Yeah asking me whether I prefer BJP policies over faith-healing missionaries is like asking me what flavor of shit I want sprinkled on my cupcakes. Can't I have no shit?
The amount of fraud that has been perpetrated in the U.S. by phony faith healers is staggering. It's funny, but you never see these people show up in a children's oncology unit. I hope they pass this bill, and enforce it. Kudos for trying.
[And given how the BJP has suppressed religious freedom for non-Hindus across the subcontinent, the accusations that this bill is anti-Christian rather than pro-consumer aren’t far-fetched.]
That's exactly the purpose.
The BJP isn't a secular party. They're Hindu Nationalists and the goal is religious suppression, even if it comes wrapped in the seemingly good guise of protecting people from con artists. I strongly suspect the enforcement will be used to target Christians and Muslims while Hindu leaders can continue whatever practices and "medicine" they use.
"Christian missionaries often set up “healing camps in remote areas, often far removed from the reach of adequate healthcare facilities.”"
Yeah, about that. Why is it acceptable for Christians to send missionaries to these remote areas - which incidentally, costs money, time, manpower, and who knows what else - before they send doctors and nurses? I understand that in the Christian outlook, they're saving souls which is more important to them, but the groups that send medical help always seem to be less religiously inclined, like Doctors Without Borders or some such. It's well known that some Christian churches have quite the nest egg available to them, and yet somehow, those people in remote areas get conversion first out of every potential kind of assistance they might need.
It's dishonest to come to people and convince them to convert on the promise of a better life after they die knowing it's possible to help them now if only the money were spent. It's dishonest to try and convert people based on the idea that their new god will help them as soon as he's invited in. Praying for people often looks innocent, but winds up being a social pressure to convert on a vulnerable individual and their loved ones with no real assistance being forthcoming at all. In these cases, it winds up being the absolute worst sort of hollow promise since no matter how faithful the individual becomes, they're still sick and still going to die of something that a loving god or faith-based charity could have treated.
While I think this bill is a disguise to enable real persecution, I would like all the Christians in the US who complain they’re being persecuted, when they’re just plain bigots, to hear about this bill and stop moaning and bitching about being persecuted. Hmmmm, I guess that’s just magical thinking.
Put another way- and let's just call this the First Law of Oppressive Fuckery- Any overly-broad legislation is intended to shit on someone who has less power than the person writing it.
On the one hand, prayer is useless, and contributes nothing to medicine.
On the other hand, a prayer ban is 𝘢𝘭𝘴𝘰 useless, guaranteed to be enforced unequally, and that law is the 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘥-𝘴𝘢𝘭𝘢𝘥-𝘪𝘦𝘴𝘵 word salad I've ever stuck a fork into.
It's a good idea to criminalize the substitution of magic words and woo for real medicine... but this is a shit-stupid way to go about it, and is most likely meant to be wielded as a cudgel against local religious minorities.
Christian missionaries are insidious. They actually interfere in interventions that might solve the problems facing the people they are proselytizing to. Many are missionaries as a kind of savior tourism rather than a desire to help, which is why they interfere in effective efforts. There have been countless cases of missionaries committing crimes against the people they are supposedly helping, the woman who pretended to be a doctor and directly and indirectly caused the deaths of numerous children.
Still, outright bans on praying for healing are wrong, ineffective, and harmful. If you want to curb missionary practices, setup realistic boundaries, prosecute the criminal behaviors and most of all, create a safe environment for all your citizens by improving living conditions investing in education, infrastructures, and social safety nets. Provide for your people so that they are not susceptible to the charlatans.
But it’s cheaper and easier to outlaw nonsense, and it’s more fulfilling to persecute minority religions, than to solve a problem. You’re all horrendous.
We could use a little of that anti magical healing push in the US against the supplement industry. Every time I see a commercial that flashes up the fine print about how the product has not been evaluated by the FDA, I want to yell “Then why are they being allowed to claim this shit?!”
Luckily, for the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party Hindu-based faith healing isn't magic, but real. Because reasons and such.
While I like the idea of targeting the brand of "magical healing" which I've seen too often practiced by American preachers, ranging from Reverend Ike to Jimmy Swaggart, the bill proposed here strikes me as being entirely too broad. Granted that prayer is utterly ineffectual as a curative agent, but that should not be considered criminal for the one praying. Individual freedom of speech should include prayer, regardless of its efficacy. The problem is trying to separate that from group prayers, led by someone who hopes to gain from that group's participation, and that could be a very difficult line to discriminate.
And somehow, I don't see this bill being edited to understand those subtleties. [sigh]
Yeah asking me whether I prefer BJP policies over faith-healing missionaries is like asking me what flavor of shit I want sprinkled on my cupcakes. Can't I have no shit?
I haven't read the comments yet, but this stuck out at me:
Catholic hospitals, for example, may mix both religion and science.
