry and took down the name of the hospital etc. He said he would make an announcement about her. Well my aunt died we had her funeral and not one person from her church attended her funeral or burial or came to her house to pay condolences. A month after she died. I saw in the mail a letter from her church asking for a donation to fund the church annual picnic. I ripped it up put it in the envelope they provided and mailed it to them.

[cleanhippie]

6. Solid post.

Great job showing yet another example of how religion is harmful.

[hrmjustin]

7. This is horrible. People need to take these drugs to survive and stopping them for

even a short amount of time an do damage.