Prayer Against Measles is About As Effective As Prayer For Rain
Y’all remember when Rick Perry’s solution to the drought was to pray for rain?
Well, the same people who came up with that bright idea decided that getting your child the measles vaccine is like an insult to Jesus. You’re supposed to pray that your child doesn’t get measles.
Please meet Dr. Kenneth Copeland and his lovely wife.
Dr. Copeland and his family run Kenneth Copeland Ministries.
He’s far from the most vocal proponent of the discredited theory that the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine causes autism, but, between his advocacy of faith healing and his promotion of the vaccine-autism link on his online talk show, he’s not exactly urging his flock to get their recommended shots.
Well, apparently to make up for the rain never coming, measles did.
The Texas Department of Health has issued a warning. And where is the epicenter of his outbreak? In Tarrant County where The Eagle Mountain International Church, shepherded by Kenneth Copeland’s daughter Terri, stands tall against sin and measles and all manner of other crap.other crap.
Now if you go to their website, they are stepping backward so fast that it’s amazing they aren’t in China by now. For all I know, maybe they are because this internet thing goes a long ways. I suspect they are also lawyering-up pretty quick.
I’m gonna tell you something I know for a fact. Sweet Jesus really hates it when you jack with children. Do not do that. Sweet Jesus has a bit of a temper and had there been people jacking with children at he temple instead of moneychangers, there would have been blood.
I’m just warning you, Kenneth Copeland.
Thanks to everybody for the heads up.
If conservatives believe that prayer is that powerful, why do they need guns that much at home…?
1This can’t be called poetic justice because there is no justice in the deaths of innocent children because some criminally negligent church leader told the parents not to have their kids vaccinated.
See the article below. These are the numbers. Measles among children today is a needless affliction and a terrifying risk to expose them.
http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs286/en/
2What is the difference in these people and these people:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2329305/Faith-healing-parents-charged-MURDER-second-child-died-home-pneumonia-getting-medical-help-probation-death-son.html
Nothing.
3freeportguy: A beeeg AMEN to you brother!
“There are many scapegoats for our sins, but the most popular one is Providence.”
4Mark Twain
Please give me the name of that man’s plastic surgeon — so I can make sure I never go to him or her. The reverend looks like he was carved out of a block of wood, which, considering the way he thinks, is appropriate.
5Durn, I haven’t heard a peep out of the christian scientists in a long time…maybe they have changed their name to seem more errrr, something..
6Can’t believe this guy (Copeland) is around. Did not understand his appeal forty years ago, and am still mystified today. P. T. Barnum was right.
7Uh, can’t believe this guy (Copeland) is “still” around. Sorry!
8Doctor? Hardly.
He’s got a diploma from an unaccredited diploma mill. Turns out several TV preachers have a degree from this place.
http://c3churchwatch.com/tag/dr-kenneth-copeland/
9I have a friend who contracted polio just before the vaccine was discovered. He spent months in an iron lung and was permanently disabled. These vaccination “deniers” make him incredibly angry. He’s a spiritual person who believes God gave mankind the ability to eradicate terrible diseases. For these idiots to ignore that and put children at risk is nothing less than criminal.
10I always invite these sorts of believers to try the experiment my grandfather recommended. Pray in one hand and defecate in the other see which one gets full first.Works on wishing(of which praying is a subset) too.
11Why is it we were endowed with intelligence, the ability to read, write, invent stuff? If God didn’t want us to have medical knowledge or solutions for debilitating diseases, why did He/She give mankind the ability to make such discoveries? Doesn’t make much sense to me that you can prevent something you wouldn’t. Big sigh!
12Grifters such as Dr. Copeland are dangerous, not because of the BS they espouse, but because some people believe the quackery. Unfortunately, the children of the believers have no say in the matter.
13There is something contagious in the religious right and it is called gross stoopidity. They need to dispense with the bonded Kentucky drain cleaner,tie themselves to ant hills and let the real experts pick their brains ( out of their nose holes.)
14Agree with TTPT and Bernard.
To go further, God gave us marijuana, which it appears can help with cancer, glaucoma, and alzheimers. Legalize this natural plant, for crying out loud. I really don’t care if some would ingest it for fun. I want it there for medical reasons – AND to save money from the failed War on Drugs.
