Christian Worldview Concepts

Medical Practitioners

Doctors as Dissidents

One way to be truly counter-culture is to demonstrate a more excellent way to care for the sick. Much of modern medicine has forgotten that medicine is about caring for sick people. Our main point of departure from modern culture is our conception of what it means to be human in the face of sickness, disability and death. The story of the Church throughout its history has been interwoven with the story of medicine — of caring for the sick and hurting. The Church's concern for the sick and dying elevated the professional and social status of the physician and the nurse. We must not forget that Scripture is full of stories that speak about the fragility of life, the imminence of death, sickness and examples of healing. The Bible contains imperatives to care for those who suffer and provides hope for something far better than merely the restoration of bodily health.

If we are to be dissidents within modern culture, particularly within the medical community, we must give clear witness to the teachings of Scripture. I find it not only tragic but sinful the number of Christian physicians who prescribe contraceptives for unmarried women and do not tell them that pregnancy is not the only threat they face in being sexually involved outside of marriage. Whatever happened to physicians telling women the truth? Will they be upset? Probably. Will they find another physician? Perhaps. Would they want some physician prescribing contraceptives for their own daughters? No. Unfortunately, the business of medicine has taught Christian physicians to compromise on the ethics of medicine.

If Christian physicians are to be dissidents in the medical community they must constantly be aware of the sin/sickness correlation. Sickness is the shadow of death, a reminder of the horrible consequences of humanity's rebellion against God. Each sickness reminds us of our ultimate mortality (Hebrews 9:27). In this sense, every sickness has a theological dimension. It is a spiritual issue, one where not only the physician but the pastor has a legitimate role. Spiritual issues do not take a back seat to physical ones.