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August 29th, 2013
01:24 PM ET
Former staffer: Measles church counseled faith, not shotsBy Daniel Burke, CNN Belief Blog Co-Editor (CNN) When Amy Arden joined Eagle Mountain International Church in 1997, her 11monthold daughter had received all the recommended vaccinations. But in the six years the young, single mother worked and worshipped at the evangelical megachurch, Arden didn’t take her child to get a single shot. “There was a belief permeating throughout the church that there is only faith and fear,” Arden said. “If you were afraid of the illness enough to get vaccinated, it showed a lack of faith that God would protect and heal you.” Members of Eagle Mountain International Church also believed that childhood vaccinations could lead to autism, said Arden, who is 35. Arden said she was taught by a supervisor at the church's nursery how to opt out of a Texas law that requires most children to be immunized. She now regrets passing the same lesson on to other parents. “I didn’t know a single mother who was vaccinating her children,” she said. Eagle Mountains teachings on health, including disparaging remarks about vaccinations, have been called into question since an outbreak of measles in Texas – an outbreak that state officials tie to the church. As a Word of Faith church, Eagle Mountain is part of the booming prosperity gospel movement, which holds that God wants to reward believers with riches, health and happiness, if they will just recite certain Scriptures, pray and trust in divine providence. The church is part of Kenneth Copeland Ministries, a vast and profitable multimedia ministry led by its namesake, a longtime prosperity preacher and television evangelist. In the prosperity gospel world, Copeland, 76, and his wife, Gloria, are considered royalty, said Kate Bowler, author of “Blessed: A History of the American Prosperity Gospel.” “He is a major grandfather of the movement, starting to age out but still incredibly influential,” Bowler said. “They’ve been on the air forever and stayed largely scandalfree. That’s partly why they are so trusted by lots of people.” According to Kenneth Copeland Ministries, the Copelands' daily program on the Trinity Broadcasting Network reaches millions of viewers, their magazine more than 500,000 readers. Based in Newark, Texas, a rural community 25 miles north of Fort Worth, Eagle Mountain is copastored by Copeland's daughter, Terri Copeland Pearsons, and soninlaw, George Pearsons. Twentyone people in Tarrant County and nearby Denton County have contracted measles during this outbreak, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services. The victims include nine children and range from 4 to 44 years old.. Tarrant County epidemiologist Russell Jones said the confirmed cases can be traced back to a person who attended Eagle Mountain International Church after visiting Asia, which has higher rates of measles infections than the United States. Health officials are not releasing the name of that person or the particular country. Jones said he doesn’t know exactly how many of the infected people are members of Eagle Mountain. At least 11 of the 21 did not have any measles vaccinations, he said. (Doctors usually recommend two shots.) “Our concern would be that if you have a pocket of people who associate and think alike, if they don’t believe in immunization there’s going to be some other vulnerable people,” Jones said. Neither Eagle Mountain International Church nor Kenneth Copeland Ministries responded to repeated requests for comment. Eagle Mountain Pastor Terri Copeland Pearsons has said that “while some people may believe she is against immunizations, that is not true.” “I believe it is wrong to be against vaccinations,” she said in a statement. But the pastor hasn’t always preached a proimmunization message. In an August 15 statement, Copeland Pearsons drew a link between vaccinations and autism, saying, “The concerns we have had are primarily with very young children who have family history of autism and with bundling too many immunizations at one time.” Likewise, in 2010, during a broadcast about health, Kenneth Copeland – whose followers consider him a prophet – voiced alarm about the number of shots given to his grandchild. “All of this stuff they wanted to put into his body,” Copeland said. “Some of it is criminal!” Copeland was particularly agitated about the Hepatitis B shot. “In an infant? That’s crazy! That is a shot for sexually transmitted disease!” he said. “We need to be a whole lot more serious about this and aware, and you don’t take the word of the guy who’s trying to give you the shot about what’s good and what isn’t.” Dr. Don Colbert, a "divine health" expert who has appeared with Copeland in several broadcasts, then said the autism rate among children has increased with the number of childhood vaccinations. "I have had so many patients bring their children in and they say, you know what, the week after I had that immunization, for MMR – measles, mumps and rubella – my child stopped talking, my child stopped giving me eye contact. He was not alert, he was not coherent. he quit speaking, he quit being the child I had," Colbert said on the webcast. Colbert and the Copeland family are wrong about immunizations, said Dr. William Schaffner, a professor of preventive medicine and infectious diseases at Vanderbilt University. “It's painful because these pastors are trusted spiritual leaders who are speaking to people not only in their congregations but also on television," he said. "They are putting people at risk.” There is no link between vaccinations and autism, and hepatitis can be passed from mother to child, making the shot necessary and effective, Schaffner said. Schaffner said that doctors call concerns about bundling immunizations the "pin cushion effect." It's a common but unfounded fear, he said. Most health experts, including the American Pediatric Association and the Tarrant County Public Health Department, agree with Schaffner. In a joint statement on Wednesday, the church and ministry said that they believe in, and advocate the use of, medical professionals. "If an individual is faced with a situation that requires medical attention, that person should seek out the appropriate medical professional and follow their instructions using wisdom," the church leaders said. After the measles outbreak, Kenneth Copeland said that he “inquired of the Lord as to what he would say regarding these vaccinations,” according to a statement posted on the church's website on August 15. The pastor said that God told him to “pray over it,” and then to “take advantage of what I have provided for you in Jesus’ name.” Since the measles outbreak, Eagle Mountain has held two free immunization clinics, where about 220 church members received vaccinations, according to Jones, who said the county assisted with the clinics. Jones said that he is working to ascertain how many of the church’s 1,500 members have still not been immunized. Eagle Mountain and Kenneth Copeland Ministries also disinfected their shared 25acre campus, including the nursery and day care center, Pearsons said at an August 14 church service titled “Taking Our Stand of Faith Over Measles.” The church runs schools for children through the sixth grade. When Copeland announces a change in church policy, it's often after he has claimed to receive a new divine revelation, said former members of the church. "Kenneth would always come up with a new prophecy to match what's going on," said one former church member, who wished to remain anonymous in order to maintain business ties with the church. In this case, Copeland’s new revelation – and the church's recent statements –represent a big shift, said the former members. Amy Arden worshipped and worked at the church, including in its nursery, for six years, first as a volunteer, then as paid staff from 2000 to 2003. Arden said she now deeply regrets teaching other parents how to access the Texas immunization exemption forms. But she and another former church employee described a closed spiritual world in which doubts are kept quiet and leaders' words are rarely questioned. “This was Kenneth Copeland’s ministry, and we did nothing that he did not approve of,” Arden said. “It’s hard to believe that hundreds of his children in his church were not getting vaccinated and he didn’t know about it. If he was provaccination, we would have vaccinated our children." Arden recalled a 2002 lecture to church employees in which they were told that every part of Eagle Mountain International Church and Kenneth Copeland Ministries must reflect the founder’s vision. Arden said she was fired from KCM in 2003 for disagreeing with the church’s willingness to take donations from the mentally ill, including institutionalized patients. She later cooperated with a U.S. Senate investigation into Copeland’s and other prosperity preachers’ finances. The church was not penalized, but Sen. Chuck Grassley's 2011 report raised questions about the pastors' use of churchowned luxury items like private jets. The Copelands and Eagle Mountain called the investigation an attack on Word of Faith pastors. Another former church member and Kenneth Copeland Ministries employee who volunteered in the nursery corroborated Arden’s account. “Being vaccinated was like working against your faith,” said the former church member. “You were trusting a disease's power to infect you over God's ability to protect you.” Neither Arden nor the other former church member recalled hearing the Copelands or Pearsons preach specifically against vaccinations, however. Nor did the Copelands counsel their flock to reject medical treatment for serious ailments, they said. More often, the prosperity pastors would preach that faith is the best preventive measure and that some ailments can and should be prayed away, the church members recalled. That’s a common belief among Pentecostals, said Bowler, the historian and Duke Divinity School professor. According to a 2006 Pew Study, 62% of American Pentecostals say they have witnessed divine healings. But many Christian traditions teach that God can heal believers. What separates preachers like the Copelands is that they believe Jesus died not only to save humanity from sin but also from sickness. “When Jesus bore away our sins, he also bore away our diseases,” Gloria Copeland has said in sermons about spiritual healing. The Copelands also teach that they have unlocked the formula – a combination of words and Scriptures – to guide believers from optimistic faith to tangible results. “The places they look for those results are their bodies and their wallets,” Bowler said. In many ways, the Copelands are the spiritual successors to last century's revival preachers, Bowler said, trading traveling tent meetings for lucrative television ministries. Kenneth Copeland learned at the feet of prosperity gospel founders Kenneth Hagin and Oral Roberts. Copeland calls Roberts, who believed that God had anointed his right hand with healing power, his "spiritual father." The Copelands have since created their own unique brand of theology, emphasizing that the spoken word – a Word of Faith – can turn prayers into reality. Kenneth Copeland teaches that simply uttering the words “I’m sick” can lead to illness, and that proclaiming yourself well can likewise lead to health. “Our health, our wealth and our place in eternity is in our mouths. Everything about us has been, and will be, determined by the words we speak,” Copeland has said. Arden said that church members were taught to repeat certain Bible passages, almost like a magic spell, to ward off disease. “There were healing Scriptures we had to recite over and over again, and eventually, whatever you say will come to pass.” The Copelands don’t claim to be healers, though they teach that believers who sow “seeds of faith” – sometimes through donations – can see miraculous results. One account on the ministry’s website says that a Dutch boy was cured of autism after his mother attended Gloria Copeland’s healing school and watched Eagle Mountain church services online. Arden recalled donating $400 – all she had in her savings account at the time – to the church when her daughter had a serious ear malady. “I was a broke, single mother earning $7.50 an hour, so that was a fortune to me.” Her daughter required four surgeries before she was healed, Arden said. Now a financial analyst in New York City, Arden said she keeps her distance from organized religion, but understands what draws certain kinds of Christians to churches like Eagle Mountain. “About 90% of the people were just like me,” she said. “They needed hope, and they needed to believe that there was something bigger than themselves that would guide and protect them and keep the whole crush of life from pressing down on them.”
