Originally published April 12 2007
The Church of Big Pharma (comic)
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
The FDA has a long history of attacking and suppressing health freedoms (see our article, Tyranny in the USA: The true history of FDA raids on healers, vitamin shops and supplement companies), but did you know the agency might now be threatening religious freedom, too? Under the new CAM Guidelines issued by the FDA (see Health freedom action alert: FDA attempting to regulate supplements, herbs and juices as "drugs"), any items used in altering or enhancing the "function" of a living person are subject to regulation and control by the FDA. Items used in religious practices are NOT excluded from these guidelines.
Holy water, for example, could be regulated as a drug. Churches that continue to use Holy water in their services could be raided and accused of practicing medicine. Sound absurd? The FDA has already conducted an armed raid on one church (see "tyranny" article, above) and made no announcement that churches are exempt from FDA rule.
The crackers and grape juice used in Communion, which are tied to changes in the energy, function or spirituality of the person receiving them, might be regulated as drugs and require a prescription from a doctor. The Elder who annoints a member of the church with oil could be arrested and charged with practicing medicine, and church members who use rosaries to help heal themselves or others could be similarly arrested for using "unapproved medical devices."
Baptism could be regulated as a medical procedure involving "untested, unapproved drugs" (the water). Prayer cloths could also be regulated as "medical devices" and would require FDA approval before being used. In fact, any object, artifact or religious implement used in church services could be subject to FDA regulation and, essentially, regulated out of existence. Prayer wheels, shawls, candles, mandalas, crosses, beads and religious musical instruments could all be confiscated by the FDA as "unapproved medical devices," and anyone who sells such devices could be arrested and imprisoned for doing so.
If this sounds too hard to believe, I certainly understand your skepticism. No sane person would ever think that Holy water, rosaries, prayer oils and cloths could ever be considered drugs and medical devices, but then again, the FDA is not an agency that operates within the boundaries of sanity.
The FDA believes it is above God. Any person who has ever dealt with the FDA will confirm this. The arrogance of the FDA is so extreme that if the agency could find a way to actually regulate God, it would no doubt have done so by now. Because prayer heals people; physically, emotionally and spiritually. It helps people recover from surgery and it calms troubled minds. Prayer is good medicine, and because it is helpful to people and thus competes with conventional medicine, the FDA no doubt hopes to figure out a way to ban it entirely.
The new FDA CAM Guidelines
Welcome to the new world of FDA tyranny. The FDA recently declared war on natural medicine, and it went way beyond herbs and vitamins in naming things to regulate as drugs or medical devices. The agency is now targeting "energy medicine" and stating that any physical objects used in the practice of energy medicine will be regulated as medical devices. That is, unless the therapy in question is completely useless and has no effect on patients, in which case it will be happily allowed.
The FDA's ultimate game plan? Force everyone to rely on dangerous prescription medications by eliminating the competition. Anything that offers people genuine healing seems slated to be outlawed or regulated out of existence. It's a revenue strategy: Keep the American people sick, outlaw anything that prevents disease, and arrest anyone who dares challenge the system. Even if they are pastors or priests.
It's the new system of medical tyranny, brought to you courtesy of the marketing branch of Big Pharma, also known as the Food and Drug Administration.
These new rules are all part of the FDA's new CAM Guidelines (Complementary and Alternative Medicine). The guide defines a medical device as:
...an instrument, apparatus, implement, machine, contrivance, implant, in vitro reagent, or other similar or related article, including any component, part, or accessory which is... intended to affect the structure or any function of the body of man or other animals, and which does not achieve its primary intended purposes through chemical action within or on the body of man or other animals, and which is not dependent upon being metabolized for the achievement of its primary intended purposes.
In other words, any device that affects the "function" of a human being is now a medical device. So a priest who uses the symbol of Jesus Christ on a cross, for example, to "bless" a member of the church as part of a healing therapy is now practicing medicine with an unapproved medical device, and is subject to arrest and prosecution.
Skeptics and critics: be warned
Many people are skeptical about all this. They say the FDA would never raid a church and arrest its members. That would normally be a believable position to take, except for the fact that the FDA has already raided a church, arrested its leaders and confiscated its religious tools, claiming they were "medical devices." I've documented this raid in the articles mentioned above. It may not have happened to YOUR church, but if someone else's church isn't safe from the FDA, what's to say that yours is?
The FDA has clearly proven its willingness to smash down the doors of a sacred building, terrorize the members and staff, and confiscate everything it can find in order to disrupt church operations. As a result, all this is not mere conjecture. It is an established pattern of behavior by the FDA. This little-known history of the FDA is documented fact.
