God's Tranquilizer
There is going the rounds of church bulletins a cartoon which depicts a man and a woman facing a rather large capsule in which is found a Bible, accompanied by a caption which reads, "God's Tranquilizer." The gist of the drawing is obvious: The Bible is a sufficient tranquilizer for anyone, and, furthermore, anyone who needs medicinal depressants must not be living quite right or does not read the Bible as much as he should. The artist who drew the cartoon and the preachers who reprint it should be very much ashamed of themselves and quite possibly JAILED FOR PRACTICING MEDICINE WITHOUT A LICENSE. We realize the foregoing is a strong statement but read on.
We are very quick to point out that the Holiness sects make merchandise of honest souls who believe in modern day "faith healing," and rightly so we might add. But, truthfully, is a gospel preacher any better who teaches the same doctrine through the use of cartoons as that above? Of course not!
They are all charlatans and frauds and should be recognized as such. "But," some will protest, "the use of tranquilizers is unnecessary and demonstrates a lack of faith in God's word." Who said so? Certainly no medical man.
Anxiety problems, hypertension, and other related emotional problems requiring depressants as a form of treatment are often caused by factors wholly unrelated to the word of God. According to a report jointly presented by the Cardiac Research Laboratory, the Medical Clinic of the Massachusetts General Hospital, and the Department of Medicine, Harvard Medical School we learn that it is "impossible to differentiate (between) muscular exhaustion of the heart, nervous exhaustion, irritable heart, neurasthenia with abortive and larval anxious-state, anxiety neurosis, etc., etc." Would any presume to say that one suffers from a lack of Bible study if he is confronted with muscular exhaustion of the heart simply because it requires similar treatment to anxiety neurosis?
Among the symptoms of anxiety neurosis, neurasthenia, and the effort syndromes are the following: Fear of death, apprehensiveness, unhappiness, insomnia, trembling, and nervousness. The uninitiated might conclude from this that the problems are purely spiritual and should be solved by prayer and attendance to the reading of the scriptures. Such might be true except for the fact that the following symptoms may appear also: palpitation of the heart, chest pain, headache, weakness, sweating, urinary frequency, blindness, paralysis, vomiting and diarrhea. The problems are not purely spiritual but are physical as well.
As to what gives rise to the above problems the doctors are not altogether sure. Some cases are hereditary in nature (page 837 of the report), some are brought on by fatigue, some by unusual stress or emotional upset, some by pregnancy, and some no doubt do spring from spiritual difficulties. The vast majority, however, have little or nothing to do with how much one reads the Bible.
No doubt many people who are now taking prescribed tranquilizers of one sort or another may well be led to believe that their spiritual house is not in order and that they are therefore even more sinful than they thought they were. To further complicate things the cartoon may provoke them to discard their medicine out of a guilt feeling which will eventually lead to even greater problems. Others who may need the services of a physician could well conclude that their problems are purely spiritual in origin and pass up the help that could lead to a full and useful life.
In conclusion, let us understand that preachers are not medical men and that they should not invade that realm. Too many preachers seem to have an over-inflated sense of their own worth and presume themselves to be experts on nearly every matter. Too, let us refrain from criticizing Oral Roberts if we are going to commit the same sins. And, finally, if a person needs to see a psychiatrist by all means send him to a qualified one. Do not even for a moment attempt to treat his disease with that which was not intended by God to be a "cure-all," or make him feel guilt-ridden because he might need psychiatric care.
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