"
Faith healing", on the other hand, is an alleged 'charism' that I find truly reprehensible if performed on its own (without recourse to qualified health professionals first and as a side-thing alongside this) and deem to be a thoroughly psychologically abusive activity; whether it is performed out of sincere motives or those of a distinctly more unsavoury nature (i.e fraudulence and exploitation of the vulnerable by charlatans).
Even if one holds to a theology which hypothesises that God could, in
extraordinary circumstances - and I emphasise the word
extraordinary - intervene to potentially work a 'miracle' outside of the normal physical laws He has established at creation (according to which the universe operates), such hopes should
never be the primary or (god forbid) exclusive refuge of the sick and suffering, to the exclusion of scientifically proven cures or remedial methods.
The 'laying on of hands' or 'anointing with oil', as in the sacrament of Extreme Unction, is primarily (according to my church at least) about "
preventing the believer from losing Christian hope in God's justice, truth and salvation" and thus "
the principal effect of extreme unction is to give, with sanctifying grace or its increase, the right to certain actual graces for strengthening and comforting and alleviating the sick person". In other words, providing the chronically or terminally ill with the comforting assurance of God's divine providence, love for them and forgiveness of their sins. Only secondarily, as something extraordinary, "
a conditional and occasional effect of extreme unction, comes the restoration of bodily health" which is not, however, to be sought or relied upon as something that will ever actually flow from the sacrament.
Faith healing as a secondary practice to give comfort to sick people already receiving actual standard medical treatment, I'm fine with.
By contrast, in the initial decades of the movement, it is said that Pentecostals/Charismatics thought it was sinful to take medicine or receive therapeutic care from health professionals. This is deeply irresponsible and dangerous IMHO. I've even read some real horror stories about a minority sect of Pentecostals telling HIV patients not to receive AIDS-drugs!
In scripture (well, in the Catholic and Orthodox Old Testaments to be precise, so more applicable to Catholic Charismatics) we find the
Wisdom of Ben Sira affirming the pre-eminent importance of seeking trusted medical treatments:
Sirach 38
"Honor physicians for their services,
for the Lord created them;
2 for their gift of healing comes from the Most High,
and they are rewarded by the king.
3 The skill of physicians makes them distinguished,
and in the presence of the great they are admired.
4 The Lord created medicines out of the earth,
and the sensible will not despise them.
...
6 And he gave skill to human beings
....
7 By them the physician heals and takes away pain;
8 the pharmacist makes a mixture from them.
....
12 Then give the physician his place, for the Lord created him;
do not let him leave you, for you need him.
13 There may come a time when recovery lies in the hands of physicians,
14 for they too pray to the Lord
that he grant them success in diagnosis
and in healing, for the sake of preserving life.
15 He who sins against his Maker,
will be defiant toward the physician"
During the Roman Plagues from 249 - 262 A.D. and in the fourth century, the early Christians did not win the renown of their neighbours by placing their hands upon those who were afflicted by the disease and saying, "
be healed in the name of Jesus" as their baseline approach to healthcare. No, they received acclaim for selflessly administering to the bodily needs of the countless unfortunates stricken down by the illness (regardless of religious confession), As St. Cyprian of Carthage noted at the time:
The Plague of Cyprian, c. 252 – The Ancient and Medieval World
The pain in the eyes, the attack of the fevers, and the ailment of all the limbs are the same among us and among the others, so long as we share the common flesh of this age....
How suitable, how necessary it is that this plague and pestilence, which seems horrible and deadly, searches out the justice of each and every one and examines the mind of the human race; whether the [healthy] care for the sick, whether relatives dutifully love kinsmen as they should . . . whether physicians do not desert the afflicted.
It was actually Cyprian, in his homilies, who provided the most accurate and detailed clinical description of ancient plague:
Solving the Mystery of an Ancient Roman Plague
The Plague of Cyprian, named after the man who by AD 248 found himself Bishop of Carthage, struck in a period of history when basic facts are sometimes known barely or not at all. The lack of a medical witness like Galen is partly compensated by the vivid account of the disease in Cyprian’s sermon on the mortality. The preacher sought to console an audience encircled by unfathomable suffering.
Cyprian’s account is central to our understanding of the disease. The pathology included fatigue, bloody stool, fever, esophageal lesions, vomiting, conjunctival hemorrhaging, and severe infection in the extremities; debilitation, loss of hearing, and blindness followed in the aftermath.
So, as I say, this dimension of Charismatic Christianity - faith healing - gives me serious cause for concern (to put it mildly) but the 'glossolalia' and more 'ecstatic' dimensions do not, generally speaking. (I even see some potential mental and spiritual benefit in them for the worshippers.)