15I’m pretty sure Copeland has kept his shots up because he makes frequent visits to exotic destinations in the church Lear jet. Several years ago the family stopped for a week in Hawaii on their way to a conference in Australia; on the way back Copeland and his son went off to murder exotic animals at a canned-hunt game ranch.
16@TTPT, my father has always held that not using the brain you were given is an advanced case of burying your talents in the ground…
How could God be against the measles vac? For that matter, how in the h-e-hockeysticks can He be held to be against universal health (helllooooo USCCB, that last question was really addressed to YOU you gutless bunch if skirt-wringing MORONS)!!
17I used to know folks whose only form of birth control was praying about whether or not she should get pregnant, you know…. They had six kids. Nice folks, though.
18Those smiles on those folks are the scariest smiles I recall ever seeing on a couple holding hands. I’m hoping they don’t come down out of the computer and get me.
19There was no measles vaccine when I was a kid and, of course, I contracted it. It developed into pneumonia and I spent three weeks in Beaumont Army Hospital at Ft. Bliss when I was three years old, just after my Dad had shipped out for Korea. I don’t remember being sick, but I sure do remember being in that hospital.
There was no chicken pox vaccine back then, either, and I contracted a case of it from a kid I was babysitting. My poor Aunt developed one of the most debilitating cases of Shingles–just before the Shingles vaccine became available. My birthday present to myself when I turned 60 was a Shingles vaccination. I consider that money well spent.
Anybody who doesn’t vaccinate their kids–for whatever reason–needs to have their heads examined. Before suffering more severe punishment, that is.
20Given the birth defects that can be caused when a pregnant woman gets rubella, these folks could also be accused of waging war on the unborn. (Just because their overly pious congregation would be so completely horrified if it was phrased that way instead of as an offense against born children.)
21Supposedly there are no atheists in foxholes, but there sure seem to be a lot of religious righters in disease vectors.
22” The money saved by not having them satanic shots should be given as a Love Offering to The Lord ” said the preacher as the address of the ministry crawls across the screen and the plate is passed again. You got to love that prime time religion…… I was taught that prayer worked best went believers took it upon themselves to act as the Lord’s Hands in correcting injustice.
23Good Lord! What idiots.
Years ago we had one foster baby slated for adoption. His pregnant Mom encountered rubella and he was born deaf and almost totally blind from cataracts. She was a beautiful and sweet college student that couldn’t let him go, so he’s had a functional life when she kept him instead.
What would possess these so-called christians to declare war on the unborn or any child?
24Just to clarify, about that foster baby. He was the only one that the state of AZ allowed Mom to stay in contact, per request of both his Mom & my Mom.
But to my point, the measles shot has major consequences! This is so freakingly ignorant!
25Boyoboy! These creepoids are hiding something — such as their own fabulous health care package. Ten to one when they were pups they were vaccinated with the stuff that was prevelant at the time but they either will never admit it or will put on that damn fake face and swear they are sorry for the sins of their parents! It is way more than time that slime like this is also lined up against the wall of justice along with the parents and held totally accountable for the death of their born child. Just for the heck of it, I am going to crack open my old DSM and see if there is actually a classification for parents who would actually let their own child suffer and die and then hide behind religion when the hammer comes down on them. Ain’t saints and ain’t martyrs. They just never wanted the kid in the first place.
26On a related front, there is a post making the rounds on social media which claims that a court has “vindicated” Dr. Wakefield. Wakefield, as you may recall, is the English physician who ginned up a fake study which became the basis for the zombie lie that “vaccines cause autism”. Since the paper was determined to be fraudulent, the medical journal which had published it declared it withdrawn and Wakefield unmasked as a fraud who had fabricated data for personal financial gain.
Now a “vaccine court” has “vindicated” Wakefield we are told (mostly by himself). It is a bit of a stretch to call payments from a “vaccine compensation program” a court decision and even more of a stretch to suggest that courts determine scientific facts. Many more details can be found here: http://sciblogs.co.nz/diplomaticimmunity/2013/08/07/wakefield-has-not-been-vindicated-and-the-courts-do-not-think-mmr-causes-autism/
27If prayer grants all things, why do they keep asking for money?
28Just askin’…..
Never trust a preacher who makes more money than Jesus made for doing the same job. And remember, Jesus raised the dead and turned water into wine and got nothing in return but praise and gratitude.
That sets the bar pretty high for that top pay grade. By that standard, for the Copelands to make as much money as they do, they would have to put the funeral homes and vineyards out of business!
