On Medical Care

"Medical Questions"

What Homestead wrote about hospital birth also applies to their position on medical care in general. 

The title of this post is actually the heading of a paper containing a list of questions and statements that Homestead Heritage handed out to members. The very wording of them is self explanatory, so I'll let them speak for themselves. Yes, Homestead can point to evidence of some members receiving medical treatment, but it is largely discouraged and treated with suspicion. 

Can We Trust Medical Science?

1. Medicine is a science. God gave us minds, and doctors have trained their minds with the latest scientific methods to deal with sickness. When your car's broken, you go to a mechanic, don't you? When something's wrong with your body, shouldn't you take it to the medical scientist, the doctor?

2. If you don't feel well, doesn't it make sense to just go to the doctor and let him find out what's wrong with you? He's got all the latest scientific equipment, lab tests, the resources of modern science, to diagnose your ailment and tell you right away what's wrong with you. American doctor's are the best because they give you appropriate and highly accurate tests and use powerful technological tools such as CAT scans and X-rays to pinpoint what's wrong. Why stay in the dark when medicine can give you a sure-fire diagnosis?

3. How do you know your child's cough is just related to a flu virus and not Pertussis, TB or something serious if you don't take him to a doctor? Your kids have had this cold for so long-- don't you care about them? It's be so easy just to go and get some of that good medicine.

4. Even if you're feeling well, shouldn't you have regular yearly checkups and cancer screens to test for potential diseases and treat them before they become life-threatening? It's been proven that the earlier treatment is started, the better the healing rate is. Doesn't that save needless suffering and even lives?

5. Once medicine knows the problem through scientific diagnosis, it knows how to treat it. Through medical expertise and experience, they know how to overcome what ails you. It's a science, don't forget, with well-defined treatment for almost every problem. Why suffer needlessly when you don't have to? Just think of all the pain and grief you can save yourself by taking a medical cure. With all the wonder drugs and antibiotics doctors have they can cure practically anything. Why are you afraid to go to them or at least seek their advice?

6. Oh, I know--I read all that about the collapse of the antibiotic wonder drugs. The gloom and doomers used to talk like that before the wonder drugs ever came out. And just like natural science came up with the cures that have saved people for over half a century, so will they come up with more drugs that will meet these new problems. Why, the whole community of international scientists are uniting to focus on this problem. Human science has never failed us yet. They've practically eliminated polio and TB. They're even fixing to come out with a new vaccine for cancer. And look what they're saying about teeth--no need to lose a tooth till you're over 100, if you just follow the advice of modern medical science. 

7. I'd rather live to be 70 than die at 35 like they did just a few short years ago. You know, the average life span is supposed to soon rise to 110. That'd never be possible without the advent of modern medical science.

8. If you're very sick and in need of constant care and major medical interventions, hospitals are the place to be. Hospitals are kept clean and sterile. Of course, people get sicker and die in hospitals, too, but that would have happened anyway. You're still better off going to the hospital than not going.

9. There are so many scare stories circulating about the dangers of X-rays, but I'm sure that a few won't hurt you! The information they provide the doctor or dentist, which helps him treat you better, far outweighs the small possibility of harm.

10. Anesthetics, general and local (such as Novocain), are a very safe way to take away pain during surgery, dental operations and bone setting. There are very few deaths or injuries that result from anesthetics, Anesthesia is a well-understood science.

11. Why do you reject safe, effective medicine like aspirin? Why suffer needlessly?

12. Wouldn't you go or take your kids to hospitals or doctors in an emergency situation, such as a car wreck or broken bone? What if your child had a high fever for several days? What about a ruptured appendix or a snakebite? What about high risk diseases, like diabetes or even staph infections, for which medicine has sure-fire cures? Why would you forgo medical assistance for such illnesses or emergency needs?

13. My best friend was in a bad car wreck and was in critical condition. The ambulance came and took him to the hospital. He had to stay there for eight weeks on the verge of death. Without the blood transfusions they gave him, he would have died. Are you like Jehovah's Witnesses and won't take blood? In a life and death matter, like with my friend, it would be murder to refuse to take someone to the hospital and give him blood transfusions. What if you were in a car wreck and got seriously hurt? Wouldn't you be real glad then that the ambulance came and took you to the hospital?

