The Parable of the Hospital

[Unsure]

http://zelphontheshelf.com/parable-of-the-hospital/

This piece of writing personally resonated with me. It wasn't written concerning the Lord's Recovery, but is actually analogy for leaving the LDS Church. Nevertheless, parts of it I found familiar.

One day, another patient begins arguing with the staff. He claims the doctors are guilty of malpractice. As the conversation grows more heated, the staff tries to convince him that his illness is clouding his judgment.

Once other patients begin gathering, the staff declares the man’s condition is so severe and so contagious he must be forcibly removed from the grounds.

"This is strange,” you think. “If this is the only hospital that can treat his illness, why would they make him leave?”

Like its own germ, the fear of catching the man’s sickness spreads through the facility. The patients know if they are infected, they will be removed, and without the hospital’s exclusive treatment, will surely die from the plague outside. Some patients suspect those around them are infected and promptly inform the doctors, who, almost without exception, respond by immediately expelling the accused.

This of course only heightens the already palpable tension. As questions, expulsions, and protests increase, you become more and more concerned that your symptoms are worsening. Overwhelmed by the fear of being released, you start looking for ways to improve your health before the doctor’s next visit.

One day, you visit the hospital library. As you look for recommendations for self-recovery, you are startled to find that the medical books’ suggestions completely contradict what the doctors have been telling you.
Confused, you take your concerns to a nurse you have come to trust. Their reaction shocks you. Rather than sympathy, the nurse reacts with terror. They are convinced you are infected with the dreaded plague. They forbid you from reading any more medical books for fear that the mental strain will only worsen your condition.

You panic. You wish you had never gone to the library. You begin to feel more sick than ever. From then on, you commit to following the doctor’s orders exactly.
But no matter how faithfully you take your medications, your condition worsens. You wonder if the books were right after all. The anxious curiosity gnaws at you incessantly. In a moment of desperation, you return to the library.

After a short perusal, you notice a book hidden under a stack of papers in a far corner. Brushing the dust off the cover, you realize it contains the hospital’s history. You hesitantly open it and begin to read.

What you read knocks you to your knees in a sense of piercing dread. The hospital in which you have been interned was founded by a notable fraud. Guilty of plagiarism, forgery, and malpractice, the man had been completely discredited by the medical community.
This information is almost too much for you to process. You want to stop reading, but you can’t. You have to know.

As you read of legal disputes and unethical conduct, one thing grows increasingly clear — you are not in a hospital at all. The sudden awareness of your situation seems to rip through the very tissues of your heart.

The doctors who are treating you are not real doctors. They don’t have degrees. They don’t have licenses. The nurses attending you, though sincere, have no real medical training. The expensive medications you have been taking are not only ineffective, but also dangerous.
Anxiety washes over you. You fall to the floor, quaking with emotion. Hot tears flow down your cheeks as your lungs’ desperate search for air is interrupted by involuntary sobs.

Incessant questions attack your mind like a swarm of wasps. How can I stay here? What will happen if I leave? Will my sickness get worse? Will I die like the others who were released? Where else can I find treatment? Am I really sick at all? If I am not sick, why do I feel so terrible? What if the doctors are right and my illness has distorted my perception of reality? What if the book lied? But the hospital staff wrote the book. Why would they tell lies about themselves? Who can help me sort this out? Who can I trust to tell me the truth?

[Freedom]

"This is strange,” you think. “If this is the only hospital that can treat his illness, why would they make him leave?”

Like its own germ, the fear of catching the man’s sickness spreads through the facility. The patients know if they are infected, they will be removed, and without the hospital’s exclusive treatment, will surely die from the plague outside. Some patients suspect those around them are infected and promptly inform the doctors, who, almost without exception, respond by immediately expelling the accused.

This is the story of so many LC members, and given that it was written for LDS members, it really makes you think about how similar the experiences are across certain groups.

Ironically enough, I have actually heard LC members make the analogy that the "church life" is a hospital, and that it's where you need to be to be to get 'healed'. Funny thing is that when people who are in the LC realize how poor their condition really is, and start looking for ways to fix things, that's when they are shown the door, when they are thought to have a highly contagious disease.

[TLFisher]

Originally Posted by Freedom

This is the story of so many LC members, and given that it was written for LDS members, it really makes you think about how similar the experiences are across certain groups.

Ironically enough, I have actually heard LC members make the analogy that the "church life" is a hospital, and that it's where you need to be to be to get 'healed'. Funny thing is that when people who are in the LC realize how poor their condition really is, and start looking for ways to fix things, that's when they are shown the door, when they are thought to have a highly contagious disease.

In the parable of the Good Samaritan, the "church life" is the inn. If you start having questions and issues, instead of receiving healing you become avoided as if the elders LC obedient ones are like the levite and the priest.

"Jesus replied and said, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among robbers, and they stripped him and beat him, and went away leaving him half dead. And by chance a priest was going down on that road, and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. Likewise a Levite also, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, who was on a journey, came upon him; and when he saw him, he felt compassion, and came to him and bandaged up his wounds, pouring oil and wine on them; and he put him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn and took care of him. On the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper and said, ‘Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, when I return I will repay you.’ Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the robbers’ hands?” And he said, “The one who showed mercy toward him.” Then Jesus said to him, “Go and do the same.”" Luke 10:30-37