Why do so many people believe in faith healing?

Charismatic Christian preachers who specialise in healing the disabled, curing the sick and casting out demons are very popular across the world. Scientists are starting to believe faith healers have a place in modern medicine.

The latest faith healer on the scene is Pastor Ezekiel Odero, who is based in Mombasa. Not much was known about him till November 28, when a religious event in Nairobi in which he was present drew a crowd of more than 60,000. The presence of Dorcas Rigathi, the Deputy President's wife, also helped shine the spotlight on Pastor Ezekiel.

Pastor Ezekiel is the latest in a long line of Christian faith healers. Faith healing is defined as a method of treating illnesses through religious belief instead of medical procedures. Faith healing goes beyond illnesses because people flock to faith healers for help with marital problems, joblessness, success in examinations and troubles with business.

Faith healers have capitalised on broadcast and social media to publicise their alleged miracles far and wide. There are TV stations fully dedicated to showing miracle sessions 24 hours a day, proof that there is demand for such content. People love to see the lame walk, the blind gaining the ability to see and people with chronic diseases such as cancer and HIV being cured.

Other testimonies include couples being healed of infertility, the jobless getting jobs after the charismatic preacher's prayers, and people being relieved of intense pain that had defied modern medical practices.

The most interesting sessions of miracle healing are exorcisms, that is, casting out demons from people said to be possessed. Exorcisms can be very dramatic, often veering into violence as the demons supposedly fight back attempts at casting them out of the victim. In the end, the preacher always prevails as the victim testifies of all the evil deeds he or she committed while under demonic influence.

JINNS GO MENTAL

It is not only Christians who believe in demonic possession. Prof Simon Dein, an anthropologist specialising in religious healing, describes how mental illness among Muslims in Europe and the Middle East is often attributed to jinns (spirits).

"Resort is frequently made to religious healers who recite the Qu'ran in an endeavour to exorcise these malevolent spirits," Dein wrote in an editorial. Jinns are often invoked as a cause of madness and epilepsy. Other common explanations blame witchcraft or the evil eye.

Meanwhile, a survey in Ghana found that faith healers serve as the first port of call for disease curing and prevention for most people. The consumers of faith healing are confident about their health outcomes because they believe faith healing is effective in curing health problems.

The authors of the report recommended that formal medical services be open to faith healing practices. "Understanding how and why individuals seek alternative treatment, specifically faith healing modalities, may help to develop more effective health care interventions," the authors said.

Coming back to Kenya, Prof Nahashon Ndung'u of the University of Nairobi insists that people go to faith healers in search of holistic healing. This is a type of medical practice that doesn't just look at physical symptoms but includes the mind, spirit and emotions. It is a type of healing that was practised for thousands of years until the coming of modern medicine.

"The fear by Christians of sorcery, witchcraft and curses is undeniable so that brushing it aside as paganism is not a solution," Ndung'u opines in a paper on faith healers among African churches. He says holistic healing as practised in African independent churches addresses issues of great concern to the African personality.

The methods used involve diagnosis, explanation and prescription of solutions to the problem, which assures the patient that all will be well. Through the diagnosis, the unknown is made known, while fear is replaced by understanding. With this understanding and acceptance, satisfaction is attained even if a complete cure may not have been achieved.

The storied life and times of Jesus Christ included the performance of many miracles. Jesus made the blind to see, cured lepers, healed a woman afflicted with bleeding, raised the dead back to life, cured a paralytic, exorcised demons and turned water into wine.

It is, therefore, not surprising that modern-day charismatic preachers are re-enacting the times of Jesus by performing the same miracles he did 2,000 or so years ago. Some scholars say that faith healing cannot be separated from the Pentecostal movement. Faith healing is the main reason people get attracted to those churches.

Remember the old man from Loliondo, Tanzania, back in 2011? That year, rumours emerged of a miracle cure at Loliondo, which is located in northern Tanzania. People from the entire East Africa region travelled to Loliondo to drink a mug of the old man's herbal medicine. The old man was retired Lutheran pastor Ambilikile Mwasapile (he died in 2021). The Loliondo story proves how faith healers blend Christianity with traditional healing practices.

EXPLOITING BELIEVERS

The controversy behind faith healing is that it is not scientifically possible to prove that miracles actually happened. The leaders of charismatic churches demand unquestioned loyalty from devotees, which makes it very difficult to get an unbiased opinion of the miracles. If a person who goes to a faith healer does not show improvement, the unsatisfactory results can be blamed on his or her lack of faith.

It has been established that some faith healers are financially exploiting their followers. Cases have been reported of preachers taking money from terminally ill patients on the pretext of healing them. Several faith healers have created cults, which force followers to give up a large chunk of their wealth in the belief that the world is about to end.

As faith healers are competing for followers, there is a temptation to do unique things to stand out from other faith healers. There is evidence that unscrupulous faith healers are paying people to pretend to have been healed. In 2014, a Nairobi-based "faith healer" was exposed on TV for using chemical reactions to convince followers that he was removing diseased blood from their bodies. The chemical compound potassium permanganate turns red when mixed with water, giving the illusion of blood.

Still in Kenya, a faith healer who promised "miracle babies" to couples desperate for children is battling criminal charges for child trafficking. Yet another faith healer is said to have obtained money from persons living with HIV after promising a permanent cure.

Further afield, South African preacher Alph Lukau fell into controversy after showing himself on live TV "resurrecting" a dead man. Critics accused him of staging the supposed resurrection. Last year, Pastor James Sakara of Zambia died after he was buried alive so that he could resurrect as Jesus did. He was left underground for three days.

Charlatans should be weeded out of religion, but as the experts have explained in this article, the popularity of faith healing shows there's need for a holistic medical approach that incorporates body, mind and spirit. The mix of medicine and spirituality should no longer be dismissed as mere superstition. There is evidence that physical health, psychological well-being and spiritual fulfilment are inter-connected.