Perhaps the FDA will claim it would never again enforce its CAM guidelines in such a manner, but that's not the point. The new guidelines ALLOW the FDA to choose, at its own discretion, to enforce these rules at any time, with no prior notice. One day, prayer implements might be openly tolerated, and the very next day, your church could be raided at gunpoint and have its pastor or priest arrested by federal authorities, dragged away in handcuffs merely for blessing someone with Holy water or sacred oils.
Whether churches are allowed to continue practicing religious freedom is now left up to corrupt FDA "experts" who can decide, on a whim, to outlaw any religious object, liquid or oil by regulating them as drugs or medical devices. In other words, it is now the FDA, not God, that grants permission to conduct religious ceremony in the United States. And the FDA believes it overrides God.
Importantly, the idea of "faith" does not stand up to the FDA's so-called scientific scrutiny. So a church can never prove that Holy water actually works, or that prayer beads have any scientific merit, and therefore the FDA can declare them all to be "unscientific and unapproved" devices, further discrediting them. Faith is not a concept that is understood at the Food and Drug Administration (except, perhaps, faith in Big Pharma and the gullibility of the American consumer).
The FDA now has total control over your life
The FDA, you see, has crept into virtually every area of your life. The agency now controls your foods, beverages, cosmetics, medicines, herbs, functional foods, superfoods, and potentially even your religious practices. The fact that you are allowed to participate in religious services in the church of your choice this coming weekend is only allowed by the grace of the FDA. And if the FDA changes its mind, religious services involving water, oils, symbols, foods or beverages could one day be outlawed, with National Guard troops stationed outside churches all across the country, barring entry into these "crime scenes" where "unapproved medicine" was being used.
Even religious art -- paintings, statues, sculptures and stained glass windows -- could be siezed as "unapproved medical devices" if they are described as having any sort of therapeutic or healing effect on the people who look upon them.
Think it could never happen? You have no idea what the FDA is really capable of. To maintain its control over the people and the entire medical industry, the FDA seems willing to do whatever is necessary, including violating Freedom of Religion, Freedom of Speech, and any other freedom that gets in its way. It will violate federal laws, knowingly engage in fraudulent science, violate basic human ethics and morals, and use intimidation at every opportunity to protect its power over both industry and the public.
The agency has already proven itself willing and capable of engaging in such acts against the American people, and once natural medicine is largely shut down by the FDA, the Church may find itself the next target.
Think about it: With the FDA having declared war on natural medicine and attempting to virtually outlaw naturopathic practices altogether, natural healers will increasingly move into religious practice for protection. You will find more local churches springing up, where "blessed herbs" are given to members as part of a psychospiritual healing practice. The FDA, seeing that these churches are actually healing people with herbs, oils, homeopathy or functional foods, will target the churches and seek to shut them down. And when that happens, there's nothing that will stop this out-of-control federal agency from utterly destroying religious freedom and trapping the U.S. population under a medical monopoly dominated by FDA mafia bosses.
God save us from the FDA.
Because God is the next target. If you believe in religious freedom, then you cannot simultaneously support the FDA.
The Food and Drug Administration is, quite literally, the enemy of freedom (including religious freedom), and giving money to the drug companies by buying prescription medications is much like doing business with the devil. If we continue to support these industries, we will one day wake up and find ourselves imprisoned in a diseased, God-less nation of tyrants who prey upon degenerative disease to shore up their own power and profits.
Final challenge to the skeptics
For those who still can't believe all this and who think the FDA would never regulate religious items or attack religious freedoms, I have a direct challenge for you:
Show me the law that exempts churches from FDA regulation.
It's that simple. Show me the law. Because the reality of the situation is that you can't. There is no such law. And if one gets passed, then I'm starting my own healing church and handing out superfoods to all the members!
The truth is that there is nothing protecting religious organizations from the FDA. And if you're going to look at this issue with any degree of intellectual honesty, you've got to start with sobering fact. The FDA regulates the Church. And hence, the FDA believes its power supercedes that of God.
My promise: If you can find a law which clearly and openly states that churches are exempted from FDA regulation, I will print it on NaturalNews and issue a correction to this story. But barring any such discovery, I will continue to educate people on why the FDA is so dangerous, not merely to Freedom of Religion, but also to Freedom of Speech, health freedoms and even the freedom to save your own life using the system of medicine of your choice.
The FDA has done more to suppress the freedoms of the American people than any enemy combatant, terrorist group or "axis of evil." The real enemies to a free America are right here at home. It's time we recognized this serious threat and took action to eliminate it through desperately-needed reforms.
End FDA tyranny. Support health freedom.
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