How is it that we haven't outlawed this predatory and sometimes deadly practice? People are told to throw their medicine on stage; their cancer/diabetes is healed! How is this any different than practicing medicine without a license? I understand we have freedom of religion, but freedom of religion is not an excuse for criminal negligence, anymore than it is an excuse for suicide cults or voluntary human sacrifice.

Below is a quick expose of a "faith healer" at work. I wish I could find the uncensored version online. In it you would find a woman crying her eyes out, while his wife Liz Popoff talked to him through his earpiece: “Look for the big black n****r at the back. Keep you hands of her fat tits Pete, I’m watching you.”



Sadly, exposes don't seem to account for much. Frauds like Peter Popoff have been exposed numerous times and he's doing better than ever. Popoff's current modus operandi is to claim that giving him money will make God give you ten times as much money back. Popoff frequents late night infomercials where you can call in and order his special package that includes magic salt and water that you sprinkle over your check (made out to Peter Popoff) before sending it off, and a prayer cloth and anointing oil. Reportedly Popoff has made over $23 million dollars with his current scam.

Additionally it seems the only people that are going to prison are the parents of sick children who believe in these frauds.

Oregon couple convicted in faith-healing trial
A couple who prayed and rubbed olive oil on their sick infant rather than seek medical care for the dying boy was convicted Thursday of manslaughter, becoming the latest members of an Oregon faith-healing church to be blamed in their child's death. Dale and Shannon Hickman, both 26, are members of the Followers of Christ Church, which has a history of rejecting medical care for congregants' children and relying instead on techniques such as prayer and anointing the sick with oils.

Same thing goes for parents who's children become serious ill or even die due to lack of medical treatment because of religious reason, like the anti-vaccination movement.

Similarly, the B.C. government seized three surviving sextuplets to ensure they got blood transfusions if necessary. Two of the sextuplets had already died. News Story

I don't see why it should be illegal for consenting adults. For kids or adults without capacity to make their own medical decisions, I agree that it shouldn't be allowed, at least if done in the place of real medicine. I think the parents should be held responsible as they are.

But the question is about the faith healer. I don't see how they can be charged. They aren't the ones forgoing real medical care for the kids, so I would find it hard to blame them. But this isn't terribly thought out, so I'm very open to being shown wrong.

EDIT: Actually, I'm conflicted. Would it be ok for someone to advertise that they can cure a disease through faith healing? Who's responsibility is it to determine the truth of such claims -- the practitioners or the clients? I don't think it should be allowed for actual doctors to do as they are licensed to be authorities of medicine, so it would be misleading to the public for them to endorse faith healing. I'm too confused and my mind is raveled up at the moment.

It's an unregulated, unsupervised industry, and as such is a last bastion for snake oil salesmen.

Caveat Emptor.
A fool and his money are soon parted.
There's a sucker born every minute.

That pretty much sums it up, but part of me still feels pity for these people. But ultimately, if adults of sound mind are scammed, it's their own fault.

That's definitely the problem. I don't care about the legality of psychics, fortune tellers or mediums, even if I abhor them morally. But these people are, for all intents and purposes, impersonating a physician.

Anyone with half a brain should know better than to get carried away with faith healing. While everyone should be able to rely on medical qualifications.

Besides any illness that can be eased by a placebo should be subject to faith healing as well, so its not a complete fraud.

If you start making faith healing illegal where do you draw the line. Acupuncture, herbal remedies, vitamin supplements etc. Not saying there shouldn’t be legislation, just that it could lead to a huge bag of worms.

The people who go to faith healers usually are very poorly educated and highly religious. It's a tough combo that makes them do incredibly mindless things. "God will deliver me $20,000 and all I have to do is send to $1,000? Sold."

That's the point though, it's not just small stuff. The healers are convincing them to get rid of their doctor prescribed medication. "Cancer, diabetes and a congenital heart defect? All fixed through faith! Didn't get cured? You just need to send me more money!"

This I would say.

Actually, you would probably run into a huge problem because sometimes advancement actually relies on not following convention. I'm not saying I think huge medical advancement is going to come from screaming preachers... but you could make the life of outside-the-box ideas very difficult.

If I'm not mistaken, those particular industries are not allowed to claim to cure any illness or disease.

Probably depends on where you are.

So why can not people bring action against your preachers? Maybe manslaughter if someone dies after throwing away their medicine or something? As you can guess I am not a lawyer, and don't even know what would happen in the UK. Still I can imagine the mother or wife of a deceased victim might try legal action.

there seems to be plenty of legal issues with 'alternative healing' practices in general.

as far as faith healing, what's surprising to me is that in some states parents have an immunity of sorts if they choose to subject their children to these snake-oil salesman in hopes of a miracle.

the bottom line is, the parents should be held accountable if the child is not of age to consent to this nonsense.

if your are of age, and competent enough to throw your money and your medicine at someone like this, but not competent enough to know better, then you get exactly what's coming to you.
i can't condone any transference of responsibility for people who sadly can't see they are being scammed. shame on them.

concerning the legality of what the 'practitioners' are doing, well, everybody's got a hustle.
organized religion just happens to be one that is unmatched.

if this guy honestly believes that what he is performing is miracles(doubtful), then he will surely learn his lesson in divine law. you reap what you sow.
if this is not the case, then we can all rest assured that at the right time, the truth will be brought to light as in all things.

I agree with you, and capacity is a really loaded legal term - I think it could get tricky when you get someone that is terminally ill or someone who simply really sick and not thinking clearly spends a lot of money / time on faith healing. The money is one thing, the opportunity cost of NOT getting legit medical care is a whole different beast (especially in the case of aggressive disease)

But clearly you cannot categorically say it's illegal, there are exceptions where people just prefer to pursue faith healing in the face of all the evidence that it is a scam. These people have the right to be idiots I suppose. We let people buy cigarettes like there's no tomorrow (hell you can even buy stocks in Phillip Morris), so what if some lunie wants to forgo modern medicine..

As a potential solution I think faith healers should be forced to have a warning label akin to what cigarettes have to warn people that faith healing has not demonstrated significant results or smth.. Additionally I think faith healer should be put under more scrutiny than cigarettes because of the subset of people it tends to target: the sick.

I think this would be a perfectly acceptable, happy medium.