Review of Paul Offit’s book Bad Faith, When Religious Belief Undermines Modern Medicine, Published 2015 by Basic Books, Perseus Books Group
Paul Offit, MD, is the Director the Vaccine Education Center at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia as well as the Maurice R. Hilleman Professor of Vaccinology and a Professor of Pediatrics at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Offit has written 8 books relating to science and health. Today I am reviewing his latest book Bad Faith, When Religious Belief Undermines Modern Medicine. I also recently read his earlier book, Deadly Choices, How the Anti-Vaccine Movement Threatens Us All, published by Basic Books in 2011. That book is devoted to debunking the myths, and providing a history of the anti-vaccine movement. It is a must read, and great followup to Susanne’s talk.
In Dr. Offit’s latest book, he states in the introduction that he does not count himself as anti-religious, but he is unabashedly pro-science. He states that to be “truly religious” is to be “humane” and to do acts of love and kindness and see ourselves as part of a larger community (loc 120). He even goes so far as to say that the hero of the book is “religion.” I’m not quite sure why he goes so far to assure the reader that he is not anti-religious, or to trumpet religion as the “hero”. Although Offit devotes a chapter to his interpretation of Jesus’ new and better approach to illness and healing, he also states in his final chapter that religion must serve humanity, “not the other way around.”
Dr. Offit begins the book with the story of a woman, Rita Swan, whose 15 month old son died from bacterial meningitis as the result of her Christian Science beliefs. Her son, Matthew, had contracted meningitis, but Rita was determined that trust in god would end the disease. Others in the Christian Science movement had glowing testimonials about how their faith had cured their child’s meningitis. For 13 days she watched her child deteriorate from having trouble walking, to laying listlessly, to having seizures until he finally died of this treatable disease.
Dr. Offit provides the reader with the modern history of this “bad faith” reasoning covering in depth the wins and losses of those who care about children’s welfare, including the politics of this issue from the late 1800s when Christian Science was founded until 2014.
Do you know that there are tens of thousands of Americans who belong to 20 different faith healing sects which he counts as “cults” using the definition for cult that Robert Jay Lifton set in 1961 in his book Thought Reform and the Pathology of Totalism. He uses Lifton’s definition to help explain how good and decent people could be duped into belief systems which trump not only reason, but the health and wellbeing of their children (p 28-32).
Offit cites the work by Stanley Millgram published in 1963 showing how “good people” can justify doing bad things like shocking patients under the justification that they were following the procedures (orders) of an authoritarian role model. He also references Hannah Arendt’s book Eichmann in Jerusalem to show how Eichmann’s trial revealed not “a sadistic, brutal, twisted man” but rather “a mild mannered bureaucrat” (p40). He then tells the story of Larry Parker who was a member of First Assembly of God church who threw away his son’s supply of insulin because he was convinced that the power of god could heal his son. Parker later wrote a book (1980) which was made into a film We Let Our Son Die. The book is available at Amazon.
Did you know that the landmark legislation in 1972 titled the “Child Abuse Protection and Treatment Act” (CAPTA) which set up national policies aimed at eliminating child abuse and neglect had a poison pill amendment inserted into it? Do you remember H.R. Haldeman and John Erlichman of the Nixon White House? They were able to insert into this bill this text: “No parent or guardian who in good faith is providing a child treatment solely by spiritual means— such as prayer— according to the tenets and practices of a recognized church through a duly accredited practitioner shall for that reason alone be considered to have neglected the child.” Only Christian Science refers to their prayers as “treatments” and only Christian Science “accredits” its healers. Guess what religion Haldeman and Erlichman followed? Offit shows how this one part of the CAPTA legislation wreaked havoc on efforts to enforce the bill’s provisions.
In Offit’s last chapter titled “Standing Up”, Offit returns to Rita Swan. She founded “Children’s Healthcare Is a Legal Duty” (CHILD) which Offit says is one of the most successful child advocacy organizations in the US. As a result of her work in 2011 Oregon passed a law which removed religious exemptions for civil and criminal behavior. Since then there has not been the death of a single child at the Follower’s of Christ Church. Its graveyard had contained the bodies of 79 children; over 50% of those children were under a year old and all had apparently died of preventable disease. That discovery helped her win this battle in Oregon. Offit uses this story to stress that people of faith can and will follow the law.
Offit’s books gives us many heart wrenching stories, as well as talking points in convincing family, friends as well as legislators to support our efforts to reform laws which threaten the health of children, as well as those those whose lives depend upon herd immunity such Todd Stiefel. I hope you will read both of his books and join the Secular Coalition of America in fighting for all children as well as for our secular and humanist values! Obviously we have much work to do in North Carolina!
