Ranma Saotome

Whoa, whoa, whoa! I've heard a lot about people coming out of homosexuality, but this is a brand new case! According to his Web site, he was HIV positive--and was suddenly miraculously cured and is now HIV negative!!! Does anybody know if this has been proven false yet? If this guy managed to battle his HIV through God's Grace, why hasn't it been publicized more?

http://www.matthewcmanning.com/about/

LymanLover

I have a bridge in Brooklyn you might be interested in.

faust

If anyone wasn't convinced that religion is dangerous, then this should do it. Random "Paul Harvey" type miracle healing stories are one thing, but this guy is walking around proclaiming to have been completely cured and repeatedly tested negative for HIV? BULLSHIT!!!
He claims to have been hospitalized a few times, and tested positive for HIV multiple times, with extremely low T-cell counts, and now he quotes a doctor saying he has no HIV antibodies, no HIV virus, nothing at all.

Someone is seriously lying here. Dangerously. It shouldn't be too hard to fact check this nutcase. His story is also on CBN. I've submitted this bullshit to snopes.com and quackwatch. If i get replies i'll post them. :banghead:

Loren Pechtel

There seems to be a strain of HIV that's very unaggressive, those who catch it generally do not progress to AIDS. For the body to fight it down below detectable levels doesn't come as a great shock. No miracle needed.

faust

Loren,
That may be true, and it's what i thought at first...

From most detailed story I found on CBN
"It turns out that my AIDS went into remission. The T-cells went from 20 clear over the 1,200 mark overnight, which is an absolute miracle in itself. I�m like, 'Praise the Lord! Hallelujah, Jesus! You�re awesome!' My doctor is saying, 'Stop praising God. You still have HIV, though.'"

But then he goes further,

"The results were HIV-negative, non-reactive, no HIV antibody detected. I�ve tested every six months since�perfectly HIV-negative."

Matthew Mannning's military physicians were unavailable for comment, so I asked Dr. Michael Thompson to review Matthew's medical records.

"This patient, Matthew Manning, was HIV-positive," says Dr. Thompson, reviewing Matthew's records."He had the regular test that we always do. Then, the story changes here. In 1994, after having AIDS, he had an opportunistic infection and then the tests are coming back negative. I asked a couple of experts, infectious disease doctors, from Duke and other places. I said, 'Have you heard of anything like this where a person had HIV, went into AIDS, then the symptoms went into remission, and now they test HIV-negative, consistently HIV-negative since 1994? They had never heard of anything like this in the adult population. There is no medical explanation for this." "

(I don't think this is beyond fair use).

So it seems to me, he makes it out to be unequivocably clear, this is not a strain of HIV that is just mild and never gets to AIDS. He is claiming a medically verified miracle of complete removal of all AIDS virus from his system. I know that with good treatment response, some people get the viral load so low that it is essentially undetectable. He makes no indication that that is the case here. He only mentions trying AZT once, and it making him sick, and strongly implies he stopped taking it.

His own page says that he's tested often, and his wife (who married him after all this supposed healing) has now had a child with him. Nowhere do they mention any medication other than the magical wonderful healing power of jesus christ our lord and savior who can cure aids in this guy, but ignores everyone else.

trillian

He actually claims to have had full blown AIDS. From his own site:

"By late 1993, he was diagnosed with full-blown AIDS and was hospitalized. Although Pastor Matt was faced with certain death, he sought even harder to know his loving Savior in a deeper way, believing God would heal him. "

I wonder why he doesn't follow up with an obvious tale of how doctors are eagerly investigating him? Probably because they aren't. If this was verifiable at all it would have been all over the medical news.

It is also interesting to note that who people make fantastical claims often make money off them. That's what this guy does.

Demigawd

Oh, goody. Now we will have a housewife and x number of forthcoming children, who believe in their holiness before Gawd, but will actually potentially spread AIDS.

From a comedic prespective, that's kinda funny. But not really.

faust

I got a reply to the email I sent enquiring about what medications he is on, this is the delusional response:

my email is as follows:
Matthew Manning, I would like to know what your current treatment regimine consists of, regarding the remission of AIDS and the supression of HIV in your body. Basically, what medications are you taking and how often are you tested? That's all I'd like to know. If what you say happened is indeed the truth, we must share this with as many people as possible. Thanks in advance for your prompt response. <-=-= xxxx (real name) ([email protected])

Ranma Saotome

Wow, that's nuts! Perhaps he never had HIV at all? After all, it's funny how he claims to have been "miraculously delivered" from homosexuality after receiving Christ--and yet he hosts seminars about how to heal homosexuality! If all you have to do is accept Christ to banish it from you, what use are seminars?

Hmm, it could be that he was never even homosexual, and this is the biggest scam since...well, it's big. The doctor's report reeked of The Weekly World News style of information, since all he said was "doctors at Duke and others"--why can't they be named? We only have one doctor who claims to have witnessed this miraculous change--shouldn't the medical community be all over this? It seems like the doctor is probably a close personal friend, if he exists at all.