60 International Journal of Cultic Studies Vol. 4, 2013
For the Love of God
By Lawrence W. Gold, MD
Review by Daniel Shaw, LCSW
Charleston, SC: CreateSpace. 2011. ISBN-10:
1468141996 ISBN-13: 978-1468141993
(paperback), $14.99 (Amazon.com). 372 pages.
A woman I worked with in psychotherapy whom
I will call Anne told me that she was brought up
by Christian Scientist parents. She made it clear
that she wanted nothing to do with their religion,
and that she thought of her parents as very
problematic in all kinds of ways. Her initial
descriptions and anecdotes of her parents made
them sound eccentric, narcissistic, oddball. But
gradually, as Anne became more open and
trusting, and more in touch with deeper feelings,
she revealed that, before her birth, her mother
had a boy, who died when he was 2. Anne was
born after his death and knew of his existence
only when her mother spoke of him to her for
the first time, when she was about 12. What
Anne revealed was that she was now horrified
and tortured by the thought that her parents may
have let her brother die because, as is traditional
with many Christian Scientists, they would have
refused to provide her brother with medical
attention. She would not ask her mother about
this because she was convinced her mother
would not tell the truth. Anne needed and
wanted to grieve for this lost brother no such
opportunity was ever provided her. Her
mother’s attitude was simply that God’s will had
been done, and therefore there was no cause for
grief.
Recalling my work with Anne, I began reading
For the Love of God by Lawrence W. Gold,
knowing from the book jacket that this would be
a story about a religious commune where many
children had been allowed to die because they
were refused medical help. It is a well-told
fictional story, in the crime and courtroom
drama genre. It is the kind of story that could
easily be adapted to be an episode of Law and
Order or any of the other dozen or so CSI shows
that are so popular on television. This labeling
is not to diminish the effort Dr. Gold makes in
this book to expose the horrors of child deaths
due to refusal of medical care. In fact, the book
covers a great deal of ground: the psychological,
religious, legal, and political ramifications of
this issue are all given their due, in dramatic
form—a notable achievement. Presenting these
very real and pressing issues in fictional and
highly readable format is one meaningful way of
getting the message out: Children are being
allowed to suffer agonies and die needlessly at
the hands of religious zealots. For many
reasons, mainly ideological and political, it is far
less easy to hold parents and religious leaders
accountable for this form of child abuse than it
should be.
Very briefly, the story begins when
decomposed, ritually buried bodies of a dozen
children are discovered in a field and are soon
traced to the people living in a commune led by
Daniel. This religious community call
themselves The Followers. It is their tradition to
refuse all medical care, and instead to pray to
God over the sick. This has led to the agonizing,
slow deaths of numerous children in the
commune, yet they all stand firmly behind
Daniel and his insistence that it is a sin against
God to seek medical help. Once the children’s
bodies are discovered, the novel traces how
unity within the commune begins to disintegrate,
and how, eventually, further discoveries about
the hidden abuses within the commune are
revealed. Because there are a good many plot
twists and surprising developments, I will not
summarize the story further. Suffice it to say
there is a good deal of suspense and surprise in
the story, which should keep readers alert from
start to finish.
The way I can say more about the novel, without
spoiling the plot, is to describe the colorful cast
of characters Dr. Gold assembles, each one
representing a set of issues connected to the
problem of religion-based medical neglect.
Some examples are
For the Love of God
By Lawrence W. Gold, MD
Review by Daniel Shaw, LCSW
Charleston, SC: CreateSpace. 2011. ISBN-10:
1468141996 ISBN-13: 978-1468141993
(paperback), $14.99 (Amazon.com). 372 pages.
A woman I worked with in psychotherapy whom
I will call Anne told me that she was brought up
by Christian Scientist parents. She made it clear
that she wanted nothing to do with their religion,
and that she thought of her parents as very
problematic in all kinds of ways. Her initial
descriptions and anecdotes of her parents made
them sound eccentric, narcissistic, oddball. But
gradually, as Anne became more open and
trusting, and more in touch with deeper feelings,
she revealed that, before her birth, her mother
had a boy, who died when he was 2. Anne was
born after his death and knew of his existence
only when her mother spoke of him to her for
the first time, when she was about 12. What
Anne revealed was that she was now horrified
and tortured by the thought that her parents may
have let her brother die because, as is traditional
with many Christian Scientists, they would have
refused to provide her brother with medical
attention. She would not ask her mother about
this because she was convinced her mother
would not tell the truth. Anne needed and
wanted to grieve for this lost brother no such
opportunity was ever provided her. Her
mother’s attitude was simply that God’s will had
been done, and therefore there was no cause for
grief.
Recalling my work with Anne, I began reading
For the Love of God by Lawrence W. Gold,
knowing from the book jacket that this would be
a story about a religious commune where many
children had been allowed to die because they
were refused medical help. It is a well-told
fictional story, in the crime and courtroom
drama genre. It is the kind of story that could
easily be adapted to be an episode of Law and
Order or any of the other dozen or so CSI shows
that are so popular on television. This labeling
is not to diminish the effort Dr. Gold makes in
this book to expose the horrors of child deaths
due to refusal of medical care. In fact, the book
covers a great deal of ground: the psychological,
religious, legal, and political ramifications of
this issue are all given their due, in dramatic
form—a notable achievement. Presenting these
very real and pressing issues in fictional and
highly readable format is one meaningful way of
getting the message out: Children are being
allowed to suffer agonies and die needlessly at
the hands of religious zealots. For many
reasons, mainly ideological and political, it is far
less easy to hold parents and religious leaders
accountable for this form of child abuse than it
should be.
Very briefly, the story begins when
decomposed, ritually buried bodies of a dozen
children are discovered in a field and are soon
traced to the people living in a commune led by
Daniel. This religious community call
themselves The Followers. It is their tradition to
refuse all medical care, and instead to pray to
God over the sick. This has led to the agonizing,
slow deaths of numerous children in the
commune, yet they all stand firmly behind
Daniel and his insistence that it is a sin against
God to seek medical help. Once the children’s
bodies are discovered, the novel traces how
unity within the commune begins to disintegrate,
and how, eventually, further discoveries about
the hidden abuses within the commune are
revealed. Because there are a good many plot
twists and surprising developments, I will not
summarize the story further. Suffice it to say
there is a good deal of suspense and surprise in
the story, which should keep readers alert from
start to finish.
The way I can say more about the novel, without
spoiling the plot, is to describe the colorful cast
of characters Dr. Gold assembles, each one
representing a set of issues connected to the
problem of religion-based medical neglect.
Some examples are
