Paging Dr. Jesus

Richard Hupper was attending a concert near York, PA. At one point, he went inside a restroom. That’s where he was attacked for unknown reasons.

[63-year-old passer-by Richard Bentzel] said the attackers came out of a stall and beat Hupper with boards on the face, head, body and arms. Hupper’s glasses were also broken.

“He was very brutally beaten with boards. He was caught totally off guard. He didn’t have a chance,” Bentzel said. “He was standing almost like a zombie. He was in total shock.”

Then, the story takes an even stranger turn:

Bentzel said he was part of the group of people who rendered first aid and tried to comfort Hupper until help arrived. He said the scene became tense when a group of “fanatical born agains” came along, pushed the initial group aside and placed their hands on the victim’s head.

“They were shouting, ‘Jesus, help this man. Take him out of his pain in the name of Jesus.’ I started yelling ‘You get the hell out of here. You go up by that tree and pray. I’m sure the Holy Spirit will hear you,'” Bentzel said.

“He didn’t need Jesus. He needed a doctor.”

At least there’s one voice of reason in there.

I can understand the “fanatics” wanting to pray for Hupper’s healing. But to push the real help out of the way? Absurd. And completely dangerous.

(via Unorthodox Atheism)

[tags]atheist, atheism, Richard Hupper, Richard Bentzel, Christian, born-again, Jesus, Holy Spirit[/tags]

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Maria

that’s insane! I hope the young man who was attacked did recieve proper medical attention?
olvlzl, no ism, no ist

Of course it is wrong and the people who did it should be criminally liable for endangering someone. However, I don’t think that even Sam Harris would say this is typical behavior of religious Americans. What’s the point?
Lee

Back in December of 1991, my mother and I were attending the Festival of Lights in what was then my hometown, Natchitoches, in Louisiana. This festival attracts in excess of 150,000 people each year.
My 62-year-old mother and I were walking down the main street, which was crowded shoulder to shoulder with festival goers. My mother lost her footing and fell in the middle of the crowd. She struck her head on the brick street and lost consciousness. I began to yell for help and stood guard while hoping that someone nearby might be a paramedic, nurse, doctor, or EMT. Instead, I was pushed aside by a group of ‘fundies’ who began laying hands on her and praying in tongues – pleading for Jesus’ help while I stood with my mouth agape.
Fortunately, my mother was not badly injured. She quickly regained consciousness and began praying with the fundies. While I was relieved that my mother was okay, I was still very angry that appropriate behavior was not observed during what could have been a much more serious situation.

After the incident, my mother and I left the festival. I attempted to talk her into letting me take her to the hospital for an exam to ensure that there was no bleeding or bruising of her brain, but my mother was so convinced that the prayers had worked, that I could not reason with her. Thankfully, she did not suffer from any ill-effects from her fall, and she was convinced that the Lord Jesus had touched and protected her that night.

In spite of my beliefs at the time (I was then a fundy) I had seen other situations where God had supposedly healed people who later died of what they had been ‘healed’ of. To my way of thinking at that time, God’s track record was not good enough to rely solely upon.This situation was very frustrating to me, because I knew that she was fortunate in that her actions and the actions of those zealots could have cost her her life.
mollishka

It’s the story about the guy stuck on the roof of his house whlie the water is rising, convinced god will save him as he turns away boats and helicopters, but with a twist.
Carlos

You know, there are fanatics in every religion and many outside of religion. It’s very easy to focus on the “crazy” people because they do things that draw attention to themselves.

As someone who posted above pointed out, this is not typical behavior of Christians.
Jeremy Farmer

Great story. I remember one time I was at a church event speaking there, and a homeless person walked through the door. He was literally attacked by several charaismaniacs who wrestled him to the ground and began screaming for demons, devils, and everything else to come out of him. I was appalled. The man didn’t have demons. He was hungry, thirsty, and in need of some shoes and socks.

They prayed for him for the rest of the hour I was there. I finished speaking and left. I heard later that they prayed for him in a back room for 6 hours. And the worst part? He left hungry, thirsty, and in need of some shoes and socks.

Christians suck sometimes.
Stephan

Lee, let me get this straight. Your mother got hurt, some people prayed and she got better. She didn’t seek medical attention because she believed the prayers had worked, and she was fine. Is it possible that she and the other “fundies” were right in this case?
Darryl

News Flash: Fundies act like idiots. Are we lacking evidence of this fact?
benjamin ady

wow. such people can be scary enough when one is a christian, and hasn’t been injured, and is in a church service. Frightening.
Sam Sutter

I have to laugh… my parents live in York, PA… i hear crazy stories from there.
Karen

Hmmm … York, PA. Somehow that spot rings a bell.

