Today's Christian Doctor - Spring 2013

Facing the Fiery Furnace

John R. Crouch, Jr., MD

C HRISTIAN M EDICAL & D ENTAL A SSOCIATIONS

from the CMDA

bow down to this golden image.

What must we do? The three young men told King Nebuchadnezzar that they would not bow to worship an image foreign to the true God. “If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up” (Daniel 3:17-18). And into the fire they went, and the “Fourth Man” was there and saved them!

I love that! Standing strong against the false religion and an alien culture. Isn’t that what we are supposed to do? I believe I could make the case that our American culture is becoming more alien to us as Christians year by year, as is even the way medicine is practiced. Am I being molded by our culture or am I impacting that culture? Do I succumb to the intimidation to not ask permission to pray for/with my patients or do I stand fast for personal relationship ministry? Do I just fill in the blanks on the electronic health records or do I take the time to know my patients, to know the “real reason” they are hurting so that I can share the Good News? Do I give in to the concept that every characteristic is unchangeable even by our Father or do I consider the possibility of redemptive reparative therapy?

In John 17, Jesus asked the Father to not take us out of the world, but to sanctify us, keep us from evil and send us into the world so that the world might believe. John said, “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him” (1 John 2:15).

Personally, I want to guard against being conformed to culture and avoid bowing down to the golden image of this world in medicine.

Will you join me?

president

I believe we are approaching the fire! And it is with our Father’s permission. Daniel 3 is a profound challenge to all believers, particularly in our Western culture in America. Like Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, we increasingly find ourselves in a culture that is alien to our religious beliefs. At the time of their story, they were in respected positions as governing administrators in Babylon. For these young Hebrew men, it was the Babylonian culture versus their own Hebrew beliefs.

For us, the Judeo-Christian principles on which our nation and culture were founded are increasingly becoming a faint memory and clearly not the determining norm. As healthcare professionals, we are likewise in respected professions in our society, but the culture and the rules continue to change. Our culture erected a 90-foot golden image to which we must bow down or “face the fiery furnace.” What is that golden image? It is that human thought, human wisdom and human organizations (including medical and particularly government ones) can solve the problems we have and satisfy the issues of the heart and truth which are built into every human soul!

In medicine, it is almost uniformly believed that health and healing are wholly derived from our reductive understanding of human anatomy, physiology and pathology; particularly that they will be ours through human hands and minds as we rigorously pursue it by our scientific approach to medicine. [I’m not arguing against this approach, which we vigorously teach in our overseas medical education missions.] There is some acknowledgement of the behavioral sciences in health.

Even a “spiritual dimension” is permitted as long as it is more “New Age” and NOT based on Judeo-Christian principles. If not careful, we can slip into tacit acceptance and begin to

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contents Today’s Christian Doctor

I VOLUME 44, NO. 1 I Spring 2013

The Christian Medical & Dental Associations® — Changing Hearts in Healthcare . . . since 1931.

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Transformations

12 United We Stand

by David Stevens, MD, MA (Ethics) Strengthening the ties of CMDA

Unique Power to 22 The Change the World

by Will Rogers Experience the community of healthcare missions

Orientation 26 Sexual Change Efforts in the Ideological Lions’ Den

STORY 16 COVER Shaping Your Worldview: The Challenge of Our Times

by John Stonestreet Investigating the shifting culture and worldview of America

by André Van Mol, MD Addressing the scientific and theological theories of change therapy

31 Facing the Aftermath

by Drs. David and Janet Kim A first-hand look at the impact of Hurricane Sandy

34 Classifieds

TODAY’S CHRISTIAN DOCTOR® EDITOR Mandi Mooney EDITORIAL COMMITTEE Gregg Albers, MD John Crouch, MD Autumn Dawn Galbreath, MD Curtis E. Harris, MD, JD Van Haywood, DMD Rebecca Klint-Townsend, MD Robert D. Orr, MD Debby Read, RN VP FOR COMMUNICATIONS Margie Shealy AD SALES Margie Shealy 423-844-1000 DESIGN Judy Johnson PRINTING Pulp CMDA is a member of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA).

TODAY’S CHRISTIAN DOCTOR®, registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. ISSN 0009-546X, Spring 2013 Volume XLIV, No. 1. Printed in the United States of America. Published four times each year by the Christian Medical & Dental Associations® at 2604 Highway 421, Bristol, TN 37620.

