PSI Annual Journal 2001

Faith healing is just one of the dramatic differences a western Unitarian Universalist will find while visiting the UUCP on Negros – there are not only changes in climate, culture, and style, but significant differences in liberal theology. In some respects, Louis Cornish' s observations and veiled plea for insight, respect and understanding are as relevant today as they were in 1936: "Perhaps some day the sons of men will have the grace to comprehend that the Mass and the Quaker Meeting, and all the ways of public worship which resemble the one or the other, are to be judged not by their appearance but by their teachings; and that all who love God and their fellow-men, whatever be their form of worship, may be truly part of God' s Holy and Catholic and Universal Church of the aspiring mind and the understanding heart." (1942, 100) Cornish was saying then and it could apply today as well: Don' t judge the Philippine liberal church or rush to complain about its theology and practices based on initial impressions; experience and learn about it, be open to them.

All theology, regardless of the era, is shaped by personal and social factors. Filipino UU theology is no different. There are five influences shaping this theology – influences that are penetrating, pervasive, and lasting as well as interdependent. These are Roman Catholicism, oppression, independent Protestantism, faith healing, and an absence of a common heritage. Each has roots in the others so that when one is tugged another is nudged too. Let' s look at each of these influences.

Faith healing is about empowerment, independence, and protest, and it provides an authentic substitute to modern medicine. Faith healing is a religious and social phenomenon by which many UUCP members find Unitarian Universalism appealing and sustaining. At least half of UUCP ministers practice faith healing as do some lay people, while virtually all Unitarian Universalists in the Philippines believe in it.

The Unitarian Universalist Faith Healers Association of the Philippines (UUFHA), open to all UUCP ministers, states in the preamble of its Bylaws: "We unite ourselves to study and heal the sick persons through prayer in faith in God. This requires compassion to all members that need help."* Under its Principles and Policies it explains: "This Association is a group that heals all equally, with justice. The power is pure, coming from God and from the Lord Jesus Christ when sick people believe they can be healed through prayer to God and Jesus Christ." At least once a year, members of the UUFHA gather for a retreat at which they share experiences and lend support and nurturing to each others' ministry. Their faith healing is not restricted to the members of their congregations. In fact, many become Unitarian Universalist as a result of being healed – as a result of the healing and charismatic leadership. Though healing is included in the suggested order of service (see Art. X, Sec. s. of the UUCP Constitution and Bylaws in appendix 3), the number of people seeking to be healed is often so many – and healing is so time-consuming – that some congregations practice the healing before and after the service, even concurrent with the Sunday service.

There are at least three reasons for the existence of UU faith healing in the Philippines. First, it is indigenous – faith healing is a thread in the fabric of Philippine tradition and culture, and has been for thousands of years. Second, faith healing is merely one of the many ways that the Philippine world is alive: whether in spirits, dreams, the earth, animals, or ancestors, everything about life is animated and can be manipulated, interacted with, learned from. And third, the forces and insights that are outside the realm of human creation often can be, by the right person in the right context, used for the health and well-being of individuals.

The Philippine government recognized the role and value of these indigenous beliefs and practices by enacting The Traditional and Alternative Medicine Act (TAMA) of 1997 (Republic Act No. 8423). Not only did this legislation give legitimacy to ancient, traditional Philippine practices, but it also relieved the growing threat of malpractice lawsuits that were being filed against traditional practitioners, a fear, concern, and challenge that could have had disturbing and far-reaching consequences if it had not been addressed. For example, prior to this legislation, many practitioners of traditional remedies sought the protection and refuge of the church in order to continue practicing their beliefs. Very few churches wanted to acknowledge indigenous remedies, viewing them as superstitious, harmful, and contrary to Christian faith – even though leadership acknowledged the everyday use and deep cultural roots of these practices.

For Christians, especially, their opposition posed a slight contradiction, since many faith healers grounded their practice in James 5:14-15: "Are any among you sick? They should call for the elders of the church and have them pray over them, anointing them with oil in the name of the Lord. The prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise them up; and anyone who has committed sins will be forgiven." Rebecca Quimada Sienes writes: "From its inception, faith healing has been an event in our church that is widely practiced. In the olden days of the church, at the end of the Sunday Service, church leaders and ministers would come up to the pulpit and lay their hands on the sick persons and offer a healing prayer. The church does not subscribe to a particular practice however ministers, church leaders or members who would like to engage in such practice are given the liberty to do so. There are those who are practicing faith healing, herbal healing, and divine healing." (1994b, 29)

In the UUCP, some ministers (and the congregants who follow them), in order to practice their faith healing, took sanctuary in Unitarian Universalism' s freedom and tolerance of belief; Unitarian Universalism was a theologically inclusive faith community that supported not only their beliefs but their right to their beliefs, thereby shielding them from the government and the Church. With the passage of TAMA, the fear of government persecution diminished, though the denial and discouraging rhetoric of the orthodox church remains unchanged.

