More a matter of faith than record

Press, 18 May 1988, Page 21

More a matter of faith than record

A firm belief in a miracle, rather than hard evidence from medical records and doctors’ testimony, is expressed by people whom a faith healer, Melvin Banks, claims to have healed. A curious fact about faith healers is that although lists of people healed are claimed, detailed and exhaustive medical details as to their conditions both before and after the miracle are not readily available. But people are invariably believers and certain they have been miraculously healed. A woman whose name he had not picked up told him she had been cured of cancer, Banks told me.

Eventually Mrs Carol Manahi, aged 52, of Rangiora, was tracked down. She told of first hearing Melvin Banks more than two years ago, as well as another healer, Derek Prince. She had a cyst on her leg and because her mother died of cancer, she had a great fear of what it might be. Eventually, a dermatologist removed the cyst, which proved to be cancerous. She had the roots surgically removed in hospital. Mrs Manahi says she been a Christian for three years. The Lord did not cure her of cancer through Melvin Banks, but she was able through his prayer to come to terms with her fear. “I gained great peace of mind and God brought me to the stage where I could look cancer in the face,” she says. Now she is free of cancer and has to report to the doctor only every four months. Another woman,-who, Melvin Banks said, had Wphoned Radio Sheina saying her grandson* 1

had been healed, is Mrs Nyra Grenfell, of Christchurch.

Mrs Grenfell said John Tavendale, aged nine, was limping badly when aged four. She described his problem as a disease which affected growth of the ball joint in the hip. In December, 1986, she took the boy for healing to Melvin Banks. John made rapid improvement over the past 12 months, and could run around without any pain. “I have so much faith that I believe it started then, and I believe it was the Lord,” she said. However, Mrs Grenfell said she did not mention the miracle to the specialist who was pleased that the bone of the ball joint was growing so well. A case which Melvin Banks described as “cut and dried” is that of Mrs Pat Sisson, aged 46, of Christchurch. She says she suffered from rheumatoid arthritis in the base of the spine. She found it very difficult to get in and out of bed, and climb up and down the steps of public buses. After a fairly negative response from the medical profession, she was persuaded by a friend to attend a Melvin Banks healing meeting. She is a Christian, and says that after the power of the prayer of the team present, she was able to touch her toes. “I am convinced it was a miracle,” she says. She has not discussed her experience with a doctor. Melvin Banks showed me two letters which, he said, had been sent on from Britain. “My three-year-old son was desperately ill with leukaemia and his blood count wasj : dangerously

low,” wrote Mrs M. Slexman, Mill Road, Burgh Castle, Norfolk. “The hospital warned that nothing much more could be done and bone marrow transplants would not be successful. “Then came a miracle and the blood count improved. Today, he is ruddy cheeked and healthy.” Mrs E. Hicks, who lives near Dauntsey, near Chippenham, writes that her daughter, Margaret, had been a diabetic for three years. She had been unable to walk without a frame. “After your prayers, she is getting stronger and stronger daily, and is beginning to walk alone. It is indeed a miracle.” Questioned, Melvin Banks said a check was made a few weeks afterwards, and Margaret was walking again. She had been suffering from “some paralysed condition.” In his printed publicity, based on healing claims in Britain, Melvin Banks quotes a “Harley Street doctor,” unnamed, as confirming miracles at his services. He said the doctor was Dr Q. Adams, of Tremore, Lanivet, near Bodmin in Cornwall. But she was a former Harley Street consultant. The publicity described one of Dr Adams’s patients, a farmer’s wife, who had not been free of pain for nine months. The woman had “great suffering” with her spine, but was “instantaneously healed and has never suffered since,” according to Dr Adams. “She can now run, jump, lie down, and has never looked back. “I recognise the multiple illnesses of many of the people who went to (Sir Banks and complete

cures of other cases I know also. There are many healing miracles in his services.” I asked Dr Adams if this was true. She said it was. The woman, Mrs Joyce Hooper, lived down the road. She had had a spinal graft, which made the spine firm, and it became inflamed after twisting it in a fall. The doctor said her field was homoeopathy, manipulation and general practice. She said Mrs Hooper, who now helped run a large retail shop, had been unable to go to bed properly for three months because of pain. Dr Adams said she could do nothing for the woman who was cured at a meeting held by Melvin Banks. “I am a believer and I have been healed, many times,” Dr Adams continued. What of? “A heart condition and other things,” she replied. “I do believe the Lord can heal today.” She went on to cite another claimed miracle in which a man had been cured “in the name of the Lord” of cancer of the throat. "I don’t like the term faith healer,” Dr Adams said, .“as it sounds like a spiritualist.” After talking to people who talk matter-of-factly of miracles and instantaneous healing, it seems to matter less whether such claims can be substantiated in terms of medical evidence. It is well known that the mind has vital influence over the body’s ability to heal, and so long as someone really does get better, perhaps that is all that matters, certainly to them. Neither false claims nor delusions, however, are a matt er...for rejoicing.