Amazing.
“TUPELO — Aleta Smith, who donated her kidney to a 20-year-old college student last year, wants it back now that the student has changed religions.Smith, a self-described “on-fire Christian,” gave her kidney to Hannah Felks, a Lutheran and regular Christian camp counselor, last year after seeing Felks on the local news.“She was going to die unless she got a kidney,” Smith says, sitting on the porch at her home. “They portrayed her as this nice Christian girl who works with kids. I saw it as a great opportunity to help a sister in the Lord.”The surgery grabbed headlines and Smith was lauded for her selflessness. But shortly after the surgery, Felks embarked on a “spiritual journey” to try out other religions, and settled on a blend of Pagan and Hindu beliefs.“I wanted to get away from the belief system I was raised in and find the truth for myself,” she says. She took a semester off to travel the world visiting spiritualists on three continents.Smith was aghast when she heard of the conversion, and she quickly wrote a letter asking Felks to re-convert to Christianity or return the organ, saying it was donated under false pretenses.“I feel helpless,” she says. “Part of my body, my DNA, is stuck inside a person who’s going to hell.”Smith suffers nightmares of her former organ filtering “strange Asian teas, pig blood and witch doctor brews in Africa,” she says. She wonders if the Lord really wanted her to donate the kidney, or if she acted on a “triple-espresso high” she had that morning. She is also concerned that when her body is resurrected, it might be incomplete.Felks frets that Smith is an “Indian giver,” and says religious affiliation was never an issue.“The kidney’s working fine,” Felks said by phone from Thailand. “I feel bad for Aleta. She did something wonderful for me, but that doesn’t mean she gets to control my life.”In the meantime, Smith has alerted several dozen prayer chains, and her women’s Bible study group is praying 12 hours a day for the re-conversion of Felks — and Smith’s former kidney.“I’m all for spiritual curiosity,” she says, “but you’ve got to settle these things beforehand…”
As with most Christian religions, it all about control. I also find it interesting that the person in question can happily and without dissonance believe her actions were either inspired "by God" or by a "triple espresso". In neither case does she believe her actions are her own.
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3 comments:
I don't think it's fair to tar the religion so much as the nut.
But, yes, there was much eye-rolling out here. I am no theologian but I'm pretty sure the doctrine of 'You can't take it with you' applies. The body is meat, lady, it's a vessel. You leave it behind when you depart.
Worm food, Aleta, what I'm trying to say. If your merciful Lord will resurrect you I'm pretty darn sure he can patch up the missing bits.
Cuz it would suck to be a double-amputee believer and come back .. on stumps.
What Brian has stated is very true. This women is off her rocker. As a Catholic, I would pray for the girls soul & leave it at that. This women will not need her kidney at the last judgement. Also, I must point out that Christ did most of the things he did for those who were sinners or pagans. He didn't ask for anything back ...
No arguement.
My first reaction was very similar, i.e. she's worried that her savior has the power of ressurection but not of healing, which seemed silly.
But at a higher level I realized what I was doing was expecting rational behavior from her on an irrational assumption, which also doesn't make sense.
I tend to word these things rather broadly, and I know she's a nutjob, but expecting her to be rational about something like this is probably a mistake on my part.
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