A pro-conversion therapy church in the United States has been forced to cancel “faith healing” visits to hospitals because of the coronavirus.
The Northern Californian Bethel Church, which believes that they can heal the sick through prayer, has issued guidance to faith healers telling them to stay away from hospitals due to the outbreak.
Despite this, they are not yet cancelling religious services in the state, which are attended by more than 6,000 people in Redding each week, the Sacramento Bee reports.
Bethel Church is urging their members to stop faith healing because of the coronavirus.
“Through email communications, signage, and church announcements, we are actively encouraging health practices and precautions to our whole community,” said Aaron Tesauro, a church spokesman.
“We believe that wisdom, modern medicine, and faith are meant to work together, and express the value for each in the pursuit of continued health and healing.”
He continued: “Though we believe in a God who actively heals today, students are not being encouraged to visit healthcare settings at this time, and moreover, are taught that even under normal circumstances, they must receive permission from both the facility and the individual before engaging in prayer.”
We believe that wisdom, modern medicine, and faith are meant to work together, and express the value for each in the pursuit of continued health and healing.
The church’s members are well known in Northern California for approaching strangers in hospitals and other locations and offering to touch them in an effort to heal them. Needless to say, this approach could prove tricky as the coronavirus continues to spread globally.
The church’s sudden embrace of science is convenient.
It is convenient that the church is suddenly embracing science and listening to health authorities on the spread of the coronavirus when they have ignored scientific evidence for years.
There is no scientific support for faith healing, and there is certainly no scientific support for conversion therapy. In fact, it has been widely debunked as harmful pseudoscience.
But that hasn’t stopped Bethel Church from promoting the practice. Just last year, they shared a post on Instagram arguing that homosexuality can be left behind. They also once shared a story of a lesbian who “became” heterosexual after studying Christian doctrine.
So, while the coronavirus continues to kill people across the globe and wreak havoc on people’s lives, we can at least be grateful that it has gotten this sorry bunch out of hospitals for a while.