Physicians and Christian healing

Efforts in the United States over the past seven years to prosecute those who rely on spiritual means for healing have brought forth response from a somewhat unexpected quarter. A number of physicians have spoken out in support of Christian Scientists, deploring their prosecution and supporting their right to practice their religious beliefs. Some physicians have expressed this support privately; others have spoken publicly—for instance, in letters to the press.

The Sentinel has interviewed a few such physicians. Each very generously consented to our reprinting excerpts from these interviews. Perhaps it goes without saying that none of these doctors subscribes to the essential theology of Christian Science or to its wholly spiritual approach to healing. This fact makes their call for greater tolerance all the more remarkable.

Dr. William C. Morgan is a pediatrician in Sarasota, Florida. He speaks from the perspective of his active medical practice.

Dr. Robert L. McCollom practiced medicine in New York and now lives in Florida. Dr. Melvin A. Drake practiced medicine in Idaho and California; he resides in Arizona. The latter two are now retired from full-time practice. They speak from the breadth of their long experience in the medical field.

Could you tell us a little about your professional background?

Dr. Morgan: I went to med school here in Florida, and I did most of my training in North Carolina. Previously I had a degree in chemical engineering, and I did that for five years before going to med school. So I'm a little older and have a little different perspective.

What do you think the relationship should be between the physician and the patient? Or, in the case of children, the parents and the physician?

Dr. Morgan: If it's going to work to its best extent, they need to trust you and you need to care for the patient. Not just care for their medical needs but actually care for them as a person. I think the actual caring sets the stage for the best all-round result for the patient.

My next question has to do with the supportive letter you wrote regarding Christian Scientists in Sarasota. There have been several such letters from physicians. What prompted you to speak out in that direction?

Dr. Morgan: If you take it from a non-Christian standpoint, I just think that those of us who have been in medicine have seen medical failures and prayer healings. And we base most of medicine on experience. Does this work? Does that work? And I think that we do know that we don't have all the answers, and we do know that prayer heals.

And then I think, to take it further, in my case my concern is that we all are brothers in Christ, and my brother, the Christian Science healer, uses a discipline different from mine.

In my own church, St. Boniface Episcopal Church, we have a healing mission, and many wonderful things have happened there. Basically, I try to have compassion for my fellowman, and sickness calls for healing. The form is inconsequential to me as long as there's not deception involved. I'm not too much on snake oil or anything like that, but as long as the healer is sincere, he or she is my colleague. I'm not in a turf battle.

Does any particular instance come to mind where you've witnessed something that, to a physician, seemed fairly clear evidence that prayer was making a difference?

Dr. Morgan: Yes, I've seen a child, for instance, in acute difficulty where I had done most all I could do, and I've seen the mother pray over the child, and I've seen the results—the child's acute suffering stopped. I probably could come up with a dozen instances. My partner has had similar experiences.

I don't know whether you realize, and I'm not even sure all the doctors realize it, but our first charge as physicians isn't to heal anyone, but it's not to hurt anyone. And Sir William Osler, one of the preeminent physicians of all time, tried to drill this into every medical student: Above all do no harm.

I was just reading something by him the other day dealing with patients suffering from tuberculosis. He said something to the effect that the progress of a case depends much more on what's in the patient's head than what's in the lungs.

Dr. Morgan: Well, I think that they're showing this with other diseases as well. I think we physicians sometimes are shortsighted to think that we have all knowledge. And yet, medicine thirty years from now may not even remotely resemble what we're doing today.

Well, I hope we'll all be better healers thirty years from now.

Dr. Morgan: I hope so. I just really feel that you all have as good a crack at the truth as we do, if not better. Just don't despair.

Dr. McCollom, were you in general medicine?

Dr. McCollom: My father was in general practice in New York City. I studied medicine at Columbia University Medical School in New York. When I finished my internship, I was on the staff at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center, and I was also on the teaching staff at Columbia University Medical School. I spent four years in the Air Force during World War II as a flight surgeon.

