THE CHECKBOOK BIBLE: THE TEACHING OF HOBART E. FREEMAN AND FAITH ASSEMBLY (revised and expanded)

A brief illustrated history of a northern Indiana faith-healing sect during the 1970s and 1980s which claimed 88 known lives due to its teaching that seeking medical help was a form of unbelief. The author combines Biblical, legal and medical data with former member interviews to show that Freeman's idea of the connection between miracles and faith was Biblically inaccurate and dangerous, both medically and legally. While Faith Assembly continues to exist only in attenuated form, other groups with similar "Word of Faith" or "positive confession" teaching persist on television and in groups such as the Followers of Christ and the General Assemblies and Church of the First Born.