The Strange Phenomenon of Pentecostals Who Decline HIV Treatment

published on August 20, 2013 in The Atlantic

Bill came home from the grocery store to find his front hallway bathed in sunlight, the air smelling of roses. He looked around, plastic bags in hand. When a man’s voice spoke to him, he knew with perfect certainty that it was the voice of God. God reassured Bill that he would be healed of the HIV he had lived with for more than 10 years. The long struggle was over, God reassured him; from now on he would be healthy.

Standing in the hall, still clutching his his grocery bags, Bill felt calm and comforted. His burden was lifted.

Two weeks later, I saw Bill as a patient at my HIV clinic. He described his vision embarrassedly at first, but grew more and more enthusiastic in the telling. “It was a wonderful feeling,” he said. In a final rush he confessed he had stopped taking his HIV medications.

Tim Lahey
The Atlantic
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The Strange Phenomenon of Pentecostals Who Decline HIV Treatment

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