Probably the biggest religion story of the past couple weeks has been the saga of Daniel Hauser, the 13-year-old boy from northern Minnesota who is dying of Hodgkin's Lymphoma. Yes, he's dying, unless he gets chemo. With chemo, there's a 90% survival rate. Without chemo, less than 10%.After one round of chemo this Spring, Hauser refused to go back. At some point he and his mother -- and possibly other members of his family -- "converted" to Nemenhah, an online Native American "religion" that advotes homeopathic recipes of roots and herbs to treat illness. Daniel claimed to be a Nemenhah shaman, then it turned out that Nemenhahites (?) age 13 or older are automatically shamans. The Hausers are in no sense Indian.
When Daniel refused chemo, his doctor took him to court. Daniel defended himself with a first-person statement that I'm highly doubtful that he wrote himself. When the judge ordered Daniel to resume chemo, he and his mother fled to California, seduced by a sleazy lawyer to promptly ditched them. They were then flown back by a Hollywood movie producer, and yesterday, Daniel showed up for chemo at a hospital in Minneapolis.
Lots of people have been writing about this as a freedom of religion case, and it may be.
My friend, Carla, has written about the parental privacy aspects of the situation:
This is why we live in a society, surrounded by other human beings, so that when one of us loses our way, there's a whole posse of people around to ensure that we don't take others down with us. Thank GOD for a sensible physician and judge for overriding in unsensible parent.
Photo Credit: Kyndell Harkness, Star Tribune
My friend, Carla, has written about the parental privacy aspects of the situation:
Carla's on to something here. It seems to me that this is a case of a naive and easily manipulated mom, and a bedraggled father, who dragged their son into a hellish public nightmare because of their conspiracy-theory mistrust of Western medicine.Because raising children is not something we do for ourselves. We raise children to be part of the world, to be active, involved participants in the lives of other people. Daniel Hauser doesn't belong to his mother. He belongs to a family, to a community, to God.
This is why we live in a society, surrounded by other human beings, so that when one of us loses our way, there's a whole posse of people around to ensure that we don't take others down with us. Thank GOD for a sensible physician and judge for overriding in unsensible parent.
Photo Credit: Kyndell Harkness, Star Tribune
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Dean Myrick,
How considerate of you to wish upon this child a slow, painful, torturous death - the pain he would experience ranks right up their with bone pain.
But hey - he'll go out knowing that his "right to self-determination" was preserved.
Larry, I admit to having compressed several thoughts into a too short sentence.
One of the biggest, nastiest and most hateful lies the conservative American Christians propagate is that one must be part of a church-based community in order to be a good Christian.
Nearly as big a lie is the insistence that monogamous, life-long, faithful and true gay relationships like my marriage damage the body of the church.
Certainly, we need to have a body of people around us who are loving, caring and willing to give us both moral and direct support. Equally if not more important is our need to return God's love by showing it to others.
Given the horrible, hateful, monstrous way conservative American churches treat homosexuals, transgender and the parents of people who have committed suicide, I am very hesitant indeed to endorse such institutions.
Our church here in my little village donated more hours to charitable works last year than the tax-payer supported social services. That is what the church is really for - manifesting the fruits of the spirit, not distributing hatred and interfering in politics.
Daniel Hauser doesn't belong to his mother. He belongs to a family, to a community, to God.
And maybe for that very reason his mother would argue that God has told her, or her community has encouraged her, or her family has instructed her to pursue this alternative type of treatment.
Why do we see some people's faiths or beliefs as out of whack just because it doesn't align with our own? I don't think what the mother is doing is actually any different than those of you that pray for God to heal your kid... but you don't really believe God can heal your kid so you also take them to a doctor for treatment.
Believe me I think taking your kid to the doctor for treatment is the sensible thing to do. Can we agree that just leaving it to God or your "faith" to heal them is ludicrous?
Steve
stupidchurchpeople.com
SteveC,
I wasn't aware that a solution has finally been found wherewith the nonexistence of something may be proved.
Fascinating.
Do, please expound upon your breakthrough - the rest of us working and teaching in the natural sciences have been stumped by this little problem in falsifiability for several thousand years now.
Seriously, I would find it presumptuous to assume that God does not desire my use of science, medicine and submitting my will to His through prayer...
And for my ego to find something presumptuous is, well, please: Do share your brilliant discovery with us, please.
I don't think I made such presumptions that God doesn't desire you to use science or medicine. Actually I believe I supported the opposite.
And I don't care about God's nonexistence... it's existence that bears the burden of proof.
But from reading your statements throughout these comments, I can certainly testify and prove one thing... your condescension and arrogance are certainly unsurpassed.
Touché, SteveC - tho', I might add:
"It takes one to know one."
Oh, and I can't "prove" the existence of a point, line or plane. No more can I tell you both the exact when and where of a specific electron.
And yet, here we are, snarking away at each other using technologies dependent upon both.
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