Copyright © 2012, Christian Medical & Dental Associations®. All Rights Reserved. Distributed free to CMDA members. Non-doctors (US) are welcome to subscribe at a rate of $35 per year ($40 per year, international). Standard presort postage paid at Bristol, Tenn.

Postmaster: Send address changes to: Christian Medical & Dental Associations, P.O. Box 7500, Bristol, TN 37621-7500.

Undesignated Scripture references are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, Copyright© 1973, 1978, 1984, Biblica. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved. Scripture references marked (KJV) are taken from the King James Version. Scripture references marked (MSG) are taken from The Message. Copyright© 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group. Scripture references marked (NASB) are taken from the New American Standard Bible®, Copyright© 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. Scripture references marked (NIV 2011) are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright© 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. Scripture references marked (NKJV) are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright© 1982

by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Other versions are noted in the text.

For membership information, contact the Christian Medical & Dental Associations at: P.O. Box 7500, Bristol, TN 37621-7500; Telephone: 423-844-1000, or toll-free, 888-230-2637; Fax: 423-844-1005; Email: memberservices@cmda.org; Website: http://www.joincmda.org.

If you are interested in submitting articles to be considered for publication, visit www.cmda.org/publications for submission guidelines and details. Articles and letters published represent the opinions of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy of the Christian Medical & Dental Associations.

Acceptance of paid advertising from any source does not necessarily imply the endorsement of a particular program, product or service by CMDA. Any technical information, advice or instruction provided in this publication is for the benefit of our readers, without any guarantee with respect to results they may experience with regard to the same. Implementation of the same is the decision of the reader and at his or her own risk.

CMDA cannot be responsible for any untoward results experienced as a result of following or attempting to follow said information, advice or instruction.

t r a n s f o r m a t i o n s Get TCD on Your Tablet or Phone As part of our efforts to continually improve and enhance the quality of the resources CMDA offers, we’re excited to announce that Today’s Christian Doctor is now available for you to access on your tablet, smartphone, computer or other electronic device. This new e-zine edition of the magazine will allow you to enjoy a new enhanced, interactive and multimedia publication.

When you read TCD on your electronic device, you will be able to watch videos that accompany the article you are reading, listen to podcast interviews with the author, scroll through a gallery of pictures, link directly to online resources and much more. You can flip through the pages easily, search for a specific article or navigate directly to a certain page. You can also highlight or bookmark your favorite pages or articles, and even send your notes or bookmarks to your email.

Because it is designed to be user-friendly, you can modify the view options to suit your individual needs.

But don’t worry; you’ll still be able to access all this information and more while reading the print edition. In the print edition, we will recommend websites for you to visit, interviews to listen to and videos to watch. Plus, you can scan smart tags located throughout the magazine with your smartphone to check out additional information.

To access the latest e-zine edition of Today’s Christian Doctor, visit www.cmda.org/tcd. If you would like to change your subscription preferences, please contact Member Services at memberservices@cmda.org or call 888-230-2637.

Look for this interactive icon throughout the magazine for links to videos, interviews and more resources from CMDA.

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t r a n s f o r m a t i o n s Member Awards The Hospital of Central Connecticut’s William A. Petit, Jr., MD, Physician Service Award was recently presented to David A.J. Belman, MD. This annual award recognizes extraordinary commitment and service to the hospital, the community, the medical staff or patients. Dr. Belman, an orthopedic surgeon, is a lifetime member of CMDA and previously served on the Board of Trustees. He has a long history of community service worldwide, having done medical missionary work in Honduras, Zimbabwe, Mexico and Jamaica, as well as educating medical missionaries in Kenya. _________________________________________________ The Medical Society of Virginia Foundation awarded a 2012 Salute to Service Award to Sierra Coartney, a medical student from Floyd, Virginia. She was honored for her efforts to improve patient care, both locally and abroad. Sierra is a fourth year medical student at Edward Via VA College of Osteopathic Medicine and is a member of CMDA. Created in 2004, the annual Salute to Service Awards recognize the outstanding efforts of those dedicated to creating and nurturing a caring health promotion and disease prevention environment for patients everywhere. _____________________________ The American Medical Association presented the Dr. Nathan Davis International Award in Medicine to Mark L. Jacobson, MD, MPH, a medical missionary serving in Tanzania. Dr. Jacobson has been building public health capacity in East Africa for more than 30 years, having spent the last two decades transforming a small dispensary in the outskirts of Arusha, Tanzania into the Selian Lutheran Hospital, which now encompasses 10 buildings, 250 employees and 12 physicians.