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The CNN Belief Blog covers the faith angles of the day's biggest stories, from breaking news to politics to entertainment, fostering a global conversation about the role of religion and belief in readers' lives. It's edited by CNN's Daniel Burke with contributions from Eric Marrapodi and CNN's worldwide news gathering team.  |
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Anyway, back to the article... The righteous live by faith, but God will punish the unvaccinated.
Still no one has a reason for belief in a God or gods. No reason for anyone to live by faith. No evidence for anything that lives that is eternal.
good point.
you wage a bitter war against nothing.
how's that going for ya, doofus?
Splendid, kelly. The best efforts of the most dedicated of believers is amusing beyond words.
u r an xtard now!
Everyone has a reason or reasons for whatever they believe. I have several reasons why I believe in God. I can share my reasons with you and probably have already shared some of them, but my reasons may not help you. You will need a reason of your very own.
Indeed, Robert. May I put my hand in his side?
Probably not, at least literally. What could happen is that he may impress upon your heart & mind your need of a savior.
do you understand what you've just done?
It is odd that so many people do feel the need for a saviour. It seems clear to me that we all need to act together to bring about any salvation that we all need. That individuals should at least stand up on their hind legs and try to be part of that.
do you?
Of course everyone has their own reason for believing in the god of their choice. Gods are how people deal with the unknown. Experience a special feeling? Must be god. Experience something you don't understand? Must be god.
But if you are looking for real answers to honest questions, god is nowhere to be found.
when you are a self-righteous fool, god, the real one, hides his face from you. you must seek him humbly. sorry. you will never find him
I don't know that I've accepted a worldview, but I know that in avoiding yours I've avoided one that is false. Unfounded belief or faith is never right or good.
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khkhlgkujgfchfsearmstd,ur67rt6rot.g,yfhgrdykfgdykghtd,ehgcb
I know what you mean
He prayed for strength that he might achieve;
He was made weak that he might obey.
He prayed for health that he might do greater things;
He was given infirmity that he might do better things,
He prayed for riches that he might be happy;
He was given poverty that he might be wise.
He prayed for power that he might have the praise of men;
He was given infirmity that he might feel the need of God.
He prayed for all things that he might enjoy life;
He was given life that he might enjoy all things.
He had received nothing that he asked for-all that he hoped for;
His prayer was answered-he was most blessed.
Author unknown
Author Unknown – just like most of the bible quotes you put up here.
It is common knowledge who wrote the Bible.
Well, after all, it was you and me
Really? Who were they? Just tell us about the authors of the 4 canonical gospels. Because if you know, you should publish a paper and win Worldwide acclaim, because no Biblical scholar knows who wrote them.
With every post you make, you betray a jaw-dropping ignorance of your own faith.
If you have a" jaw dropping ignorance" it is not my problem. Some modern "biblical" scholars have deviated from accepted authorship probably for sensationalism or monetary gain, honest scholars are still for the most part agreed on the authorship of the Bible.
Based on the errors, contradictions, hypocrisy and nonsense in the Bible, maybe the authors would prefer to be anonymous.
A bunch of men. Next!
I'd like to see a list of authors accepted by Colin's honest scholars. A little bio would be good – which James was it, which Jude, which Mark. And who wrote Hebrews anyway?
