My First Trip To The Dentist:
In the fifth grade I fell at school and broke my two front teeth. About half of them were missing which meant a trip to the Dentist. Of course, my dad contacted the pastor for approval. The Pastor recommend Dr. Pitman, a retired military dentist. Also, he was used to working with church members and would do dental work without gas or anesthesia.
Dr. Pitman said, I needed two root canals done then caps put on. Dad, insisted on no gas or anesthesia being used. The following week we went to the Dentist for the work to start. I was placed in a restrainer similar to the one in the photo. I was picked up and laid in the chair. A strap was place around my head and a device was inserted into my mouth to keep it open. Then the fun started.
I don't remember too much just a hot feeling in my head, black spots, and then the lights went out. I woke up a few minutes later I was out of my restrainer sitting in the chair. I had puked all over myself and the floor. My whole head was throbbing in pain.
The Dentist refused to do anymore work without anesthesia. Dad relented, I got my first shot of Beelzebub juice. Boy, it felt good. On our way back home dad told me not to tell anyone about the anesthesia. The reason on the "no gas" was it put people in an unnatural sleep. This would make them prone to demons.
Mogen David
Mogen - I am so sorry that you had to go through these experiences. Never be ashamed of them because what you went through was not your fault.
ReplyDeleteI had heard of people refusing anesthesia at the dentist. It was about 10 years before we went to the dentist after we joined WCG - we just didn't have the money so I didn't have to go through that. Not sure how my parents would have handled it.
THAT brings back a long-forgotten memory. When I was eleven years of age and my family was still a group of WCG newbies, we attended a church picnic in Waco, TX. That evening as the adults were talking religion, I got bored and, being full of restless energy, went out doing reckless things which led to a serious forehead cut requiring a trip to the nearest ER. The local doctor prepped me for sutures and was about to give me a tetanus booster to prevent lockjaw when my Dad stopped him with, "We don't use drugs in our religion". He and the doctor proceeded to engage in what seeemed to me a very long argument as I lay on the table with a grand headache and wondering what was about to happen. Finally, convinced my Dad wasn't going to give up, the doc---who was clearly angry---began to stab at my head as if it were a tough steak right off the grill. That was my initiation into the wonderful world of the church's healing doctrine. It seems so strange now---the pastor prayed with that famous anointed cloth, but I still needed medical attention. Even at that age I didn't understand it. The suturing was considered a repair procedure and so was OK, but the tetanus booster was a drug and therefore disallowed for one who had faith. I guess that made as much sense as the manner in which the church observed the high days.
ReplyDeleteWhat year were each of your experiences?
ReplyDeleteI remember back in the 70's, probably about 1975 my mother had a pituitary tumor, she put up with (physically suffered pain and Acromegaly) a lot of shit from the cult but eventually she decided to get it removed.
David Johnson was the "company man" in Clarksburg WV at the time, he's now a "company man" in COGWA, (the one with the spittle on his lip every time he speaks) he announced to the entire congregation one Sabbath to pray for ***** ******** because she was lacking faith and was going to have a brain tumor removed. Yeah, not too long before ol' sex pervert Herbie supposedly (I believe it) got his penile implant.
I was 11 years old so I don't remember much but that asshole should write to my mother and apologize. Not likely to happen with the clergy class elite mentality.
Kevin McMillen
These are some of the testimonials that become part of our communal survivor’s creed, because no matter how bad any one of us feels we had it, there are always those who suffered through worse examples of Armstrong fanaticism. I knew of diabetic kids who were weaned off of insulin back in the day. Somehow, that never worked out too well for them.
ReplyDeleteIn our family, my Dad was the only one who ever had an extraction without novocaine. The dentist thought he was coo coo for Cocoapuffs, but complied with his strange matter of conscience. The parental units never said anything to us kids about no novocaine. Our family was all vaccinated against small pox, and my oldest younger brother and I had our polio shots before Armstrongism made its dastardly entry into our lives.
Thankfully, the orders never came through to make a pilgrimmage to Jonestown or Waco (Petra).
BB
The "medical paranoia" of the WCG, is one of its most strange cultural phenomena.
ReplyDeleteWhat is interesting to note is that the Seventh Day Adventist Church (versus the WCG), both of which arguably have the same roots and history, are on the "cutting edge" in regards to medical treatment, heart transplants, and an entire health ministry including hospitals, surgeons, and entire medical staffs around the country.
Strange how one group "evolved" into a super zealous medical establishment, while the other turned into an anti medical group, all within 100 years of each other, and with both being Sabbatarian denominations.
Kevin McMillen @3:28 said. . .
ReplyDeleteWhat year were each of your experiences?
