""Command the children of Israel that they put out of the camp every leper, and everyone who has an issue, and whoever is unclean by the dead."
Author: Numbers 5 Verses #: 2
Everyone who has a draining sore, every leper and anyone who had touched a dead body was simply put out of the camp. They had not developed any knowlege of care for the ill. The instructions were to simply isolate and irradicate the ill from the camp (tribe) without compassion or trying to heal the wound or cleanse their hands and wounds. This is stone age medicine at it's worst and is not to be emulated. It was only during the renaissance and coming into contact with indigenous people that practiced a little bit of herbal medicine that the christian culture began to think of "caring" for the ill. The thought of compassion and caring for the ill was usuallly advanced in times of war on behalf of soldiers. Think of Florence Nightingale where she impressed on her nurses the importance of clean bandages and of looking after soldier's wounds. Is america trying to return to biblical times where we ignore the sick and cast them "out" and deny them care and blame them for getting sick by not having enough "faith"? That is the message of the neo-pentecostals who dominate christian TV. The TV evangelists sell "annointing oil", "prayer cloths", "special trinkets" all for profit to people seeking relief from disease and promise a "prayer" for healing in exchange for a donation to a ministry. No christian pastor encourages participation in a political process that demands everyone be treated equally and with compassion. Healthcare is sold as a "commodity" for those who can afford it and denied to those who cannot afford or obtain insurance. The american evangelicals overwhelmingly approve of this view of healthcare. Warfare expenditures are preferred over healthcare expenditures as 20 - 30% of the population goes without the benefit of seeing a physician. We are simply putting people "outside the camp".
