Monday, January 4, 2010

Illness is Not a Punishment from God

A few online "friends" recently decided to get together and hold a sort of email/pm intervention about my illnesses. It's been going on since just before Christmas. The general gist of it is this - they sent me messages blaming me for being sick and accused me of doing nothing about it because I haven't asked Jesus to heal me. They said that God made me sick to force my hand because obviously, being in pain would make me turn to Him. It was followed up by accusations that I'm "avoiding God to stay sick" because I like not having to work.

First of all religious people of all stripes get lupus. So, belief in Jesus does not cure lupus. I left a lupus support group because of the number of times people suggested I'd feel so much better if I'd just pray. People there kept telling me I should see my illness as an opportunity and as a gift from God. No thanks, I'd prefer a laptop, I thought the bugger was supposed to be all-knowing.

Secondly, if I were mentally warped enough to enjoy being as sick as I often am, that, in itself would be a serious mental illness. I'm bloody fucking miserable at times and just miserable at others. I often feel like my muscles are made of ground glass encased in plastic wrap. Yes, sometimes I enjoy myself and sometimes I can ignore and suppress the pain to great degree. But I was once an active person who delighted in all kinds of play like biking, tickle fights, and athletic sex.

Third, I want to get back to work. I just have a problem finding an employer that will tolerate occasional loss of consciousness on the job plus frequent rests and sick days. Yeah, not very damned likely. So, in the meantime, I spend about 6-12 hours per day searching for online gigs and writing things to sell. It doesn't compare to the enjoyment I got from being a florist.

But here's the cherry on top. Years back I was homeless and during that time some really awful stuff went down, PTSD bad and then some. One "friend" had the gall to tell me that I deserved all of the trauma I suffered, even as far back as childhood. She said God was punishing me then but He'd make it all better if I could "stop being so arrogant and ask for his healing."

Yeah, even if I thought it were real, that's not the kind of thing I would worship.

I am not suffering from a terminal lack of Jesus, my physical pain is not a gift. I don't deserve to be ill because I don't worship God.

So I'm now replying to all their emails and messages with a link to this blog post. I hope maybe they'll see how nasty they are being.





7 comments:

Ferret said...

Unlikely. You're talking about people who are so self centered that they really believe that all of YOUR problems could be solved if you'd only agree with THEM.

Meredith said...

What a bunch of terrible people. They like to see people who don't have their religious beliefs suffer because the belief in their faith is so tenuous. They're hypocrites and they know it.

Frankly I would block these "friends" and point new ones to this post as needed.

epe said...

Yeah, because there's nothing like a big fat dose of mental placebo to make illness go away. Unbelievable.

Miranda said...

This is my first visit here, and I have to just say to me that just doesn't sound very "Christian" of those people. But then again, it does...
People told my sister when she was in a terrible job to "let go and let god, and if she quit he would take care of her" and my friend and I asked "Really?? Is God going to find her a job?!"
I have a little faith but most of it is disappearing fast. And I don't get it. Those people who told you that you deserved everything are horrid people.
Anyway just a random comment from a stranger!
Now off to read some more!

Cynical Nymph said...

Allow me to allow the divine Natalie Dee to comment on this-here general situation:

http://www.nataliedee.com/010610/MW-even-jesus-is-starting-to-hate-people.jpg

Seth said...

I worked out a deal with the Devil the other day. We're going to do a midnight raid into heaven and ask him to his face what his stance on Lupis is. That should settle the whole affair once and for all. There will be camera men (with experience from Jerry Springer). We'll let you know when the results are uploading to youtube.

ThatAtheistChick said...

What a bunch of self-righteous ass-hats! Follow their delusion and you'll be cured? That's unbelievably cruel, wrong, and sick! These people are not your friends and they should be ashamed of themselves!