14. Isn't there a place for surgery? Aren't many surgical procedures such as appendectomies, heart bypass surgery and the removal of cancerous tumors really good because they in fact save lives? Can't they sometimes be the provision of God? If the doctors could operate to save your life, wouldn't you let them? What if someone were in a car accident and their facial features were messed up and could only be restored by cosmetic surgery? It doesn't seem there's any alternative to fix a hernia other than surgery to put it back. Do you rule out surgery?

Does God Use Doctors?

15. The doctor says that I'm going to die within a month if I don't have a heart transplant. I'm not ready to die. I'm just praying that God will allow me to have a new heart so I won't die. You say that God is going to give me a new heart. Are you expecting Him to come down a ladder with a new heart on a golden platter? I'm expecting Him to work through a person He has chosen to heal me--my doctor.

16. I just don't understand how sane people at the end of the 20th century can refuse to go to doctors--God works through medicine and doctors. Why look at Everett Koop--he was the surgeon general of the U.S. and an open evangelical Christian. You're just fanatics, or worse, a cult.

17. Yes, in the olden days God worked many miracles and healings through Jesus and the apostles. He now works an incredible number of miracles through medical science. My mother could barely walk because of her bad hips, but since they were replaced with artificial ones, she can now walk easily. Don't you think that's a miracle and a blessing from God? God heals people through the doctor and medicine. Why would God bother to heal someone supernaturally when he can be healed by going to the doctor? Isn't that like asking Him to feed us while refusing to go to the table?

18. My kidneys don't work. I have to go to the doctor every week for dialysis. Should I stop and "depend" of God? What if I die?

19. You claim to believe in divine healing. Well, if God doesn't heal you miraculously, then would you seek a doctor?

20. I've seen so many fanatics like you--they claim faith in God and then watch young mothers and babies die, like in Hobart Freeman's church with all those home birth deaths. Why Hobart Freeman even died prematurely himself because he couldn't go to a doctor. The same thing happened in that Tulsa Pentecostal church. Then there's all those kids that die every year because of the beliefs of their Christian Science or Jehovah's Witness' parents. You people aren't Christians--you bring a reproach on the Name of Christ.

Can We Trust Doctors?

21. My doctor will tell me whatever I need to know about my sickness and treatment. I can trust him to give me the full picture so I can responsibly decide about treatments, drugs and tests. He'll let me know what could happen through side effects and risks and let me know about alternatives. I know I can trust my doctor. 

22. Everybody makes mistakes, and there's some fraud in every field, but generally speaking, doctors provide the treatment, drugs and surgery that you really need.

23. Licensing procedures for doctors and other medical personnel and certification procedures for hospitals screen out unsafe practitioners and ensure medical safety and responsibility. Government agencies watch the medical community closely. A system of checks and balances keeps doctors and other medical staff in line and almost completely eliminates grounds for concern about malpractice, irresponsible medical practices, and abuse of power and people by doctors. Since the government certifies, checks and sets medical standards, don't you see that you can trust licensed medical practitioners?

24. Doesn't the medical profession generally attract the kind of honorable, responsible caring people who have the best concern of others at heart? I know that gruesome stories of medical experimentation have circulated, but those are the exceptions, or else people like the Nazis forced doctors to do these things.

Vaccination

25. It is irresponsible to not have your child immunized. You are exposing your child to the chance of getting many life-threatening diseases like polio, TB, small pox, typhoid, yellow fever, bubonic plague, tetanus, whooping cough, diphtheria and others. Where would we be today if modern medicine hadn't wiped out these diseases? Granted there have been unfortunate reactions to vaccinations, but they are so rare--only one reaction in 300,000 shots. As one doctor told me, the chances of dying are much greater to a child that has not been vaccinated and contracts a major childhood disease. It's just crazy not to take proven vaccines when they've saved so many lives. 

26. Aren't vaccines based on natural principles of how the body fights disease?

27. What's the difference between vaccinating people and vaccinating animals? Does veterinary medicine, with its regular shots and deworming and so on, have many of the same problems as human medicine?

28. When people travel abroad to high risk areas where typhoid fever, cholera, malaria, small pox and other diseases could prove fatal, shouldn't they be vaccinated? Don't I have to get vaccinated to get a passport?

Medical Care for Children

29. What ramifications will the Texas Mandatory Immunization Law have toward Christians who don't believe in the benefits of vaccinations? Is it being enforced? What if someone took one of his young children to the hospital to receive some treatment and the doctor asked if the child had his shots. What will happen if the answer is, "No"? Are there scriptures to support a religious exemption from immunization?

