Are we nearing the end of the pandemic?
How bad is this third wave going to be?
What if you had to go the ER - would you be reluctant?
At various times during the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly during the first and most extreme lockdown, the emergency rooms in many hospitals were actually quite quiet. This was the case in areas where COVID-19 had not yet taken hold in the community. For medical matters not related to COVID-19 there was a reluctance to go to the hospital because if COVID-19 was present, perhaps hospitals could be places of transmission.
It is not only pandemic viruses that can be transmitted in hospitals. In fact, while hospitals might be the best places to be for those who need medical attention, there is also a degree of risk in being at hospitals. You can get sick at a hospital. There is also risk in any medical procedure. Some procedures carry a great deal of risk, even if they are advisable procedures.
There is a word for sickness picked up at the hospital, for illness or injury caused by medicine or by medical procedure. The word is iatrogenesis (ai-at-row-genesis). Illness or injury is iatrogenic if it came about because of something related to treatment, to medicine, or to medical procedure.
Hospitals and health care professionals go to great lengths to address and limit iatrogenic illness and injury. Prevention is not always easy, but it is important and great amounts of time, and energy, and planning go into training and procedures to cut down iatrogenesis. Even the most compassionate, professional, well-trained and thorough medical workers can unwittingly contribute to iatrogenesis.
For the purposes of this newsletter, I want to simply consider that if hospitals can become places where people sometimes become sick or injured, it is also true that churches and religious organizations can contribute to a kind of spiritual and theological illness, even if they do not intend to do so.
Iatrogenic Religion
Causes dangerous ideas of other people and of the world. Iatrogenic religion can contribute to harmful views of self, of morality and of the future.
Iatrogenic Theology
Causes dangerous ideas about God to be transmitted. God comes to be seen as angry, hateful, distant, and as having to do with some people, but not others.
Iatrogenic Church
Gatherings of people that knowingly or unwittingly transmit judgmental and fearful ways of seeing the world and damaging concepts of identity.
It would not be thought of as loving or acceptable to say about iatrogenesis in medicine “Well, they mean well, don’t point it out, don’t say anything about it.” It would also not be thought of as wise to simply say, “Hospitals are terrible. Don’t go to them at all.”
So too, in matters of faith and religion, it can be loving and hopeful and future oriented to actually ask how religion and church can become damaging. Good medicine asks questions about how to limit iatrogenesis. Good religion ought to be able to be honest about the damage that can be done in religious circles.
I was a pastor for 25 years. I was never the “holler at the world, tell people what is wrong with them” type. This does not mean that, in intending to do good, I may not have done some damage. I consistently seek to ask those questions. I also ask them of the churches and religious systems of which I have been a part.
Even if very many people are helped in hospitals, there are also stories of suffering caused by hospitals, by medical staff in the places of intended care and healing.
Even if very many people have been helped by the church, there are also stories of suffering caused by the church, by church staff, in the place of intended care and healing.
To be sure, some problems may be deeper than iatrogenesis. There are at times systemic problems in health care and in religion. Some places deserve to be shut down.
Many though, need instead to address the reality that some people are hurt or damaged in religious circles. To say otherwise is to be blind to the truth and to be less than loving towards people who have suffered.
It might be helpful for you to consider how you have contributed to iatrogenesis in church and in faith. You could also think about how you have suffered from iatrogenic religion, church and theology.
A thought-provoking topic. We might be aware that hospitals and the medical system in general may unintentionally cause harm. Much has been publicized about side effects of drugs and risks of surgery.
Not much has been spoken about regarding “potential side effects” or “risks” of church or theology.
We can do our research into drugs or medical care. I “interviewed” eight medical professionals before I decided to proceed with cancer treatment.
I have not done any research before engaging in a church or theology.
Perhaps we need to raise our awareness here as well.