Reminder that illness is not caused by God

While reading a few blogs I saw someone comment that their mother, who had cancer, was thought by some Protestants to be ill because she "lacked faith" or was being "punished by God." Besides the meanness of saying something so patently wrong, it shows the profound ignorance in scripture of those who believe this. One of the reasons the Jews persecuted Jesus Christ was exactly because he denied their beliefs at that time that all illness, both physical and mental, was caused by the sinfulness of the sick person, whether they were baby, child or adult. Jesus was the first to teach that this was not true and this was one of the most radical and shocking (for the times) of his teachings. I'm amazed when people who claim to be Christians ignore this part of his teaching and actually ally themselves with 2000 year old Jewish thought about illness not being medical at all. God said the span of humans will be 120 years and no more. Illness and aging are medical implications of a determinate span of life and flaws of the physical body. I guess World Trade Center rescuers who breathed the air of the wreckage and got respiratory illnesses as a result were sinful too, or being punished by God? The golden calf cannot be far behind is this is what some people think.