Forgive the essay. I’ve been trying to get back to
doing regular church reviews in this space, but the reason and
inspiration for this essay are the same. Basically, I was unable to
write a church review because I injured my back at the gym, and I was
taking muscle relaxers and lying on the floor this weekend. I wrote
about it in the Editor’s Note, page three, so if you need further
details, feel free.
But what I want to write about this week has to do with attitudes
toward health and healing. I come out of a Catholic background, so
I’m much more familiar with that perspective than others, but one
thing I’ve noticed while attending Christian services is that
healing and health are considered divine gifts. In fact, the bestowing
of health with healing was one of the signs that Jesus was Messiah.
I’ll also note that both Muhammad and Buddha were said to have
healed human bodies.
In other words, health is one place where the deity is considered to
have direct intercession both in the giving and taking of
individuals’ good health. In fact, just this past Christmas Eve,
Tracy Hermanstorfer went into cardiac arrest while delivering a child,
and the child was apparently dead when delivered by Caesarean section.
The father, Mike Hermanstorfer, attributed their survival to a
Christmas miracle: “We are both believers but this right here,
even to a non-believer, you explain to me how this happened. There is
no other explanation. Half of my family was lying right there in front
of me in my hands, there’s no other way to say it, but
dead.”
I’ve been to faith healing services, and I’ve heard
large groups of people proclaim that their ills were removed with
divine intercession … though faith.
But I don’t want to ruminate on the actuality of this healing,
simply to give examples in order to underpin an exploration of the idea
that people seem to need a causal point to understand their and their
families’ health, both good and bad. (Two words: Job’s
skin.) People aren’t looking for control, nor do they expect it,
exactly, but it seems they need something to help them feel they
understand the reasons for their good or bad health. The idea that we
live in a universe with so many variables as to be impossible to
predict our own bodies makes it difficult to go on.
Good health is so valuable and bad health is so damnable that it
seems we humans must attribute either to divine cause. But there are
other factors to consider. For example, when someone suffers from lung
cancer, the first words out of people’s mouths: Did you smoke? It
appears the vast majority of humans hope that perceived immoral or
unhealthful behavior will visit negative health on the sinner.
Diabetes: Was he fat? Heart disease: Was he a couch potato? HIV: Was he
gay?
Here’s the point I’m trying to get at. People seem to
have faith—without quantifiable evidence—that moral
behavior or healthful behavior will ensure good health and long life to
those who pursue them. For example, Noah of the ark was said to have
lived 950 years (Genesis 9:29). And what about Jack LaLanne, who was
born in 1914?
And yet, for every Jack LaLanne, there’s a Lou Gehrig (dead at
37). For every Noah, there’s a Reggie Lewis (dead at 27). And
that’s just “natural causes,” let’s not even
talk about accidents.
Isn’t sometimes the very attempt to live a healthier life the
reason for injury or death? I would not have been writhing on a gurney
in the gym if not for my efforts to live a healthier lifestyle by
quitting my “bad” habits and establishing new
“good” ones (running and lifting weights).
I hate to be so pessimistic, but it seems to me that there is no
predicting the benefits of a healthy and moral lifestyle nor the
punishments of a hedonistic and immoral lifestyle. It seems the best we
can do is increase our odds.
And don’t that just make you want to wash down that big, ole
fudge brownie with a glass of whiskey?