Apparently Jesus-lovin' Colin has secret information that biblical scholars don't have. It's probably a conspiracy. Maybe he thinks Dan Brown wrote the bible.
that was funny, tallula13. Actually, he probably thinks it was Matthew the Apostle, Mark the companion of Peter, Luke the Physician and John, son of Zebadee. He also probaly thinks Moses wrote the Pentatuch. The poor simpleton swallows whatever his church tells him to with no apparent ability to objectively scrutinize it.
It's common knowledge that each book has someone attributed to be its author. There is no way to prove who wrote most of it and in many cases whether the "author" even existed.
You forgot this last part Bob:
Then one day he realized that he was just another human, living his one life as best as he could and that praying was nothing more than talking to himself. He put the belief of god away, grew up and starting doing things for himself.
A big block of comments got eliminated, I hope that was technical difficulties not heavy handed censoring.
It sure looks like censorship either by users or host, as well as some technical difficulties of some sort!
Stop lying; it makes baby jesus cry.
tshorey2013
hharri-The point that was being made was that the sayings of Jesus can be attibuted to earlier sources, not that those sources were any more wise or holy. Nearly everything attributed to Jesus including his life story (born of a virgin, miracles, crucificion and ressurection) came from earlier mythologies. By the way if you are trying to claim the superiority of your own world view it carries more weight if you capitalize your sentences and use grammatical English. Just a tip from your friendly Athie (as you label it).
horus The point is, quote those from whom Jesus is borrowing, okay? Go right ahead athies. Give it all you got. Concepts such as the resurrection and crucifixion may have been around before Christ. No proof he used them. For Pete's sake. He did live them which is more than we can say for athies who are cowardly liars. asked on August 28
observer "Yes Horus and Buddha came before Jesus. So did many, many other gods and myths. And yes, many parts of the story of Jesus bear striking resemblance to those stories that came before him. And some of the things attributed to Jesus sound an awful lot like the things Buddha is supposed to have said."
kelly, fascinating, observer. again, what did buddha say that was attributed to jesus? no comment? then why keep repeating it if you don't know? who attributed buddha's words to jesus, any idea? and why? to correct the errors you think are in the old testament? according to you, them goat herders had no means, no education, and they were deluded, iron age nomads. so, who were the dudes following buddha 400 years earlier you appreciate so much, einstein and newton? not to worry. i promise you, now, in advance, athies CANNOT offer a serious response. they will not touch it. posted on August 26
no answers, liars
The CNN Belief Blog covers the faith angles of the day's biggest stories, from breaking news to politics to entertainment, fostering a global conversation about the role of religion and belief in readers' lives. It's edited by CNN's Daniel Burke and Eric Marrapodi with daily contributions from CNN's worldwide newsgathering team and frequent posts from religion scholar and author Stephen Prothero.
That's bull. This dump is about making christians look bad at all costs. It is a disgusting one sided exploitation of any thing they can find to smear christ and his followers. it is controlled and has been ruined by athies whose only reason to live is to distort truth, focus on church failures and to divert all pro-christian sentiment to mock jeeeeebus and gawd. lol
I'm not anticipating waking up in a theme park after I die. The hard truth is that when you die my friend you will no longer exist. God is a myth. Get over it.
The whole afterlife thing is getting quite preposterous as we understand the mind and brain more and more. Who we are, our personality, morals, etc. are affected by brain health. Disease and damage can change our personalities and morals. A woman with a brain tumor went from a loving wife and mother to a child abuser, people have gone from quiet to outgoing (and vice versa) from gun shot wounds. They go on and have lives as these new people. All we are is in those synapses in our brains. When we die, the brain dies and that person only exists in other people's living brains. Get over it already.
Reward and punishment after death certainly appear to be silly concepts with what we know about the brain and psychology, but I don't think it's enough to call continued consciousness after death silly. Questionably evidenced, perhaps, but so are a lot of things.
Sara,
I disagree, it is silly. Consciousness comes from the brain, period. It is a physical phenomenon that is changed by disease and damage. It is observable and is becoming more and more understood.
How consciousness emerges (or if it emerges) is not known. This is one of the greatest delusions of materialists who want to close their eyes to this very difficult question. Consciousness is not even necessary for evolution as we could theoretically act just the same without it. It is by no means agreed that consciousness resides only in "brains" and many from Spinoza to Einstein to modern panpsychic theorists believed in was in all matter. Philosophers including Berkely and Kant astablished years ago that our understanding of the material world is not, and cannot be, more than the classes of our consciousness, and that includes our understanding of our brains. Naive materialism is just another religion, and every bit as open to delusional defense mechanisms as Christianity.
