Dentists, doctors skeptical about claims of healing
Sunday, October 14, 2001, updated
at 1:12PM
Don't believe in the type of faith
healing that Willard Fuller claims to perform?
Two Tallahassee dentists and a doctor
at Duke University found it hard to swallow, too.
"Are you serious?" was dentist Richard
Chichetti's initial reaction.
Unless Fuller can scientifically
prove his claims, said Chichetti, past president of the Florida Dental
Association and former board member of the Florida Board of Dentistry,
"It's just nonsense."
"Wow!" was dentist Russ Rainey's
astonished response.
"I do believe that anything is possible
with God's help," added Rainey, a devout Christian and president of the
Leon County Dental Association. "But I have never seen, nor would I have
much stock in, what he is claiming."
Although he doesn't think he was
healed by attending the armory service, Unity Church in Christ Co-Pastor
Bill Worth says his faith has played a tremendous role in keeping him active
and healthy. About 12 years ago he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis,
something he said few people are aware of.
"Clearly, I am not an invalid," said
Worth, whose church sponsored Fuller's healing service at Tallahassee's
National Guard Armory last month. "I get tired occasionally, but I believe
that what I believe has a lot to do with what my body manifests.
"Not every healing is a medical healing,"
he added. "I think medicine is beginning to understand that."
Harold Koenig, a medical doctor and
author of "The Healing Power of Faith," agreed that not all healings have
a medical basis.
After stating that "I am highly skeptical"
of Fuller's claims, Koenig went on to say that healings have been documented
in people who credit their faith with regaining their health.
"There are cases where people have
been in a healing and, over time, have gotten better," said Koenig, a professor
at Duke University. "There are cert ainly cases like that, although doctors
would explain it differently."
Medical doctors might say the spontaneous
remission of a disease - such as the lupus healing that a woman claimed
to have received at last month's event - happened for reasons unconnected
to a person's faith, he said.
Lupus, for instance, "is characterized
by exacerbations and remissions," he said. In order to truly assess whether
the woman's disease had been cured, he said, a doctor would need to review
her medical history from at least six months before she attended the faith
healing to at least six months afterward.
Given that caveat, he said, attending
such a healing "could stabilize her immune system and that could in turn
help the disease become less active."
"The power of belief, the power of
faith, can have an enormous impact on the body," he said. "I would not
minimize the effects that that can have on the body. It's important to
realize that, yes, some people may experience healings through these ceremonies."
If you go to a healing meeting, said
Koenig, go without expecting to be healed. God may not physically heal
you if that's not part of his plan for you.
"Defer to God's judgment," he said.
"Don't insist that your physical healing is the only thing you're going
to get out of it. There may be a broader healing that could take place,"
such as an emotional or spiritual healing, a mending of relationships with
family, friends, community - or even God.
"And sometimes, he added, "If you
have an emotional and spiritual healing, that may lead to a physical healing
over time."
Rainey volunteered to come to one
of Fuller's next healings and examine people both before and after to verify
whether any actual changes had taken place. That's fine with Fuller.
And Koenig?
Laughing - but definitely not joking
- he said: "Now, if something does happen with that, and you get actual
proof, you will call me, right?"
By Kathleen Laufenberg
DEMOCRAT STAFF WRITER