1967
While a teenager in the church, living with my father and grandmother, I came down with horrible stomach pains. It was so bad that I thought I was going to die. My father thought so, too, but rather than take me to the er, he was going to let me die. As he was watching me writhe in agony, he started crying. Well, I didn’t die. The pain eventually eased after several days and I recovered. I shake my head at the memory.
ReplyDeleteThe no anesthesia at the dentist must have been congregation specific. The dentists were never off limits for any work, and I never heard of anesthesia being forbidden.
ReplyDeleteMedical treatments were meant to be avoided though, except for "repairs" - broken bones.
TLA, I suppose everyone noticed that Rod Meredith got a demon in him after the "repair" surgery for his eye, and subsequently proceeded with due caution.
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ReplyDeleteGod INVENTED anaesthesia and reproductive surgery, and used them on the first man and to make the first woman:
“But for Adam no suitable helper was found. So the LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man's ribs and closed up the place with flesh. Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man” (Genesis 2:20-22, NIV).
Tonto 3:44
ReplyDeleteI believe both developments hail from the perspective that "God heals/Is a healer". In my opinion that perspective is better than the perspective that puts man at the center of the universe.
The type of countries that I travel through always prioritize me looking up where the local adventist medical establishment is for eventualities.
I had my first (local) aenesthisia for wisdom teeth. All other molars went without since my 100 percent perfect teeth didnt come out naturally. (good stock regarding teeth) But hey that was one or two at the time and nature had pushed them out a little already.
I do recommend good teeth for good health and vice versa.
Nck
There were some tortured explanations for why it was okay for RCM to have eye surgery and not be lacking faith
ReplyDeleteTLA @6:06 PM said. . .
ReplyDeleteThe no anesthesia at the dentist must have been congregation specific. The dentists were never off limits for any work, and I never heard of anesthesia being forbidden.
Medical treatments were meant to be avoided though, except for "repairs" - broken bones.
"...These writings were accepted as God's law by the members and resulted in many cancelling their health insurance policies, refusing to vaccinate their children, and denying themselves novocain when attending dentists. Dental visits were acceptable, but not the use of pain relievers. Even aspirin was shunned by many as the devil's medicine..."
Source: https://www.watchman.org/articles/cults-alternative-religions/armstrongism-obedience-unto-death/
"...All prescription medicine was condemned, as were blood transfusions and any kind of surgery, including even removal of external cancers from the surface of the skin. It was not uncommon to find members who would refuse even an aspirin."
"Herbert Armstrong's first wife, Loma, died of what was said to be a bowel obstruction in 1967. Reports of her situation seem to indicate her plight might well have been alleviated by a simple surgical procedure. Instead, she died a slow, agonizing death at home over an extended period, reportedly without even any pain medication. (Armstrong changed this "doctrinal understanding" in time for his own declining health in the last decade of his life, and was reported to have been using a number of prescription medications, including morphine, toward the end.)..."
Source: https://www.isitso.org/guide/hwahist.html#Life
Note: "All prescription medicine was condemned" Most all anesthesia & pain medicine are prescription based.
Although, dad, did relent allowing me to have the Devil Juice. He warned me not to tell anyone at church. He threw the written prescription pain killer away that the dentist gave him when we left.
nck wrote>
ReplyDeleteThe type of countries that I travel through always prioritize me looking up where the local adventist medical establishment is for eventualities.
Sounds like unintelligent gobbledygook.
7:18
ReplyDeleteHaha. It means: The first thing I do in the many remote corners of the earth I frequent is looking for the sda hospital for just in case.
Nck
Morgen David I'm confused, how are you a third generation cogodder when you were born in 1950s ?
ReplyDelete@2:23pm - obviously, Mogen can answer the question himself but if his grandfather and father were also members, then he would be a third generation. They could all have started attending at the same day.
ReplyDeleteAnon @2:23 PM said. . .
ReplyDeleteMorgen David I'm confused, how are you a third generation cogodder when you were born in 1950s ?
God is not the author of confusion, you know. One of my grandmother's friends gave her a religious tract about the sabbath. It came from the Church of God West 8th Ave. Awhile, later she corresponded with it's pastor, a fella named Herbert W. Armstrong. A few years later, that fella moved to Pasadena, CA and founded the Radio Church of God.
A few years after that she was baptized in the truthy truth. She was the first generation in my family in the cult. A few years later my dad was baptized, making the second generation. Then I was born making the third generation of my family in the truthy truth.
Ironically, it was the truth that killed both of them. The truth took my grandmother in 1965 and my father in 1974. Both refused medical care. Instead, they relied on an anointed hanky and a special diet prepared by a high school dropout. However, I'm comforted with the special knowledge of knowing those who die in faith, will "glow brighter" in the Kingdom.
Makes you want to drink a whole fifth of your namesake wine
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