The modern/post-modern/evangelical/skeptic

Faith or Fear

I caught the end of an interesting show last night on the national geographic channel. It was about blind people in North Korea who where seeking healing. Normally when I think of healing I picture some charismatic on the cheesy Christian station going crazy, in front of a stage that came form a palace in France. The scene in this documentary was completely different and believe it or not even creepier.
Imagine hundreds of Koreans silently sitting in there seats stiff as manikins frozen in a trance. Scattered among the crowed where people with patches over their eyes, hoping for healing. Then one by one a doctor would approach the victims and pull the patches off their eyes. The blind person would claim to be healed, then they would walk up to a picture of Kim Jong-Il, and praise this ”great” general for the healing he had done. When a person was praising the general, the whole room would join in. They would all stand up wave there hands and say “praise general Kim Jong-Il” five or six times then sit down. The things the people where saying was truly disturbing, One women said “I will work extra hard in the rice fields to earn the healing I have been given.” Another man said that he would kill every American enemy he possibly could. These people honestly believed that Kim Jong-Il was the one supplying the healing powers; well I guess who am I to say it wasn’t.
I was witnessing shocked me, I couldn’t tell if the people where really being healed, or if they where afraid to say that they weren’t healed. They did everything like it was a motion they had done many times before. There was little emotion, and a robotic movement that couldn’t possibly be real. If they said they had not been healed than they would probably be punished for saying that the general could not do it. The person doing the documentary even said that she couldn’t tell whether they where being healed from a true faith or if they where simply afraid…or even both.

I will just leave with some thoughts that I have been pondering. Are we like the north Koreans, do we fallow god out of faith..or fear..or both! Do we think that healings and stuff are happening even though its mere figment? If people in North Korea are being healed, then is it possible that it is simply a high amount of suggestibility that leads us to believe that God is doing the same now? Just thoughts, and questions! Does God heal, or are we just freaks?

posted by Mike Willis @ 5:03 PM