Kidney donor cries foul when recipient ditches Christianity

TUPELO — Aleta Smith, who donated her kidney to a 20-year-old college student last year, wants it back now that the student has changed religions.
Smith, a self-described "on-fire Christian," gave her kidney to Hannah Felks, a Lutheran and regular Christian camp counselor, last year after seeing Felks on the local news.
"She was going to die unless she got a kidney," Smith says, sitting on the porch at her home. "They portrayed her as this nice Christian girl who works with kids. I saw it as a great opportunity to help a sister in the Lord."
The surgery grabbed headlines and Smith was lauded for her selflessness. But shortly after the surgery, Felks embarked on a "spiritual journey" to try out other religions, and settled on a blend of Pagan and Hindu beliefs.
"I wanted to get away from the belief system I was raised in and find the truth for myself," she says. She took a semester off to travel the world visiting spiritualists on three continents.
Smith was aghast when she heard of the conversion, and she quickly wrote a letter asking Felks to re-convert to Christianity or return the organ, saying it was donated under false pretenses.
"I feel helpless," she says. "Part of my body, my DNA, is stuck inside a person who's going to hell."
Smith suffers nightmares of her former organ filtering "strange Asian teas, pig blood and witch doctor brews in Africa," she says. She wonders if the Lord really wanted her to donate the kidney, or if she acted on a "triple-espresso high" she had that morning. She is also concerned that when her body is resurrected, it might be incomplete.
Felks frets that Smith is an "Indian giver," and says religious affiliation was never an issue.
"The kidney's working fine," Felks said by phone from Thailand. "I feel bad for Aleta. She did something wonderful for me, but that doesn't mean she gets to control my life."
In the meantime, Smith has alerted several dozen prayer chains, and her women's Bible study group is praying 12 hours a day for the re-conversion of Felks — and Smith's former kidney.
"I'm all for spiritual curiosity," she says, "but you've got to settle these things beforehand. My kidney belongs to Christ. It will never be Pagan." ?