Dr. Jacobson attended Harvard College and then medical school at the University of Minnesota and prepared in public health at Johns Hopkins University.

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t r a n s f o r m a t i o n s Enter CMDA’s Photo Contest Do you enjoy taking pictures? Are you always snapping photos when you meet up with your CMDA friends? Did you take your camera with you on a recent mission trip? If you answered yes, then this new contest is just for you!

Photographs tell a story and we need your help to tell the story about CMDA’s ministry. We are looking for great photos from your local CMDA gatherings, regional conferences, mission trips or other events to use in our publications.

Submit your photos to the new CMDA Photo Contest and you could win an iPad Mini!

Each photograph you submit possesses the power to grow and promote Christ in healthcare. You can submit as many photos as you would like. And to make it easier, we’ve given you four categories that are of special interest to CMDA. • Missions – showing the work you’re doing in domestic or international missions • Students/Residents – showcasing the activities of your local campus or community ministry • Public Square – displaying your efforts in public policy • Christians in Healthcare – showing how you and your colleagues are being the hands and feet of Christ in your profession To get started submitting your photos, visit CMDA’s Flickr site at http://www.flickr.com/groups/cmdaphotolibrary/. The contest ends on October 31, 2013, and the winning photograph will be announced in the spring 2014 issue of Today’s Christian Doctor. The grand prize winner will receive a FREE iPad Mini! The grand prize photograph will also be featured in a number of CMDA publications.

All photographs must be original works and in a jpeg or TIFF high resolution format of at least 300 dpi at 8x10 inches. By submitting your photos, you warranty that the photo is original and not copyrighted and you grant CMDA a royalty-free, worldwide, non-exclusive license to display, distribute and reproduce in any media now existing or subsequently developed, for any educational, promotional, publicity, archival, exhibition and all other standard CMDA purposes. For a full list of contest rules and additional information, visit www.cmda.org/photocontest.

Website Directory Transformation

Equipping

Campus Ministries cmda.org/student Chapel & Prayer Ministries cmda.org/chapel Community Ministries cmda.org/ccm Dental Ministries cmda.org/dentist Medical Malpractice cmda.org/mmm Side By Side cmda.org/sidebyside Singles cmda.org/singles Specialty Sections cmda.org/specialtysections Women in Medicine & Dentistry cmda.org/wimd

Christian Doctor’s Digest cmda.org/cdd Conferences cmda.org/meetings Donations cmda.org/donate Human Trafficking cmda.org/trafficking Membership joincmda.org Placement cmda.org/placement Today’s Christian Doctor cmda.org/tcd Weekly Devotions cmda.org/devotions

Voice Service Center for Medical Missions cmda.org/cmm Global Health Outreach cmda.org/gho Global Health Relief cmda.org/ghr Medical Education International cmda.org/mei Pan-African Academy of Christian Surgeons cmda.org/paacs Scholarships cmda.org/scholarships

American Academy of Medical Ethics ethicalhealthcare.org Washington Office cmda.org/washington Freedom2Care freedom2care.org

Social Media Blogs cmda.org/blogs Facebook facebook.com/cmdanational Twitter twitter.com/cmdanational YouTube youtube.com/cmdavideos

t r a n s f o r m a t i o n s Helping Raise Awareness about Human Trafficking To help raise awareness about human trafficking in their communities, two local CMDA chapters in Richmond, Virginia and Fresno, California recently hosted screenings of Trade of Innocents, a film that brings to light the atrocities of human trafficking. Produced by CMDA members Dr. Bill and Laurie Bolthouse, the film is set in the seedy brothels of Cambodia and stars Dermot Mulroney and Mira Sorvino.

