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A new-found friend left this comment about my original post on why does God hate amputees?

I’ve grappled with this question on a fairly personal level, being an amputee myself. You can find her personal story here.

My amputation was due to bone cancer. At the time I was Mormon and received several blessings saying that I would be healed (meaning: the cancer would disappear and my leg would not be amputated) if I had enough faith. When my ‘faith’ wasn’t strong enough to eradicate the cancer, it was suggested that it was God’s will that I lose my leg, because of previous sins.

I was 13 then and I can’t even begin to explain the world of hurt that I experienced in the ensuing years as I grappled with my lack of faith, my inherent sinfulness, and my eventual departure from Mormonism.

I heard you speak several years ago at the Sunstone Symposium and appreciated your candor about your own faith journey. Thank you.

Highlights from her moving personal story:

… I’ve long thought about the dilemma that once my leg was taken, no amount of prayer would ever bring it back, would ever heal me. I realized that I’d never heard of someone miraculously being healed from amputation. Never.

Unlike with my father’s cancer, where we felt that an exercise of faith could bring healing, there was never a mention of praying back my leg once it was cut off. Of course, many people prayed that my bone cancer (the reason for the amputation of my leg) would not spread. And it didn’t. And many people prayed that I would learn to walk skillfully with a prosthetic limb, and this has more or less happened, too.