Roderick C. Meredith's 1969 Letter Promoting HWA's Anti-Medicine Superstition

HWA taught an anti-medicine superstition in which he banned medical treatment for his followers saying that relying on anyone else aside from (HWA's) God to heal oneself of sickness and illnesses was sinful and would result in going to the Lake of Fire after one's death. HWA taught this in his 1952 booklet, Does God Heal Today?  Because of this teaching many of his followers in the Radio/Worldwide Church of God have died or otherwise compromised their health.

Around 1969 that murderous booklet was taken out of circulation but the anti-medicine superstition it taught was not renounced. In 1969, despite the many terrible things that had occurred because of this doctrine of death, Roderick C. Meredith wrote this letter sent to all WCG ministers below saying "we should continue to preach this doctrine [HWA's anti-medicine superstition as taught in the 1952 booklet] to the converted members of God's Church with earnestness and fervency!"

Unlike "Divorce and Remarriage" this murderous doctrine was never renounced by WCG during HWA's lifetime. PCG to this day denounces the renunciation of this doctrine of death as the first sign of the Tkach changes, willfully ignoring the most frightful damage this teaching did. 

Thankfully Roderick C. Meredith no longer seems to teach this doctrine of death in LCG. Although it is good he no longer teaches this most frightful doctrine the damage HWA's doctrine of death has done is still with us and the victims are forced to endure what has happened to them for the rest of their lives.

This is from William Hinson, Broadway to Armageddon (1978), pp. 142-143. It is PDF p. 73 in the link.

According to Ambassador Report this letter was written in 1969 to the entire WCG ministry.

Just one year after writing this letter Roderick C. Meredith hypocritically got surgery to heal a detached retina while so many WCG members had suffered and even died in order to follow HWA's anti-medicine superstition.

Here is the letter in question.

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On another matter, it recently came to my attention that in at least one Church area, an official "Church nurse" had been appointed. This should never be done! While it is fine for deaconesses and other Church ladies to help out from time to time when individuals in a local church are sick, we do not want to appoint an official Church nurse or even intimate that the Church provides any kind of medical assistance or advice. In matters of healing and medicine, our only responsibility is to inform our members what the Bible says with regard to faith and healing. It is strictly up to them, before God, what they do about their physical infirmities or sicknesses, and it is strictly up to them to seek medical counsel or advice if they so choose. Mr. Herbert Armstrong has recently made it clear that this is an area in which we must be very careful in order to avoid problems that could affect the entire Work.

Although we continue to receive reports of many healings and miracles which God is performing, I would like to remind you in closing to pray fervently for a number of our brethren who appear to be dying of cancer and other maladies. Mrs. Curtis Cowan, Sr., appeared to be healed of one ailment, yet now we find that she has cancer of the colon and liver. She is in very bad shape and suffering considerable pain from time to time.

Also, Mrs. Dennis Luker's parents, Mr. and Mrs. Livengood, are both suffering from cancer. Unless God intervenes, she could lose both her parents a few weeks or a few months apart.   "din [sic] addition, Mrs. Jack Francis--the wife of our fire marshall here at the College--is in extremely critical condition with cancer through much of her body. She has suffered considerable pain and those in attendance thought more than once that she was dying over a period of a few weeks now.

Many, many others have serious cases of cancer or are afflicted with other serious ailments. And, as I mentioned recently, this seems to be a growing trend in the Church. Although the booklet on healing in its present form has been cancelled, we should continue to preach this doctrine to the converted members of God's Church with earnestness and fervency! Remember to tell them what God says--not giving personal advice as to what they "have to do" in any particular case.

But we must remember that Jesus' commission was to 1) Preach the gospel; 2) Heal the sick, and 3) Cast out demons. See Matthew 4:23-24, Matthew 10:7-8 and Mark 3:14-15, etc. More of us need to study and meditate on these examples--and to pray fervently that God will restore the fullness of the gifts of healing to His Church.