Summary Of Trust In God Winston Ross

A human’s time on Earth is very limited. At any point, a person could be healthy one moment and then be diagnosed with a life threatening sickness the next. In a certain case from the article, “Trust in God” by Winston Ross, Carl and Raylene Worthington had a three month year old daughter, Ava. The little girl had a cystic hygroma that was on the verge of choking her to death. When she was 15 months old, the cyst reached three by four inches on Ava’s neck. The parents decided that there was a form of treatment that was certainly unorthodox. They choose faith over modern medicine. Instead of taking her to the doctor and seeking immediate treatment, Carl and Raylene tried anointing her head with oil, feeding her diluted wine, extracting phlegm

Ross introduced the appeal to ethos by incorporating many credible sources. For example, he points out, “Stephen Post, a professor of psychiatry and religion at the Center for Medical Humanities at Stony Brook University, says the impersonal nature of modern medicine causes some patients to be attracted to faith healing.” By informing the readers that Stephen Post is a professor of psychiatry and religion at Stony Brook University, it shows that he is a reliable and knows what he is referring too. Ross even indicated that faith healing had been around for more than 2,000 years. This proves that this form of alleviation is not a new concept to our world. The Worthington family had a valid reason to believe that this could potentially cure their ill-stricken daughter. “Ralph Hood, a University of Chattanooga professor of religion and psychology, is 66 years old and has never been to the doctor,” further adds to the appeal of ethos in “Trust in God.” To add credibility to faith healing, the author reveals that a 66 year old man, who has never been to the doctor, is healthy. This demonstrates that people can trust other arrangements of healing rather than relying solely on medical expertise. Ross decided to integrate pathos by expressing, “She was slowly choking to death.” By including this in the article, it brought out the weight of Ava’s death and made people feel heartbroken over the extremely young child. “They laid their hands upon the toddler and prayed she would get better. What the Worthingtons did not do is call an ambulance,” was composed to make you think about the future Ava could have had if they called a doctor to help them. The parents laying their hands upon their baby girl adds to the fact they thought faith healing was enough to save her. Winston Ross included how if the parents would have gotten her