It's one thing to "know" how consciousness emerges, and another to suggest non-physical cause. Lots of evidence it is physical, no evidence otherwise.
If Christians are complaining about being picked on, they need to wake up and think about someone other than themselves for a change. Look at all the gays they hypocritically pick on. Look at all the pro-choice supporters they call "murderers" although no crime is committed.
It's about time some of them actually started following the Golden Rule. The Bible says it's "what the law and prophets are all about", but you'd never guess that from reading many of the so-called "Christians" who comment on here.
not all christians are agianst those things. and not all people who are against those thigns are christians.
quit complaining
shut up,
I didn't say they were. Read before commenting next time.
Observer Its funny,you don't believe in God or religion yet you can tell believers how they should behave and what they do wrong.You believe the tennets of their beliefs but you do not believe in the very God who established those rules.It seems funny to me that you would preach to people about things that you don't believe in.
It isn't preaching to point out that you defy your notion of God whenver you fucking well feel like it, faith.
shut up you little pervert
Actually, human morality was established long before the bible. Indeed, many of the same laws christians claim as their own actually came from the Egyptians. Certain concepts, like the "golden rule" are required for human societies and cultures to succeed, and successful human societies and cultures predate the entire judeo-christian system by thousands of years.
Amazes me how blind I was when I believed and how blind these followers are.
required huh? b4 or after your hero cooked 6 million? fool
Whine whine whine...if you don't want christians looking bad than stop contributing to it or go to a blog that shares your special brand of crazy-FAUX news is a great place for you..
Socies are great at makin' refugees.
oh please give you finger a break from typing...you and hharri are both nutzoids!
Oh? Are you feeling persecuted? Sucks to be you.
Ridiculous claims merit ridicule. And there are many ridiculous claims made by proselytizing religious people. You made your bed so you have to sleep in it.
Keep yer defiled beds in the closet.
What a whiney wuss you are. Christians are 75% of the US population. That is a vast majority. And yet you find it necessary to complain about a CNN blog? Shameful.
What a whiney wuss sinner you are, claimin' yer clean.
I know you are but what am I? That is your response?
Careful boston, he might send his imaginary friend after you ;-).
truthp1,
That's the beauty of the imaginary friend, it hasn't bothered to engage in thousands of years. Since there is no afterlife, there's nothing left. It's hard to even say these things, they are so preposterous.
Apparently Matthew 7 is not an important passage to Christians. Of all the comments from Christians on this blog, the prevelence of judgments is astounding. Read the comment below from a Colin. Now, belief in Jesus makes a person qualified to judge the validity of particular scientific studies.
Colin,
Is there any limit to your hubris?
Please don't reply that atheists are more judgmental, arrogant, etc., we haven't sworn to live by your book, you have.
Colin
Sadly what passes for science in this modern world has been hijacked by persons unable to discern Truth.Science given as a gift of revelation and discovery by a benevolent creator is currently being abused and misdirected by unfounded theories and peopled by immoral frauds. Case in point is bostons post. Science is on the wrong road.
Faith in God does not excuse a person who is negligent and wreckless when it comes to making life and death decisions on behalf of another.
God expects the caretaker to exercise due diligence and responsibility in providing the best possible care which includes having faith that God that providing the right medical care will heal the sick in your care.
Even with excellent faith, that still does not render any better results than not believing in any god. Atheists hope for the best, like everyone else, but at least we know that this does not actually make things happen in our favor.
In Albany, Oregon, a couple was recently accused of second-degree manslaughter after their 12-year-old daughter died from easily treatable diabetic complications. The family belongs to a church that believes in faith healing. The mother of the dead girl is the daughter of a man who was convicted of negligent homicide after his 7-year-old son died of treatable leukemia. I guess killing children runs in the family.
http://www.koin.com/2013/08/30/parents-get-separate-court-appointed-lawyers/
Just another case of god failing to do what human doctors can do routinely.
Must've been "God's will"...a convenience in the painful light of cognitive disonance
When the son of SAM was an atheist, he shot to death a number of innocent people.
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXIWj7J6vEY&w=640&h=360]
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJ9oBCLwwL0&w=640&h=360]
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRG1ObQJLK4&w=640&h=360]
i know it sound cruel but hay I'm a demon maybe you should let nature take its course and purge these idiots from our world,..i hope the kids die that will learn them,.. and help reduce the population.
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ckvZ9yqOeE&w=640&h=360]