Your pastor is not God ….. and therefore not above sexual misconduct!

November 15, 2023 By Olapeju Simoyan, MD, MPH

The dire consequences of ignoring reality A few years ago, when the news about the Ravi Zacharias scandals broke out shortly after his death, reactions were extremely mixed. As expected, some remained in denial as they could not imagine their spiritual hero doing the things that were eventually confirmed through a third- party investigation. One YouTuber had an explanation about how there was “smoke before there was fire”. His version of “smoke” was something to the effect that Ravi was... Read more

Christian fiction: “Just pray your illness away!”

November 8, 2023 By Olapeju Simoyan, MD, MPH

The prosperity gospel as applied to health I recently heard a story about a woman who saw a book in a thrift store with a title that declared that Jesus wants us to be healthy, wealthy and happy. She picked up the book and placed it in the “Christian fiction” section of the store. What this woman did represents what I (and many others like me) have had to do in a figurative sense. So much of what we have... Read more

3 ways in which people misuse the Bible

November 2, 2023 By Olapeju Simoyan, MD, MPH

Magical thinking, ignoring context and fear-mongering 1. Using the Bible as a charm I once heard about an interesting practice within a church denomination. When weddings are conducted in any of their branches, instead of the traditional exchange of rings, the couple exchanges Bibles. A friend of mine who was familiar with this practice told me that an aunt of hers, who was divorced, lamented that perhaps her marriage would have lasted if they had exchanged Bibles instead of... Read more

The umbrella of authority falls apart when the center cannot hold

October 20, 2023 By Olapeju Simoyan, MD, MPH

When parents attempt to control their adult children Jill Duggar Dillard of the famous Duggar family, who had a reality TV show on TLC for several years, recently released a memoir, Counting the Cost, which she co-wrote with her husband, Derrick Dillard, and Craig Borlase. I have not read the book yet (I only have so many hours in a day), but this is a book I actually intend to read. Even without reading the book, I feel as... Read more

He kissed dating goodbye, and she has found other sources of joy

October 4, 2023 By Olapeju Simoyan, MD, MPH

What happens when the “expert” has a change of mind? Author’s note: The focus of this essay is on the importance of making our own decisions. I was planning to write this essay long before I found out that Shannon Harris had written a book about her experience, so despite the appearance, the second part of the title of this essay is not about her. Given that I now know about her book, it seems appropriate to at least mention... Read more

Healing through medicine is no less divine!

September 3, 2023 By Olapeju Simoyan, MD, MPH

Abstinence-based recovery and faith healing In my specialty of addiction medicine, we routinely recommend that our patients attend mutual support groups like Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) or Narcotics Anonymous (NA). Regular participation in such meetings has been found to be very helpful for many in recovery. However, patients often say that when they attend these meetings, they cannot admit to others that they are on medications like methadone or suboxone, because the general feeling in those groups is that being... Read more

When the prosperity gospel meets purity culture

August 8, 2023 By Olapeju Simoyan, MD, MPH

It’s been a long time since I attended churches where the prosperity gospel is preached, but I still hear about their messages and even occasionally see their videos. Do the terms ‘seedtime’ and ‘harvest’ have anything to do with $1000 ‘seeds’? Over the past few years, videos of a preacher sharing her message of prosperity have been circulating. (Yes, in this case it actually is a woman!) In one video, she tells listeners that she has been so blessed,... Read more

Fabricated illness and fake healing – Why are we so gullible?

July 31, 2023 By Olapeju Simoyan, MD, MPH

A pastor falsely claims to have cancer Author’s note: Shortly before publication of this essay, I heard yet another story of someone who pretended to have cancer and deceived many people in the process. A separate essay will be required to do justice to that story, but this episode of the True Crime Daily podcast details the story of a woman who falsely claimed to have cancer and was finally exposed after receiving over $100,000 in donations. I recently read... Read more

“Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me”

July 22, 2023 By Olapeju Simoyan, MD, MPH

Photo by joseph d’mello on Unsplash Flipping the script on the punitive rod Spare the rod and spoil the child – where did we get this from? “Spare the rod and spoil the child” is a well-known aphorism that is often used to justify physical punishment. Even though the exact phrase may not appear in the Bible, it is based loosely on a few verses in the book of Proverbs, two of which are... Read more

You may be sleeping a third of your life away, and that’s OK!

July 14, 2023 By Olapeju Simoyan, MD, MPH

The danger of over-spiritualizing the physical I once read about a character in a novel who didn’t believe in “wasting time” on things like eating and sleeping. Years later, as a young adult, I heard a pastor say, “If you sleep for eight hours a day, you are sleeping a third of your life away!” He would also make statements like, “Don’t listen to the doctors who say you need eight hours of sleep a day!” The interesting thing... Read more