Heidi_Hatch's Blog

WHO'S IN CHARGE?  DOES GOD SAVE LIVES?  OR--DO DOCTORS SAVE LIVES?  MAYBE IT'S DO DOCTORS SAVING LIVES AS AN ANSWER TO YOUR PRAYERS?

When it comes to saving lives, God trumps doctors for many Americans.

An eye-opening survey reveals widespread belief that divine intervention can revive dying patients. And, researchers said, doctors "need to be prepared to deal with families who are waiting for a miracle."

More than half of randomly surveyed adults -- 57 percent -- said God's intervention could save a family member even if physicians declared treatment would be futile. And nearly three-quarters said patients have a right to demand such treatment.

When asked to imagine their own relatives being gravely ill or injured, nearly 20 percent of doctors and other medical workers said God could reverse a hopeless outcome.

"Sensitivity to this belief will promote development of a trusting relationship" with patients and their families, according to researchers. That trust, they said, is needed to help doctors explain objective, overwhelming scientific evidence showing that continued treatment would be worthless.

Pat Loder, a Milford, Mich., woman whose two young children were killed in a 1991 car crash, said she clung to a belief that God would intervene when things looked hopeless.

"When you're a parent and you're standing over the body of your child who you think is dying ... you have to have that" belief, Loder said.

While doctors should be prepared to deal with those beliefs, they also shouldn't "sugarcoat" the truth about a patient's condition, Loder said.

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WHAT ABOUT YOU....?

This is a tough one.  It got me thinking.  My church asks the members not to gamble their money.  But they also suggest that you pay a tithe on all earnings.  So- lets say I won the lottery... would they want the million I had to offer?  I'd guess yes.  But I don't know.  What do you think about this local story?

    

ORANGE PARK, FL -- After Robert Powell hit the Florida Lottery jackpot last month and took home more than $6 million, he thought of his church. And he offered to drop his tithe, around $600,000, in the collection plate of First Baptist Orange Park. But the church and Pastor David Tarkington politely declined and told Powell they will not accept the lottery winnings. Many churches do not approve of the lottery and gambling but on the other hand Pastor Dr. Lorenzo Hall of the El-Beth-El Divine Holiness Church says $600,000 can do a lot of good. "I'm against the lottery, but if one of my members won the lottery, I wish and I hope he would give 10% to the church, we could do a lot of things with that money," says Hall. As a Holiness minister, Dr. Hall says he does not ask where members get the money they decide to donate. He said he would welcome Powell's donation to his inner city church anytime. "We are in the process now of building a youth center, and you would be surprised at the people that can be helped with $600,000," says Hall. Bethel Baptist Church member Lottie Walker says if she won, the first thing she would do is give lottery money to her church. "Anything extra is bonus so that would be an extra blessing of offering after that, so if I did win lotto, sweepstakes I would tithe to my church," says Walker. First Baptist Orange Park Pastor David Tarkington would not say exactly why the church refused the money, saying only he didn't want to talk about members' gifts.

IS THE ROAD TO HEAVEN A ONE WAY HIGHWAY?

America remains a nation of believers, but a new survey finds most Americans don't feel their religion is the only way to eternal life — even if their faith tradition teaches otherwise.

The findings, revealed Monday in a survey of 35,000 adults, can either be taken as a positive sign of growing religious tolerance, or disturbing evidence that Americans dismiss or don't know fundamental teachings of their own faiths.

Among the more startling numbers in the survey, conducted last year by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life: 57 percent of evangelical church attenders said they believe many religions can lead to eternal life, in conflict with traditional evangelical teaching.

In all, 70 percent of Americans with a religious affiliation shared that view, and 68 percent said there is more than one true way to interpret the teachings of their own religion.

     

IS THIS A GENERATIONAL CHANGE?  ARE WE MORE ACCEPTING OR ARE WE GETTING LAZY IN OUR RELIGION? I USED TO SEE THE WORLD AS A LOT MORE BLACK AND WHITE THAN I SEE IT NOW.  I BELIEVE THE GREY AREA MIGHT HOLD ALL THE WORLDS ANSWERS.

READ MORE ABOUT THIS NEW STUDY.

 

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The Vatican has banned Tom Hanks and  the makers of a prequel to The Da Vinci Code from filming in its grounds or any church in Rome, describing the work as “an offence against God”.

Angels and Demons, is the second to be shot in Rome.  This one though is a book set entirely in Rome's Churches- whithout them the story might be a bust.

  Archbishop Velasio De Paolis, the head of the Vatican’s Prefecture for Economic Affairs, said that Brown had “turned the gospels upside down to poison the faith”.

“It would be unacceptable to transform churches into film sets so that his blasphemous novels can be made into films in the name of business,” he said, adding that Brown’s work “wounds common religious feelings”.

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So after all that --- I have to ask.

Did you read Dan Brown's books Angel's and Demon's and the Da Vinci code?

I'll admit right now that I loved them.  Great writing - great suspense.  I do recognize that the material could be offensive.  Religion is not something to be made light of - or fun of.  I can see where the Vatican is coming from.

So I ask ... is it offensive to You?  Are you happy the Vatican gave film makers the boot... or is this just a work of fiction and they're making too much of it?

P.S. Dan Brown is working on another book set right here in the good old USA.  It's going to explore the signs and symbols of our government and the Free Masons.  It is supposedly called "The Solomon Key" Can't wait!

 

THIS ARTICLE AND POLL COMES FROM THE LANCASHIRE EVENING POST.

 

Most people think God is a man

A majority of people think God is male with nearly half of the population in Britain believing that all religions discriminate on grounds of gender. Only 1% of people think of God as female, with 62% considering God to be male, the online survey conducted earlier this month of 1,050 adults in Britain found.

The survey showed around three quarters, or 73%, of those who classified themselves as Christian considered God as male.

Just under a half, or 49%, of people think all religions "fundamentally discriminate on grounds of gender'' and 56% think all religions discriminate on grounds of sexual orientation, according to the poll findings.

But when asked whether religion has "no place'' in modern life only 29% agreed while 62% disagreed.

The poll was commissioned by the Movement for Reform Judaism in Britain to coincide with its launch of its new daily and Sabbath prayer book, or Siddur.

The prayer book removes male descriptions of God such as King, Father and Lord, in favour of "gender neutral'' expressions such as Eternal One and living God.

It includes mentions of prominent women from the Old Testament for the first time in prayers such as the Amidah, the central prayer of the Jewish liturgy.

It also provides prayers for 21st century problems such as environmental and natural disasters and prayers for depression, miscarriage and the death of a child. How do you describe God?