It has become something of a cliché to note when a person of faith, after making a recovery from a horrific disease, thanks their deity of choice but fails to mention the doctors, nurses, scientists, and countless others1 who undoubtedly played a part. In the case of the doctor who has essentially been cured of Ebola after receiving treatment at Emory University in Atlanta, the sentiment that God saved his life strikes me as….well, adjectives honestly fail me.
First of all, if it was God’s doing, why did he have to leave Liberia and come to Atlanta, and why did he need an experimental serum?2 It’s possible that God played a part in this, but the serum definitely did. Second, the same observation3 always comes up in these scenarios, via Ed Brayton this time:
Hundreds of people have died of this disease in Africa in the last few months. Did they lack God or did they lack the state-of-the-art medical treatment you received?
They like to pretend that this kind of statement expresses humility, but it actually expresses the opposite. It means that God saw fit to save you specifically while saying “screw you” to all the other people who have died. It’s an insult to those dead people to say that God didn’t give a shit about them but loved you so much he had to intervene. And it’s an insult to the doctors and nurses and researchers whose actions actually did save your life.
Let me be clear here: it’s ultimately none of my business if Dr. Brantley wants to thank the Christian God, the Flying Spaghetti Monster, or whomever for his recovery, and if that’s what gets him through the night, more power to him. If he’s going to do it publicly, though, we all get to respond. What happened to him is a miracle—a miracle of science. We need to be humble about what we can accomplish through science—saving one man’s life out of hundreds isn’t that great, after all—but that’s hard to do when we are still claiming some sort of divine favor over others.
1. A pet peeve of mine is when someone attempts to take credit, at least in part, for someone else’s good news, based on the fact that they were praying for that person. For example:
Person A: It was touch-and-go for hours, but the operation was a complete success!
Person B: That’s great! I’m so glad my prayers worked!
As I often say, if prayer helps you, go for it. For basic politeness’ sake, though, Person B probably should’ve stopped talking out loud after “That’s great!”
According to reports, Brantly’s condition deteriorated so quickly that doctors in Africa decided to give him the drug in a last-ditch effort to save him.
Brantly’s condition started to improve dramatically within an hour after getting the serum, according to Samaritan’s Purse, but it’s unclear if the improvement was directly related to the medication. After his health stabilized, Brantly was evacuated on a specially outfitted plane to Atlanta in early August to the hospital isolation ward.
3. I’ll just tell a redacted anecdote here. I attended a church service relatively recently (i.e. some time in the past 5-6 years), where the minister told the story of how a close relative of a parishioner was on a patrol in Afghanistan the previous week. His vehicle was hit by an IED and suffered severe damage, but everyone in the vehicle walked away uninjured. To this, the minister merely added “Our God is awesome!” I’m very happy for the man and his family and friends, but do you see the question that’s now left dangling re: the thousands of people who have been injured or died over there?
