So, we are now into the annual pre-new season of Supernatural rewatching of all my dvd sets (which takes a while because I don't just watch the eps, but the commentaries, and the deleted/extended scenes, and the gag reels - holy buckets of funny, btw - and all the extras). Anyway. Season 6 starts Sept. 24, with season 5 being released on Sept. 7. Not that I don't already have it pre-ordered or anything... Any.Way.
One of the early season one eps is called 'Faith'. Basically, Dean is electrocuted on a hunt, which causes a heart attack that does massive damage, and leaves him dying, slowly. Dean is...'okay' is a word, but really, he just doesn't think that there's anything to be done, so he just accepts it. Sam, not so much. He exhausts all the science, and tricks Dean into letting Sam take him to a 'faith healer'. Dean is less than amused, and, it being Supernatural, Dean does get healed, but, of course, it's not God working through this guy that lets him heal. And they have to take down the 'monster' and that leaves a bunch of people dying/maimed/etc.
So, y'know, I don't really hold any truck with these people who go around and claim that they can heal people with the 'powah of the Lo-ardah!' *rolls eyes* Charlatans, seriously. You, too, can walk again, for the low, low price of everything you own. (hmm...digression, I really love John's truck. just for the record. Also, the Impala. *makes muscle car rumbling engine sounds* I totally need a toy Impala so I can drive it around on the floor...) Look, I suppose that it is theoretically possible that somewhere out there, there is a real, true, honest to God person who has been given the ability to heal. I just...I just don't *believe* it.
Oddly, I have no trouble believing that it's happened, in the past. The Apostles, Saints, people like that. I think they could heal, in certain, specific instances, when granted that power by God. I just don't really, honestly, believe that it happens any more.
The same, or similar, goes for places which are said to have 'healing powers'. Like, for to the instance, Lourdes. Supposedly, people go there, drink the water from the fountain, and some are healed. Like...upwards of 4,000 miraculous cures have apparently been verified and recorded. So, Amber, I hear you saying, it's an apparition approved by the Roman Catholic Church! Doctors (medical ones, mind), from all over the world have verified these cures. What's not to believe? I don't know, I just don't. Maybe it's just because I've never really been big on apparitions? This may sound weird, but they leave me fairly unmoved, or unimpressed, or insert your 'un-' here. (persqueeter! lol dean...um, clearly, i am watching spn as i type...)
Look, the thing is, I just don't...I don't feel any awe or anything when I think about these things. I don't think, 'yes, if I ever get seriously ill, I will make a pilgrimage there!' Seriously? If I ever got fatally ill (God forbid), I'd be in the hospital, with the doctors. Praying? But of course. However, I don't think that I would ever go to one of these people, or try to make it to Lourdes.
Also, on a semi related subject, am I strange in that I just don't give a hoot about ever going on a Pilgrimage to the Holy Land? Seriously? I'd like to travel there, and Rome, and some other places, but it's more for the history, than the personal religious significance. I feel no attachment to these places.
This post was great! Now I know what you've been up to. How fun!
ReplyDeleteOK, I am like you in many ways. I remember at the Sayydnaya monastery in Syria it was supposedly a place you could get healed, but I'm skeptical of such things. I don't believe places or people can heal though I would not want to limit God working through people. But I think they will be people like Elisha who "healed" for free. Not these who get rich while promising healing for desperate people.
I'd like to visit Israel for history and just to imagine all those who have walked there before me. Kind of like I did in Syria. I never had a great need to visit a certain place for religious reasons though.
Enjoyed this post especially how it was written in such a fun way!
Have fun watching your shows and all the extras!
*nods* That's pretty much it, exactly. I sometimes feel odd, because people in RL, around me, are so into these healers or miraculous healing sites, etc., and I just don't believe like they do. And then, maybe it's just around here, but it seems people I know are suddenly all about making pilgrimages to sites in the Holy Land. Which is all well and good, I guess. I just don't get it.
ReplyDeleteI have a friend who swears she knows someone in a 3rd world country who has the power of healing. She suggested that maybe in places like that, where medicine is not as advanced so they need it more, and also where people are less skeptical and more likely to be impressed by those displays, healing as a spiritual gift still exists. In the Western world, where we are less likely to look for spiritual healing and to take displays of power seriously, God no longer communicates this way.
ReplyDeleteYou can probably guess I don't believe that, but I think it's an interesting theory.
I love your comment about the Holy Land, and I completely agree. A group of people from my school recently went to Israel, and I told my friend that I wasn't interested in ever going there. She swatted my arm and was all shocked and said "But it's the Holy Land!" To me it's just like, what does that even mean? When you believe there is one God and that He is the God of the entire world, isn't every inch of land holy? Like you say, it would be interesting to see the places talked about in the Bible, but I don't think it's any more "holy" than the ground I'm standing on right now.
sanil,
ReplyDeleteIt is an interesting theory, but I think it's more likely that in 3rd world countries they have no choice but to rely on people who can 'heal' through faith, and more psychosomatic effects take place.
That's pretty much it, if I had to spell it out. The whole world's supposed to be holy, so focusing so much on the Holy Land gives an insane amount of importance to specific dirt. It's just weird. But I've been told that everyone who sees the Holy Land is affected by it, and suddenly 'understands' why it's so important. I...think not.