Approximately 350 people attended the showing in Richmond when the local chapter partnered with the Richmond Justice Initiative to show the movie on National Human Trafficking Awareness Day. In addition to the film, they also shared more information about the issue’s relevance to the local community and a trafficking survivor from North Carolina shared her testimony. The event was free to the public with a suggested donation to help cover costs. Local CMDA members helped to make the event a success by putting up posters, “What a blessing last night advertising and assisting the night of the showing. was. Although it was tough As we seek to increase awareness of and involvement in initiatives to combat against to watch, the movie brought human trafficking, we encourage you or your local chapter to host a showing of the film home that we are in a fight and many precious people in your area. For more information, visit www.tradeofinnocents.com. Through CMDA’s need to know the love of Bookstore, you can also purchase your personal copy of Trade of Innocents at a discountJesus. Thank you for stepping ed rate of $19.95 plus shipping and handling. When you purchase your copy through out to make this possible.”

CMDA, CMDA benefits by receiving 50 percent of the retail cost. Be sure to include the – Spouse of RCMDA promo code “CMDA” when you visit www.tradeofinnocentsthemovie.com/cmda to purCouncil Member chase your copy.

The film will inspire you to get involved in the fight against human trafficking. You can make a difference to the millions of people who have been forced into the different types of modern day slavery.

Visit www.tradeofinnocents.com to get involved.

In Memoriam After a long struggle with cancer, William A. Johnson, MD, died on October 3, 2012. Dr. Johnson graduated from Wheaton College and Northwestern University. He served in the U.S. Army in Korea and Japan before starting his general surgery practice in California in 1954. Through the years, he gave of his time and skills to a variety of missionary organizations and he and his wife Bobbie went overseas several times to do short-term medical missions. They served at Africa Inland Mission Hospital in Kenya from 1971 to 1984.

Dr. Johnson was involved with CMDA in its early formative years in the 1940s, and he served as the first editor of the Christian Medical Society Journal. He also served as president of the organization from 1960 to 1961.

Memoriam and Honorarium Gifts Gifts received October through December 2012 Donald R. Crabtree in memoriam of Dan Crabtree Linda Swiney in memoriam of Henry Crowgey Mary B. Cox in memoriam of Henry Crowgey Dr. Don Wood in memoriam of Dr. Bob Schiedt Dr. Stephen Houseworth in honor of Dr. Bruce Steffes Dr. Katherin Lai in honor of Dr. Ali Ko-Tsai and Dr. Randall Owen Dr. James and Carson Kistner in honor of Drs. Matthew and Julia Schaffer Janet and Thomas Titkemeier in honor of Doris Buckenmeyer Maryanne and Ralph McDevitt in honor of Robin Morgenthaler Samuel Williams, II, MD in honor of Carl and Mother Steffes Jerry and Ann Powell in honor of Weston Powell Janie Jones in honor of Joseph Thacker For more information about honorarium and memoriam gifts, please contact stewardship@cmda.org.

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t r a n s f o r m a t i o n s . . . in Ministry

. . . on Campus

“Thank you for taking the time to provide me with all of that helpful information!

I really appreciate it! I am just beginning my search for direction in this part of my journey. I will certainly explore the courses, books and organizations that you recommended, while I pray for God’s direction and will. You have blessed me today.”

– A CMDA member receiving resources from the Center for Medical Missions

“Last week I had the wonderful opportunity to attend Dr. Amstutz’s talk for the CMDA lunch. As a D1 student, it was so encouraging to hear a talk on using dentistry to serve others and the impact we can have for the Lord when we use the talents He has blessed us with in that way.”

– A first year dental student

“Having been married for 33 years, we’ve made every mistake possible. We are anxious to share our combined wisdom so others don’t have to suffer as we did.”

– An attendee at a Marriage Enrichment Weekend

Seen

& Heard the CMDA voice

“Medical school is a spiritual desert, requiring saving and encouraging oases like CMA. Without that God-provided community, I doubt I would have been able to continue in my medical education. The challenges provided by conferences and good speakers are inspiring. It is necessary to have an older Christian doctor example showing us that there is a different, Christ-following way, to perform medical school and beyond. Through CMA, I’m learning that being a Christian doctor requires tremendous (and reasonable) sacrifices to serve those that Christ calls us to serve.”

– A medical student “CMA at Miami is essential for me. I not only enjoy it, I really need it. I need it to relax, recharge and learn from the Bible and from the other Christians at this institution.”