Oh yeah. It’s where the nutty local school board tried to bring ID into the science classrooms!

Definitely an abundance of kooky fanatics over there in Central PA…
aidan

Insane story, but a reflection of a particular mind-set that seems immune to rational persuasion.

There was a fairly recent case here in Canada involving similar skewered logic. I believe in January of 2007, a woman who is a member of the Jehovah Witness organization gave birth to sextuplets in Vancouver, BC. These newborns urgently needed blood transfusions in order to make it and the parents refused. Two of the babies died and child protection had to step in to protect the remaining children.

The response of the parents was to sue, claiming their rights had been violated.
Lee

Stephan said,

July 26, 2007 at 9:50 am

Lee, let me get this straight. Your mother got hurt, some people prayed and she got better. She didn’t seek medical attention because she believed the prayers had worked, and she was fine. Is it possible that she and the other “fundies” were right in this case?

Okay, Steph, you’re right about one thing… we do need to get a few things straight.
Yes, my mother fell. Yes, she was hurt. But the Chrispies were definitely WRONG. She was fortunate not to have sustained injuries that could have been made worse by not seeking medical attention. She did NOT get better after these lunatics prayed. She had a huge black eye, swelling of the area, nausea, sleepiness… the typical signs of a concussion.

These are not signs of some miraculous healing… they are signs of injury. Had there been deeper trauma, then my mother could have died from suffering from bleeding or a clot within her brain. She was foolish not to have sought medical attention. She was lucky… not healed.

If you truly believe that God’s track record in healing is good enough to rely on for yourself, then more power to you. I will point out that it doesn’t take much time to do an Internet search to find cases where people relied on faith with tragic results. Those who rely on faith are playing a dangerous game of Russian Roullette… with about the same odds of winning OR losing.
So, go ahead – spin the chamber, pull the trigger, and take your chances, you fool. Maybe you’ll get lucky…
Carlos

As I noted before, it’s easy to focus on those people who do things out of the ordinary. I, for example, work in a Muslim country. I would like to point out that I am a U.S. citizen. Many of the people here have a certain idea of what Americans are like. For example, we are all rich, we all eat pork, we all drink alcohol, we don’t have many moral standards, we love sex & violence and our women are all loose.

I would gather that many people in the States think that many Muslims are terrorists. That would be because of a minority of Muslims (fundamentalists) who have blown up buildings and desire to kill all Westerners, particularly Jews and Americans.

Let’s have an open mind and not condemn all people because of the acts of a few.
Kyle

This is not evidence that “fundies” as you call them are wrong. It is an isolated incident that is being used here as a blanket statement. I apologize for the poor behavior of the individuals that failed to use common sense, which never seems to be common. Followers of Christ are not perfect, please don’t expect us to be. At first I was going to flood you with examples of people doing good in the name Jesus. Instead I would like the guniune opportunity to become a part of the conversation.
Maria

As I noted before, it’s easy to focus on those people who do things out of the ordinary. I, for example, work in a Muslim country. I would like to point out that I am a U.S. citizen. Many of the people here have a certain idea of what Americans are like. For example, we are all rich, we all eat pork, we all drink alcohol, we don’t have many moral standards, we love sex & violence and our women are all loose.

I would gather that many people in the States think that many Muslims are terrorists. That would be because of a minority of Muslims (fundamentalists) who have blown up buildings and desire to kill all Westerners, particularly Jews and Americans.

Let’s have an open mind and not condemn all people because of the acts of a few

Well said
Karen

Instead I would like the guniune opportunity to become a part of the conversation.

Please join the conversation, Kyle! We’re happy to welcome you and other Christians who are genuinely interested in talking things over. Thanks for being here. 🙂
Pat

It’s very easy to focus on the “crazy” people because they do things that draw attention to themselves.

These are not “crazy” people, these are people following what they have been taught in church.
Carlos

Pat, I have to disagree with you. They may have been taught that in the church that they belong to but they are, in my opinion, “crazy.” They have taken one or two verses from the Bible and blown them out of proportion. They could have very easily prayed for the man silently and gotten the same results. What they have done is misinterpreted the Bible (bad systematic theology) and taken it too far in one direction.

You want to know see articles on typical Christians? You probably won’t find them because you cares about normal? It’s boring and doesn’t pique people’s interests but give them something out of the ordinary and they go wild for it. Look at the nightly news sometimes, all you get is the sensational (deaths, shootings, natural disasters, war, sensational sports highlights, etc.) It’s the same with the above article.