FURIOUS

It's 12:11am and ludicrous that I'm still awake.  I have even taken something to hopefully knock me out but, I guess my fury is stronger than my need to rest.  I will try to express some of it here now so as to maybe sleep some tonight.

I have no desire to be involved in a lawsuit of any kind so I will not use any names and the entire thing is "hypothetical".  Let's say I'm hypothetically infuriated.  And I want to act but I'm not sure what to do.  I know about something happening that is WRONG.

Let's say, for giggles, my friend has a chronic illness.  Her name is Lea.  Lea has joined a group on a social networking site related to such chronic illness.  Let's say also that this closed group has an administrator who has a bunch of alphabet soup after her/his name and has a website and has written several books.  Let's also say said administrator frequently promotes books to members of the closed group/patients who are looking for relief from their chronic problem.  Let's go even further and say this:   Lea has an acute issue of symptoms for the first time in 3 years.  Administrator tells Lea to give a full report of, let's say, exercise, or maybe diet, or maybe sexual activity, or some specific behavior which she controls.  Admin wants a journal of 5 days worth of this activity and will then tell Lea what she did wrong to bring on the issue.

Now, let's also add that Lea's illness is proven to be related to a very specific malfunction in the body which is still not understood well and is not treated effectively by medicine.  But, the cause of the problem is known.    And Lea knows now that no behavior she acted out brought on the current issue.  It couldn't have because, the source of the problem is entirely unrelated to the aforementioned behavior that the Admin wanted a journal about.

So, Lea does some digging.  She finds out that at least 75% of the credentials of the admin, printed on the website and also on covers of many books, are fraudulent.  She discovers that the school where the admin earned her/his degree does not even offer one of the degrees she/he claimed to earn there. (He claims 3 different degrees.)  Also, she learns that said college chose to close its doors about 5 years ago instead of doing what was necessary to become an accredited institution by the U. S. Dept. of Education.  Also, the college was distant learning only.  No campus.  The kind of degree she/he claims to have could only have been earned at a college with a campus because some of it quite literally requires that he put her/his own hands on things/people/whatever as part of the learning experience.

So here is what we have.  An "expert" in the field of her chronic illness telling her that she/he can positively identify the reason she is having trouble today.  The professional association that she/he claims to be part of does not list her/his name though.  Also, she/he brags that she/he is certified in a separate field.  Lea finds out that to be certified in that field, one needs only to have a GED, $470.00, and to pass a mail-in exam.  They give a year to finish the exam and you're supposed to use any books you need for answers.  A year.  A GED, 500 bucks and a year.  This makes her/him an expert.

Here is where my fury begins.  I do not think this is incompetence on his part.  I do not think she/he assumes that these degrees are real, or legit at all.  My belly, which is very wise, tells me that she/he is labeling himself as this expert in order to sell Lea and others like her the collection of her/his books.  Lea is desperate for her illness to go away.  She/He is preying on this desperation.  She/He is a fraud.  The cover of her/his book reads, hypothetically "by Fred Flintstone, Ph.D, N.D., MH, C.N.C.  and she knows that most of the other folks who have this chronic problem are not at all aware that they are being lied to.  She used ALL of her spoons today to discover the truth behind all those letters as they relate to this administrator.

And now she knows the truth and doesn't know what to do about it.  So, I am praying for Lea.  Please pray for her with me.  This is a smallish issue in the large picture of the world.  But, in her world, it is a very large issue for snake-oil salesmen to trick her into spending money she doesn't have on an invalid cure.

If anybody has any REAL advice I can pass on to Lea, please let me know.
Let's pray tonight not only for guidance for her but for snake-oil folks to come to see the light of Christ.

Have happy nights.