30. You may have a right to kill yourself if you want to, but you don't have a right to kill your innocent, trusting babies by withholding necessary medical care--no matter how fanatical and crazy you are, I think it's child abuse not to take them to the doctor and that irresponsible parents should be forced to take their children for medical attention. Freedom of religion has its limits, you know. How can you presume to make life and death medical decisions for a child--for yourself is one thing, but for a child who might choose differently if given a choice, now that's quite another matter.

31. What are the extents and limits of the power that a doctor can use to force me to submit to his treatment if I go to him or bring my children to him? Does anyone or do any laws or regulations limit what procedures, or treatments he can perform on my child against my will? Is there anything that limits his ability to remove the child from my custody and make him a ward of the State? What grounds does he need to do this?

Cancer and AIDS

32. Isn't modern medicine winning the fight against cancer? Through surgery, radiation treatments and chemotherapy, people have a better chance than ever of surviving this disease.

33. Can AIDS be transmitted through public places like restaurants, grocery stores and so on? What about through dental tools? Shouldn't government and medical science pour all their efforts into developing a vaccine and cure for this fatal disease?

34. Why is cancer so much more widespread today than it was two generations ago? Why has AIDS come forth suddenly in the past decade? Does the Bible give any guidelines for how to escape such modern plagues?

Childbirth

35. I haven't been able to have kids for years. I've had one miscarriage after the other. The doctor told me I could take a certain drug and would have kids fine. Should I do this? Isn't this better than losing babies?

36. To have births anywhere but in a hospital is irresponsible and is unnecessarily risky. It puts the life of your wife and baby on the line for no good reason--just to satisfy a whim. There are so many things that can go wrong in a birth that could seriously endanger the mother or baby. Doctors with their advanced medical technology, drugs and medical procedures, such as C-sections, can bring the mother and baby safely through even the most severe of these complications or even prevent them before they become serious.

37. When a baby born at home died, a local doctor argued in court that the baby would have survived if given proper medical care. Don't you think the midwife involved should be stopped from practicing? I know you homebirth, but you wouldn't let a baby die, would you?

38. Do all your women have to have their babies at home? What if someone had previous Cesareans and then joined your fellowship? Would she be expected to have a home birth?

Going to a Doctor

39. If you feel God telling you to go to the doctor or hospital, does this mean that all their procedures will benefit you and not harm you? Does it mean that you should do whatever they tell you to do? Are there limits to what you should submit to under their hand while trusting God in the decision to go to them?

40. If God is able to heal everybody then why would he ever tell anyone to go to the doctor or take medicine?

41. If you feel that you need a doctor and don't know any, how do you decide who to go to?

42. Why does it seem that we feel more often to go to a dentist or eye doctor that a medical Doctor? Do we rely less on God for divine healing in those areas and if so, why?

Alternative Medicines

43. What about going to chiropractors, or osteopaths for treatments? What about homeopaths, naturepaths (sic) or herbalists and so on? Is there a place for these kinds of methods of assisting the healing process in a Christian's life? Is there a way we can gain some of the skills, like setting bones and so on, without going through the medical system? What about dentistry?

44. My grandmother said recently, "If my gall stones act up again, I'll just have them removed." Are there other options I might could share with her? What about change of diet, and other things one can do to prevent heart disease, arthritis, Alzheimer's and other serious chronic diseases? Do home remedies such as garlic and herbs help maintain health and prevent such diseases?

45. Herbs are strong medicines but it's hard if not impossible to know the strength of home grown herbs. Modern medicines started with herbal medicines, but scientists purified and refined these primitive herbal treatments to exact dosages and strengths with tested effectiveness. So aren't modern medicines better?

46. With the way the FDA is banning certain herbs, will people have to go underground to use such herbs as chaparral?

Health Care and Insurance

47. I can understand why you won't buy medical insurance if you have a conviction never to go to the hospital or see a doctor. But if you don't have that conviction (that is, if hospitals are still an option for you), and you refuse to by medical insurance, how will you pay your hospital bills, which can cost you tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars in a matter of just a few weeks? If you expect to receive free care or expect the hospitals and doctors to finance your medical bills by arranging for you to make monthly payments, aren't you taking advantage of the very system you disdain? Or if you receive Medicare, wouldn't that compromise your position about not receiving government aid?

48. Don't we need some government health care plan such as the one the Clintons are proposing to protect everyone's right to medical treatment? [ed. You can probably guess the time frame of this paper by this question.]