Six HIV patients die after church tells them to stop taking meds because they were healed by God: report



 

VIDEO: therapy involves screaming to purge the devil, in place of drugs designed to keep HIV patients alive

BY Amanda Mikelberg
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Sunday, November 27 2011, 2:58 AM
Pastor (left) looks on during service at the "Synagogue Church Of All Nations" in London, from a Sky News video. This church believes it can cure AIDS and HIV and tells people they can stop taking their medication.
Sky News
Sky News video shows pastor of an evangelical church in England supervising a healing ceremony in which HIV patients are told they can be cured of their disease.
Pastor at the "Synagogue Church Of All Nations" in London, from a Sky News video. This church believes it can cure AIDS and HIV and tells people they can stop taking their medication.
Sky News
Pastor at the Synagogue Church Of All Nations in London recommends HIV/AIDS patients discontinue medications because "Jesus is a healer."
At least six HIV-positive people have died after evangelical churches in Britain reportedly told them to stop taking their medication because they had been healed by God.
Pastors at several churches in England and Scotland told undercover Sky News reporters that they could be healed through an exorcism-like process that involves shouting over the patients and spraying water in their faces.
A pastor at the Synagogue Church of all Nations (SCOAN), a wealthy televangelist organization with branches throughout the world, told one undercover reporter - who actually is HIV positive - that they had a 100% success rate.
"We have many people that contract HIV. All are healed," Holmes said.
Holmes even said that if symptoms such as vomiting and diarrhea persist, it's a good sign that the virus is leaving the body.
"We've had people come back before saying, 'Oh, I'm not healed. The diarrhea I had when I had HIV, I've got it again'" Holmes said.
"I have to stop them and say, 'No, please, you are free.'"
And according to the Sky News investigation, as many as six individuals have died after churches instructed them to discontinue their medication.
One of the victims, Emmanuel, stopped taking his medicine a year ago after being instructed by a pastor at his church in London.
The pastor told him that once god forgave him, "the disease will definitely go."
But now Emmanuel believes he may have passed his HIV infection to his boyfriend.
"I feel guilty, if I'm the one who passed it onto him I'm feeling guilty. Yeah, very much guilty," he told Sky News.
SCOAN continues to defend and administer it's treatment for the HIV virus, and other diseases.
"If anybody comes in the name of God, we pray for them. The outcome of the prayer will determine if they come genuinely or not," the church asserted in a statement.

 nydailynews.com/life-style/health/hiv-patients-die-church-tells-stop-meds-healed-god-report-article-1.983069