Preparing for our church prayer meeting for tonight.
This article from UK BBC seems surreal.
A Christian group has been banned from claiming that God can heal illnesses on its website and in leaflets.
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said it had concluded that the adverts by Healing on the Streets (HOTS) – Bath, were misleading.
It said a leaflet available to download from the group’s website said: “Need Healing? God can heal today!”
The group, based in Bradford-on-Avon, Wiltshire, said it was disappointed with the decision and would appeal.
HOTS Bath said its vision was to promote Christian healing “as a daily lifestyle for every believer”.
‘False hope’
The ASA said the leaflet read: “Need Healing? God can heal today! Do you suffer from Back Pain, Arthritis, MS, Addiction … Ulcers, Depression, Allergies, Fibromyalgia, Asthma, Paralysis, Crippling Disease, Phobias, Sleeping disorders or any other sickness?
“We’d love to pray for your healing right now!
“We’re Christian from churches in Bath and we pray in the name of Jesus. We believe that God loves you and can heal you from any sickness.”
The ASA said it had been alerted to the adverts by a complainant, and concluded that they could encourage false hope and were irresponsible.
The church prays for lots of people in lots of situations. We often pray that the services of medical practitioners and various medicines would the means by which healing occurs. Sometimes we pray that when such treatment is proving ineffective that God would bring direct healing. Some recoveries can’t be explained.
It’s instructive that, on my reading of the situation above, no distinction was made that as part of their offer of prayer that the group were demanding other forms of medical treatment be foregone.
The judgment against this group simply seems to apply the notion that anything outside of recognised medical treatment for illness can’t be mentioned as part of an active part of the solution.
Now, lest we scream ‘Christian Persecution!’ it must be recognised and conceded that there have been less than helpful and even harmful expressions of supernatural and miraculous healing which have been harmful to some. And the public deserve protection from predators who would seek to peddle false hope to desperate people.
Adrian Warnock offers a constructive and balanced UK based interaction with this bizarre turn of events.
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