Dying the Christian Science way: the horror of my father’s last days -The Guardian

[hinterland]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...medicine-death-horror-of-my-fathers-last-days

The terrifying power of dogma!... Presumably, any similarities with the imposition of biopsychosocial therapies on patients with ME are entirely coincidental, according to The Guardian.

The teachings were radically simple. The founder and leader of the church, Mary Baker Eddy, taught that disease was unreal because the human body and the entire material world were mere illusions of the credulous, a waking dream. Those who awoke and knew the “Truth” could be instantaneously healed.

What was the “Truth”? We memorised it in Sunday School, the “Scientific Statement of Being”, which assured us that “there is no life, truth, intelligence, nor substance in matter”. Eddy’s definition of man was even more stark: “Man is not matter; he is not made up of brain, blood, bones, and other material elements.” We were instructed to repeat as needed for whatever ailment came along, from canker sores to cancer. The trick lay in the application: allow no hint of doubt, neither aspirin nor vitamin, a dogma so dire it was taken to absurd lengths.

Reacting with righteous zeal, Church leaders doubled down for decades, furtively slipping protections into the law and encouraging insurance companies to cover Christian Science “treatment”. Since it cost very little, the companies cynically complied.

But some of these facilities, and the incompetent care they provide, are covered by Medicare, the US’s national healthcare insurance programme.