And to add to Don A, Wakefield falsified data because he was paid by personal injury trial lawyers to create evidence for their case, and because he owned a patent on a competing vaccine. You can’t be vindicated from such mendacity. So he moved to Austin TX. where mendacity is an Olympic sport.
29Just a personal note about vaccines…there are three parts to the reasoning for getting them. The two most obvious are to protect the vaccinated person from illness and to protect people who cannot be vaccinated (ex. pertussis – whooping cough – for infants, people who are immune compromised, etc.).
I am in a little known third group, people who cannot become immune to a particular illness so the vaccine for it is of no help. In my case that’s rubella. Despite having the full MMR series twice, I’ve had the disease three times and my bloodwork still shows no antibodies for it. My grandmother is the same way, she had it four times. The only thing that protected me during pregnancy was that other people got vaccinated.
No amount of prayer would have fixed what could have gone wrong with my children if I had been exposed, so thank you everyone who did the smart thing and the right thing.
30I had all the childhood diseases since I am old enough to be around Before the vaccines were discovered.
These so called preachers have it figured out. They are preacher, politician, gun lobbyist, Ob/Gyn’s family MD’s, money changers(prosperity gospel) and god knows what else.
They are also home school, black/white, family relations experts. Also geologists and global warming scientists.
And I used a small capital because I’m sure my God does not like being represented by these charlatans.
Since when did attending divinity school(or buying your degree off the internet) qualify for your being an expert on anything other then God/religion issues?
31Why are these sheeple giving these men and some women all this power?
Nobody can be an expert on all these issues. That is why we have specialties and people attending school to get degrees.
Heck, I forgot superintendents of schools! No wonder they want to get rid of the public school system. They want people dumb and compliant so they can fleece them in the name of God.
Now, I will have my 1st cup of coffee. Amen.
@Diane, complete agreement here-these “preachers” are very slick operators and they prey upon the fearful and the undereducated, much like the moneychangers! Of course, the more undereducated you are, the more fearful you are likely to be also. I think my husband’s favorite phrase/verse out of the bible is “Not everyone who says ‘Lord, lord’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven!” He abstains from religion, loathes hypocrisy, and like me, kinda hopes there really is a Someone that can punish these evil people, since our society seems bent on rewarding them. Large heavy sigh, and now I’ll go off to look for that Someone! 😉
32If praying away a disease really worked, then why did half the population of Europe die during the plague years
33For your average garden-variety teevee preacher it’s all about the (Holy) Cash Cow. And of course, it goes without saying, their egos. These FauxDr religious types get their FauxDegrees from FauxReligiousSchools because they want the prestige of being called Dr without all the hard work it takes to study and learn. My goodness, going to a real school of theology and learning to use the historical-critical method of Bible study! Oh, but we can’t have anyone being critical of the Bible now can we? I mean, its God’s Dictated-right-to-King-James Holy Word after all. The FauxDr Kenneth Copelands of the world are prEyers, not prAyers.
I’ve hesitated to link this: http://www.alternet.org/story/155798/major_threat_to_religion_clergy_people_coming_out_as_atheists but I think this is something y’all can handle.
34Prayer worked so well against the Black Plague…
35Is it ok to ask god to “smite” them? (too “Old Testament” – sorry)
36What’s the difference between them and the radical Islamists that won’t allow polio vaccinations?
I bet Copeland had HIS kids vaccinated. He only plays with other people’s & kids’ lives.
37Stories like this tend to confirm my belief that the very best training ground for con artists and grifters of any sort is a seminary school, preferably a Southern Baptist or evangelical seminary school.
38Here’s hoping that any individuals infected by measles will have the basis for a heckuva civil suit against the hucksters.
39Sundays always do this to me. I take a nap and wake up with yet another thought. Why are these so-called religious people scapegoating Jesus? Think about it. They are using the Nazarene like a rented mule. What a pair of classy (NOT) people.
40Copeland’s daughter, who is a “pastor” in her own right, backpeddled right into a free measles vaccination clinic at her “church”.
41If only they could be sued for fraud, like say, Trump, for his Trump University scam.
Yeow, Maryelle! Ole’ Trump was back pedaling and contradicting himself like crazy today. Even claiming he and his “school” were misunderstood! You just can’t trust that guy or anything coming out of his mouth! Glad Ivanna took him to the cleaners! He needed it!
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