For many western Unitarian Universalists, as for many professional ministers (i.e., seminary graduates), the practice of faith healing is a perplexing and confusing, if not troubling, phenomenon: faith healing appears to be contrary to everything we have been taught and experienced in Unitarian Universalism. Rebecca Sienes provides some clarity by explaining: "If one is a minister or perhaps a church leader in a society where medical services are expensive, scarce, and remote it is to the advantage of the minister to know beyond what the church theologies say, how to fully address all the people' s needs. On the part of the healer, it means a holy connection with the mystery and the power of the Supreme Being and its evolving truth. While to poor, sick persons for whom medical services are expensive, faith healing means salvation." (1994b, 29)

This might begin to explain the "why" to a questioning mind, but what about the "how"? I was further confused after a conversation with two UUCP ministers, both graduates of seminary. We were talking about the prevalence of faith healing in UUCP congregations – both of them were sharing their distrust of it, saying they didn' t believe in it and hoping that there would be a change in the future. Both related experiences where they had been accused by ordained lay ministers and congregants of being "hard-headed," doubters of the power, closed to the Biblical basis for faith healing. Yet, without any recognition of contradiction, each shared about the several times they had sought out the comfort, advice and power of faith healers! Why not? They admitted – after all, it has worked for so many!

There is something more going on here than the curing of physical infirmity. I' ll share two examples. Rachel had done something that angered her husband. In revenge, he placed a hex on her that caused her to break out with a very unsightly rash. She was embarrassed by it, thinking that others now knew about her domestic troubles. She went several times to the medical center for treatment and found no relief. Finally she went to several Unitarian Universalist faith healers. Weeks after, she started to heal.

Clara had suffered physical and verbal abuse from her husband. She developed headaches a week after a certain incident and went to her Unitarian Universalist minister. She had been receiving a laying on of hands weekly from him for a month.

Both of these women could in fact have an organic cause to their distress. But there is also a social aspect. John Dominic Crossan provides insight in his examination of healing among the poor – among the powerless and disenfranchised, such as those who were visited by Jesus. Crossan draws a distinction between disease and illness that is helpful: "A disease is, to put it bluntly, between me, my doctor, and a bug. Something is wrong with my body, and I take it to a doctor to be fixed. What is lacking in that picture is not just the entire psychological but, much more important, the entire social dimension of the phenomenon. How have I been trained to think of my body, modern medicine, and doctors? How does my dysfunction involve my family, my job, or, in some cases, wider and wider levels of society? Disease sees the problem, unrealistically, on the minimal level: illness, realistically, on the wider level. Think, for example, of the difference between curing the disease or healing the illness known as AIDS. A cure for the disease is absolutely desirable, but in its absence, we can still heal the illness by refusing to ostracize those who have it, be empathizing with their anguish, and by enveloping their sufferings with both respect and love." (1994, 81)

Crossan' s analysis doesn' t explain everything – I don' t want to explain everything! But for members of North Atlantic culture, and for Unitarian Universalists, Crossan provides a place for followers of liberal religion to start coming to grips with a phenomenon very unlike anything in our realm of experience and belief, yet integral to the practice and belief of liberal religion in the Philippines. I believe the only way to completely and fully understand and appreciate the practice and receiving of faith-healing – as well as other traditional healing remedies – is to be a member of Philippine culture. To have grown up with it and come to expect it are something quite different from observing it from outside the culture.

* While the purpose of the UUFHA is compassion, it must also prevent the practice of harmful ways, misuses of the healing gift. For example, in Article 10, Association Prohibitions, there are two provisions: "1. A member is not allowed to use his/her healing wisdom/power to compete with another faith healer. 2. Every member is prohibited to use his/her power to practice paghaladhalad sa maga diwatahan." This "practice" consists of chopping up a pure white or black chicken and spreading the pieces under a tree for the spirits to consume, thereby placing an evil hex on another. This is considered against the law of God.

PSI Symposium Annual Journal 2001