Yes, to the detriment of their patients.
The amount of fraud that has been perpetrated in the U.S. by phony faith healers is staggering. It's funny, but you never see these people show up in a children's oncology unit. I hope they pass this bill, and enforce it. Kudos for trying.
[And given how the BJP has suppressed religious freedom for non-Hindus across the subcontinent, the accusations that this bill is anti-Christian rather than pro-consumer aren’t far-fetched.]
That's exactly the purpose.
The BJP isn't a secular party. They're Hindu Nationalists and the goal is religious suppression, even if it comes wrapped in the seemingly good guise of protecting people from con artists. I strongly suspect the enforcement will be used to target Christians and Muslims while Hindu leaders can continue whatever practices and "medicine" they use.
"Christian missionaries often set up “healing camps in remote areas, often far removed from the reach of adequate healthcare facilities.”"
Yeah, about that. Why is it acceptable for Christians to send missionaries to these remote areas - which incidentally, costs money, time, manpower, and who knows what else - before they send doctors and nurses? I understand that in the Christian outlook, they're saving souls which is more important to them, but the groups that send medical help always seem to be less religiously inclined, like Doctors Without Borders or some such. It's well known that some Christian churches have quite the nest egg available to them, and yet somehow, those people in remote areas get conversion first out of every potential kind of assistance they might need.
It's dishonest to come to people and convince them to convert on the promise of a better life after they die knowing it's possible to help them now if only the money were spent. It's dishonest to try and convert people based on the idea that their new god will help them as soon as he's invited in. Praying for people often looks innocent, but winds up being a social pressure to convert on a vulnerable individual and their loved ones with no real assistance being forthcoming at all. In these cases, it winds up being the absolute worst sort of hollow promise since no matter how faithful the individual becomes, they're still sick and still going to die of something that a loving god or faith-based charity could have treated.
While I think this bill is a disguise to enable real persecution, I would like all the Christians in the US who complain they’re being persecuted, when they’re just plain bigots, to hear about this bill and stop moaning and bitching about being persecuted. Hmmmm, I guess that’s just magical thinking.
Put another way- and let's just call this the First Law of Oppressive Fuckery- Any overly-broad legislation is intended to shit on someone who has less power than the person writing it.
On the one hand, prayer is useless, and contributes nothing to medicine.
On the other hand, a prayer ban is 𝘢𝘭𝘴𝘰 useless, guaranteed to be enforced unequally, and that law is the 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘥-𝘴𝘢𝘭𝘢𝘥-𝘪𝘦𝘴𝘵 word salad I've ever stuck a fork into.
It's a good idea to criminalize the substitution of magic words and woo for real medicine... but this is a shit-stupid way to go about it, and is most likely meant to be wielded as a cudgel against local religious minorities.
Christian missionaries are insidious. They actually interfere in interventions that might solve the problems facing the people they are proselytizing to. Many are missionaries as a kind of savior tourism rather than a desire to help, which is why they interfere in effective efforts. There have been countless cases of missionaries committing crimes against the people they are supposedly helping, the woman who pretended to be a doctor and directly and indirectly caused the deaths of numerous children.
Still, outright bans on praying for healing are wrong, ineffective, and harmful. If you want to curb missionary practices, setup realistic boundaries, prosecute the criminal behaviors and most of all, create a safe environment for all your citizens by improving living conditions investing in education, infrastructures, and social safety nets. Provide for your people so that they are not susceptible to the charlatans.
But it’s cheaper and easier to outlaw nonsense, and it’s more fulfilling to persecute minority religions, than to solve a problem. You’re all horrendous.
We could use a little of that anti magical healing push in the US against the supplement industry. Every time I see a commercial that flashes up the fine print about how the product has not been evaluated by the FDA, I want to yell “Then why are they being allowed to claim this shit?!”
Hindu faith has faith healing too, we will have to wait and see if Hindu deities associated with healing priests are targeted.
UPDATE. said this before and will say it again, I hope grandma has a private autopsy done.
https://abcnews.go.com/US/nex-benedict-died-suicide-medical-examiners-report-states/story?id=108093416
Luckily, for the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party Hindu-based faith healing isn't magic, but real. Because reasons and such.
All in all, a real-life Kobayashi Maru (no-win scenario).
While I like the idea of targeting the brand of "magical healing" which I've seen too often practiced by American preachers, ranging from Reverend Ike to Jimmy Swaggart, the bill proposed here strikes me as being entirely too broad. Granted that prayer is utterly ineffectual as a curative agent, but that should not be considered criminal for the one praying. Individual freedom of speech should include prayer, regardless of its efficacy. The problem is trying to separate that from group prayers, led by someone who hopes to gain from that group's participation, and that could be a very difficult line to discriminate.
And somehow, I don't see this bill being edited to understand those subtleties. [sigh]
OT
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