Christopractic?

This past Saturday, October 6, was a good day - sunny and almost 90 degrees in the Twin Cities. I decided to take my daughter to a local park before dinner. I fired up the minivan and pulled out of the driveway. As we left our neighborhood, I turned the radio dial to one of my favorite AM stations, 980 KKMS.

Whose voice would grace my ears this glorious afternoon? John MacArthur? R.C. Sproul? John Piper? Alistair Begg? Alas, no. Instead, I was introduced to the “Doctors” of Maximized Living. I place the word “Doctors” within quotations, because it seemed that all of these folks were chiropractors.

While I recognize that most chiropractors have obtained a Doctor of Chiropractic (DC) degree, it has always seemed to me a bit dishonest for a health care professional who has not completed medical school to call themselves a doctor. I dunno… (To be fair, I don’t know anything about these particular chiropractors. One or more of them may have a medical degree in addition to their DC.)

However, I wouldn’t waste this post space merely to rip chiropractic (though a ripping it surely deserves). These chiro-docs nearly ruined my perfect Saturday evening when one of them said, “God did not create our bodies for prescription medicine.” One of the chiropractors then said that God did create our spines to be manipulated in order to remove energy interference. (One of these chiropractors also referred to prescription medications as toxins and poisons.)

I was recently in a chiropractor’s office for work. The office walls were covered with posters extolling the virtues of “natural” medicine (i.e. chiropractic - though, I’ve never understood why having someone manipulate my spine was any more natural than taking an aspirin) and referencing God’s desire for our physical and spiritual wholeness. The not-so-subtle implication seemed to be that God approves of “natural” (chiropractic) medicine and disapproves of “unnatural” (traditional) medicine.

It appears that many chiropractors are discontent with merely manipulating some poor sap’s spine. They are also in the business of spiritual manipulation. By employing God (to be more specific, the Christian God - Father, Son and Holy Spirit - this was, after all, an explicitly Christian radio station) to peddle their services, these chiropractors crossed a line. God is not pro-chiropractic or anti-traditional medicine. (Because I believe God is pro-reason, I could argue the opposite, but won’t.)

To imply or explicitly state to a fellow believer that God desires for them to visit a chiropractor, but not a traditional doctor, is to spiritually manipulate that believer. Even more so for someone speaking from the platform of a health care provider.

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I should state for the record that I believe there are good chiropractors who treat specific back and musculoskeletal problems. I don’t mean to malign these professionals. However, my limited experience with chiropractors suggests these folks are in the minority. It seems most chiropractors subscribe to the theory of chiropractic subluxation.

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