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On a hot and humid 1950s
Sunday afternoon, I sat amongst the crowd of white-shirted, perspiration-soaked
men and paper-fan waving Sunday-hat-covered women at a tent crusade in Southeastern
Pennsylvania. After preaching salvation, the dark suit jacket came off. Holy
hands touched one after another. I watched a line of broken people approach a
healing stage and leave with a testimony. Everywhere, white and black hands reached
upward as organ tones bolstered songs of praise.
(Sutton, 2021, p. 79)
As I was writing Counseling
and Psychotherapy with Pentecostal and Charismatic Christians, I
was struck by the transitional figure of Oral Roberts who blended faith healing
and a nascent Pentecostal theology, which eventually led to a grand attempt to
integrate medical science and faith.
Oral Roberts
Oral Roberts was
born 24 January 1918. The next month, four waves of a flu pandemic killed off
about as many as died in World War I, which ended four days before fellow
American evangelist, Billy Graham entered the world stage.
Roberts reported a
miraculous healing as a teenager. In the years to come, this man from mixed
Cherokee, Choctaw, and European heritage would become an itinerant preacher in America
and around the world. In addition to preaching a gospel of salvation, he prayed
for people who waited in long lines to be healed. Testimonies encouraged others
who might obtain from Dr. Jesus what they could not yet receive from the care
of their local physician.
As medical
scientists made tremendous gains in the treatment of all kinds of diseases, Roberts
appears to have adapted to the changes in the culture. As the evangelistic tents
folded, his message of faith reached millions more by radio and print media.
His meetings soon appeared on television where listeners were encouraged to
touch the screen as they prayed. Faith was integrated with technology.
Following World War
II, medical treatments advanced at a stunning pace, Robert’s ministry evolved
as well. Evangelicals criticised his modernised TV programme, which looked like
a variety show complete with dancing and less formal messages of comfort (Hunter,
2018).
Eventually, the
grand integration took shape in the form of a medical centre at Oral Roberts
University where people could come for the best of medical science in an
atmosphere buoyed by prayer (Pearson,
1978). That attempt at integration collapsed but Roberts left a legacy of spiritual
pragmatism worth considering in an era when so many pit faith against medical
science.
Looking Back
As I look back upon
those decades, I am rather impressed at Robert’s flexibility, which seems so
advanced for spiritual leaders of the times. Roberts was a man who identified
with the “spirit of immense struggle” experienced by his Native American
ancestors in the Trail of Tears. He experienced his own struggle with illness
and shared his simple message of faith and recovery with millions.
He could have easily
fallen into the trap of scepticism toward medical science and stubbornly
refused to give up his tent ministries for the new-fangled technologies.
Instead, despite whatever misgivings he may or may not have had, he embraced evidence-based
change.
I never met Rev.
Roberts neither have I studied his character in depth. Nevertheless, I suggest
it takes a measure of spiritual humility for religious leaders like him to
embrace the revelations of medical scientists. For some, medical scientists can
appear as secular prophets competing with the clergy for guidance on how one
should live.
For
some, medical scientists can appear as secular prophets competing with the
clergy for guidance on how one should live.
Looking Forward
As I write this post
in 2021, I am keenly aware that millions of American Christians have been sceptical
about scientists’ statements concerning the COVID-19 pandemic, the treatments
approved by medical reviewers, and the vaccines developed by scientists at the
world’s major pharmaceutical giants in collaboration with government scientists.
In fact, some Americans have added nationalism to their scepticism to reject advice
by those at the World Health Organisation (WHO).
In my experience,
clergy, scientists, and politicians fail us when they lack spiritual, cultural,
and intellectual humility. People have always made mistakes. Wise people
respect evidence even when their theories and ideas do not fully account for
the evidence.
[It occurs to me
that some readers may wonder why this medical and faith healing segment appears
in a book about psychotherapy. In the book, I follow this discussion by looking
at the barriers psychological scientists and clinicians faced when trying to
help Christians struggling with mental disorders.]
References
Sutton, G. W.
(2021). Counseling and psychotherapy with Pentecostal and Charismatic
Christians: Culture & Research | Assessment & Practice. Springfield,
MO: Sunflower.
Timothy, H. (2018). The
spirit of immense struggle: Oral Roberts’ Native American ancestry.” Spiritus:
ORU Journal of Theology. 3, 177-198. https://digitalshowcase.oru.edu/spiritus/vol3/iss2/6
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