Gold Fillings In the Teeth

[Escher]

I guess it’s that time again. The “miracles” are making their way around in email about how certain preachers are able to turn the gold fillings of the faithful into gold.
By my very nature, I’m a skeptic.
After reading the stories, it was difficult for me to stop laughing. Most of the time, it was in the “friend of a friend of a friend” vein. Sometimes closer, sometimes not. One even made the claim that he directly saw the gold. Another went so far as to claim that teeth which had been broken off were “miraculously” growing back. My immediate thought on that was, “Oh great…who’s been dipping the shark genes into the pool?”
I’ve checked CSICOP and they haven’t got anything on it.
Thoughts and/or suggestions?

[El_Zagna]

Heck, even I can turn gold fillings into gold. Even if you turned these amalgam fillings into gold I’m not sure what the benefit would be. Are they going to have them removed, sell them at a pawn shop and get a cheap replacement. Surely there’s an easier way to make a buck.

[Man_from_Mars]

Aren’t gold fillings made of gold to begin with?

[Escher]

Ok…call it a response of not enough coffee and failure to proofread.
Should read:
“Turning ‘normal’ fillings into gold.”

[Duck_Duck_Goose]

http://www.gospelcom.net/apologeticsindex/d04.html

Dental Miracles & Gold Dust

The latest in a long list of manifestations associated with the Toronto Blessing Movement.

Proponents claim that God is giving people gold teeth and/or that He exchanges their regular, amalgam fillings for gold fillings. Some say their gold fillings are in the shape of either a cross or a dove. Others claim their regular fillings have been “polished” so that they now shine. According to the BBC, a spokesman for a British church “said that not all of those people had received gold fillings, but had had the mercury leached out of their existing amalgam fillings - leaving shiny metal behind.” Silver fillings have been reported as well.

These phenomena come on the heels of reports about gold flakes falling during prayer meetings (reported as early as end '97. I requested confirmation from John Arnott, but he never confirmed the story), gold dust covering people, and various kinds of oil oozing from people’s hands).

<snip>

The bizarre events have their origins in Argentina, where many people apparently began receiving gold fillings in the 1980s. Paul says he witnessed the phenomenon in meetings there. Then, two years ago, John Arnott, senior pastor at TACF, witnessed similar incidents in Mexico.

<snip>

Two independent tests on samples of the gold-colored dust that falls from Silvania Machado’s head during services have found the substance to be more like plastic glitter, with no gold content.

According to this guy, this has been around for a while, like decades.

http://cargo.ship-of-fools.com/Features99/Features/TorontoGoldWalker.html

In the search for an explanation, some of us might remember that teeth-filling has happened before, not only in the Third World, but in post-war America in the 1940s and 1950s. Others of us might have noticed how exciting new phenomena are spread from fellowship to fellowship with the almost unreflective mimicry of the Mexican Wave. Still others will think of placebo effects, excitation leading to false, exaggerated or delusional claims.

<snip>

The first thing to note is that in the earlier Third World dental visitations, and in A.A. Allen’s post-war ministry in the United States, God’s dentistry was to the poor. People, so the stories go, were met by God because they could not afford proper dental care. In the recent rash of gold fillings, however, God seems not to be showing his much-heralded bias to the poor, but is offering private medicine to the better-off members of the suburban charismatic churches.

Short bio of AA Allen.

http://catchlife.org/a_a_allen_history.htm
http://www.johncarverministries.org/allen.html

I can’t find any other mention of a “filling” ministry, but given some of the other “miracles” he claimed to be able to perform, I wouldn’t be surprised.

http://www.cephasministry.com/a_a_allen.html

http://www.miraclevalley.org/java/a_a_life.html

. His television commercials declared, “See! Hear! Actual miracles happening before your very eyes! Cancer, tumours, goiters disappear. Crutches, braces, wheelchairs, stretchers discarded. Crossed eyes straightened. Caught by the camera as they actually occur in the healing line before thousands of witnesses.”