When Health Freedom is Threatened,
Appeal to a Higher Power
By Jim Lynn, © 2015

With the growing encroachment of federal regulation on health claims available to natural substances, it is obvious that producers and distributors of natural products who comply with federal mandates, ie. Operation Cure All, will suffer. They will lose the ability to promote the benefits of their products to the public at large.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) health claim rule regulates what can and cannot be said concerning health products. Unfortunately this regulatory law is heavily weighted in favor of producers of pharmaceutical drugs, while at the same time penalizing natural supplement producers. Without undergoing long and expensive approved testing procedures, no health claims can legally be made by either producers or distributors. Personal testimonials and/or anecdotal evidence are not allowed under penalty of law.

Fortunately for those of us wanting to obey God, there is an alternative. We can lay claim to a higher authority, which nullifies the FDA health claim rule.

Our country's founding fathers, recognizing free exercise of religion as an unalienable right, secured its protection in the First Amendment to the Constitution. The Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993  reaffirms this right.

Amendment I to the Constitution of the United States of America reads as follows: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

Because we have the 1st Amendment, U.S. citizens, who believe in a higher power, who hold to a spiritual belief, practice prayer or believe Holy Scripture, have a constitutional right to uphold and practice their beliefs without hindrance from governmental regulation, rule or law.

With regard to natural substances, the believer's authority in speaking of them and/or their use comes from a higher power, and is considered part of the believers faith. The believers faith, by constitutional right, supersedes secular law and is exempt from its tenets.

Citizens who do not claim the authority of a higher power are bound to secular law and regulation as it relates to what they may say about these same natural substances. The difference is one of setting and intent.

Below is a summary of the FDA Health Claim Rule, followed by the Health Claim Rule set out in Holy Scripture. Compare the two, you will find them to be an eternity apart.

First the FDA Health Claim Rule:

Any health claim or statement of nutritional support to the body must be backed up by tests, analysis, research, studies, or other evidence based on the expertise of professionals in the relevant area. They must have been conducted and evaluated in an objective manner by persons qualified to do so, using procedures generally accepted in the profession. These studies must be well-designed and contain consistent, reliable, and reproducible results. This evidence cannot be in the form of testimonials or anecdotal evidence.

Now the Biblical Health Claim Rule:

And More Specifically:

This is Crunch Time:

I am a practical man who is a believer in a higher power. My faith does not preclude secular medicine so long as that medicine does no harm. I am also a distributor of natural health products. So how can I or another believer balance the two? Simply, when it comes to addressing the benefits of natural health products to the public, we may lay claim to a higher authority than the FDA. we are protected by law in doing so.

Our Words Can Harm or Protect us:

A simple proclamation of faith to a higher power can exempt you from being subject to the FDA health claim rule. It provides the reader with information by whose authority you make your claim, and allows him or her to make a decision based on faith, not a rule of man. This proclamation can be simple, upfront and to the point. For example:

"The information shared herein is given by faith
in a higher power over that of man."

By including such a statement in our work and ministry, we may include personal and anecdotal testimonials without fear of reprisal. To keep the integrity of our faith intact we will want to avoid the appearance of propriety. We may, however, offer resources of natural products and name them by name when those products are made unique by formulation.

The Choice Belongs to Each of Us:

We are either a society ruled by law, or we are lawless. Most natural health messengers want to obey the law and function within it as law abiding citizens. For those of us who believe in a higher power, we should call on that power in all we say and do. For it is by that power that we live and breathe. For those who do not believe in a higher power, they are bound to the FDA Health Claim Rule and must keep it to avoid reprisal.

"Knowledge will forever govern ignorance: And a people who
mean to be their own Governors, must arm themselves with
the power which knowledge gives." - James Madison, 1798

Those words from James Madison, the 4th President of the United States, are as true today as when our nation was in its infancy. If we do not empower ourselves with knowledge, we will lose our freedoms to tyranny (Hosea 4:6).

Now more than ever our health freedoms are being eliminated by bureaucratic edict. Unless we arm ourselves with the knowledge to overpower those edicts, the natural health industry in this country will be crushed. We have it in our power to defeat special interest groups who would take our freedoms away, but only if we arm ourselves with knowledge. The choice belongs to each if us.

May our God of Healing (Exodus 15:26) be with you always.

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