After the war I got connected with a twenty-five-man medical group on Long Island. We had different specialties. I was in otolaryngology, head and neck surgery. And I also saw a lot of people in general practice. For a year during that period I was ship's doctor on a schooner going around the world. That was very interesting. I visited a lot of hospitals in the South Sea Islands, Australia, New Zealand.

I give you this summary of my career in medicine because I think it has given me some insight into people, how they tick, their religious beliefs, the value of prayer, and how it affects their lives.

How has the practice of medicine evolved during the long period that you've been active in the field?

Dr. McCollom: Well, I've seen some things for the good and some things for the bad. We did a lot of free work in the clinics. Today I think fewer doctors work in free clinics.

And today there's a lot more use of various pills. Many of them have side effects, and people aren't always really aware of the side effects, which are sometimes worse than the cure.

The things that are bad for the younger generation today are the drugs. And now there are so many drug-related deaths, which are very alarming. I've been on the drug and alcohol task force down here in Sarasota for ten years now. There is a very good rehabilitation program in Sarasota. And their main premise is: chemical-free. They don't give them any medicines in there. They keep them off for a year, and the parents are closely related to it.

Could I ask you something about the letter that you wrote to the newspaper, decrying the indictment of a Christian Scientist couple? How did you happen to write the letter?

Dr. McCollom: Well, many of my wife's family are Christian Scientists. So I see it from both angles. I thought the Christian Scientist couple who were prosecuted in our city were done a great injustice. They believe in prayer. Well, as a doctor, I think prayer counts for at least half of the healing process. I know that Scientists give 100 percent to prayer. I don't have any dispute with that; that's their belief. And I think that the attempt in that prosecution was to put down prayer and put down religion, and that's not right. I see things from the medical angle, but I prefer to see the good in each approach to healing, rather than downgrade other methods.

From your own medical practice, have you seen instances where you felt prayer helped in the outcome of a case?

Dr. McCollom: Sure, sure. I am really convinced that prayer does help.

Dr. Drake, what was your background in medicine?

Dr. Drake: I attended medical school in California at Loma Linda University. I practiced general medicine and surgery in Idaho for nineteen years. I then went to Omaha and took a three-year residency in neurology and psychiatry under the auspices of the University of Nebraska. I took employment with the San Joaquin Mental Health Center at Stockton, California. The last fifteen years or so were in psychiatry.

You practiced medicine for quite a long period. Did you see significant changes in the way medicine was practiced?

Dr. Drake: Well, it has become increasingly complex. In some ways there has been improvement, but part of the reason that I left general medicine is that I was disturbed by the excess amount of surgery that was being done and the increased dependence on tests. I felt that they were being overdone. Also, there's an overdependence on medication. And the excesses—it's one of the things that's contributing to the troubling financial status of our nation.

Do you feel that the patient's mental state can be drawn upon more directly in the healing process?

Dr. Drake: This is something that has been observed by many people down through the ages. We even find in the Bible: "A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: ... a broken spirit drieth the bones." And this is very, very true. I very much agree with Jesus Christ, who said, "Thy faith hath made thee whole." Prayer generally intensifies faith, and in such cases is a healing factor.

I observed it's the confidence, or you might call it the faith, of the individual, the trust that he has in the doctor, that plays a large part in recovery. I have observed the same medicine, given by different doctors, having an entirely different effect, largely because of the mental attitude of the individual receiving it.

What prompted you to write the letter to the editor, questioning the prosecution of Christian Scientists?

Dr. Drake: There was a good deal of prosecuting and really persecuting this unfortunate couple. And I think that that type of cruelty was entirely unnecessary. They did what they felt was right.

The thing that is unthinkable is that they be forced to go to medical doctors, or conventional practitioners, early. If they have to do that, why they have to be doing more than the general population do.

I really am quite sympathetic to your work. I can't go 100 percent with Christian Science concepts, but I do go with this: they certainly have a right to it, and it is beneficial.