– A second year medical student “Getting to talk with REAL doctors who are also STRONG Christians is perhaps the most inspiring aspect of CMA for me as a medical student. It reassures me that ‘Yes, you can be a good Christian and a good doctor at the same time in this day and age.’

It gives me role models to look up to and a road map for my future. It helps me sort out my priorities in medical school (Jesus = #1!) and convicts me that it is possible, because these doctors have been in my shoes and not only survived, but also thrived to the glory of God.” – A medical student

New Training Opportunity in Macedonia Join us in this Macedonian call! The Ministry of Health of Macedonia has opened the door for U.S. physicians to come to their country for one to two weeks to work alongside their doctors to help advance their level of specialty care. This is a special opportunity to advance the healthcare of an entire nation and, more importantly, bring the gospel to our colleagues in this unreached land.

As part of this new program, Macedonia will pay the airfare and lodging for the physicians who come. The initial specialties requested by the Ministry of Health are neurology, oncology, gynecology, ophthalmology, cardiology and pediatric subspecialties. In the fall, we will be open to take a broader array of specialties and subspecialties. Dates are available between February and May, and in the fall between August and November.

Dr. Andrew Sanders, CMDA’s Area Director for Augusta, Georgia, will be temporarily living in Macedonia to help coordinate this ministry. CMDA’s Medical Education International (MEI) is playing an important role in the development and leadership of this work. If you are interested in using your medical knowledge to impact a nation and to see the Lord advance His kingdom, please contact Dr. Andrew Sanders for more information at cmdaaugusta@gmail.com.

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. . . in Missions “My greatest blessing was spending time with my sister, who came along as a translator. I gained an understanding and appreciation for the circumstances she grew up in. I also got to see how God used this to help her be a blessing to others. She connected with the patients in a way that I was unable. We are very different and her path has been a little more meandering than mine, but I have never been so proud of her. Five years ago, I would never have believed that we would be doing something like this together but God has His plans. I’m just thankful He softened my heart and helped us to heal our relationship.”

– A physician on a GHO trip to Guatemala “This team had traveled together before, and this was my first time.

It felt as if I had known them my entire life. The team members were so inspiring to me. I have always felt that God was calling me to serve Him overseas . . . my medical training is very specialized and not necessarily suited to global health service, but MEI has provided a way for me to serve the Lord with the skills He has given me.

I am so grateful for this opportunity. It has changed the way I view my clinical and academic practice as well as my calling.”

– A first time participant on a MEI trip to Ukraine “One of the many little surprises God had buried into this year’s trip was a revisit to one of those assumptions I had made of myself since high school—I assumed that I had no useful skills for His kingdom since I’m not eloquent, I have poor memory and am not a medical person or an engineer. What God HAS refined in me over the years is organizational skills for little objects—like pills, papers or glasses.

Last year, He had me in the pharmacy organizing and pulling prescriptions; this year, He had me in glasses clinic, organizing and pulling glasses. Who knew that there was even a niche in His plan for someone like me? He clearly did and had designed it to be this way since the beginning of time.”

– A participant on a GHO trip to Nepal “For the first time, I prayed with someone who had never heard of Jesus. I also saw and felt the oppression of slavery and its devastation.

But I also saw the redemption of a once hopeless life to a life changed

by Jesus in the midst of darkness and evil.”

– A physician on a GHO trip to India “This gave me a window to the world that I have never seen, only imagined. I saw God’s servants working among the lost with devotion and commitment that matches anything that I have seen in my professional career. The Christian physicians working tirelessly in an oppressive environment were happy to do that and showed me Christ’s love in action.”

– A team member on a MEI trip to China

Have you been

transformed?

Are you

transforming others?

We want to hear from you Send your transformation story, letter or photos to communications@cmda.org or to P.O. Box 7500, Bristol, TN 37621.

Please include an email address for us to contact you.

We want to hear your story It can be a simple comment about a CMDA ministry; it can be an account of your experiences on a missions trip; it can be a profile of a member who has had a huge impact upon you; it can be photos from a campus meeting; it can be statistics showing how your trip served the needy; it can truly be anything— we want to see how your work is making a difference.

We want to hear your ideas Do you have a great idea for Today’s Christian Doctor?

Send your ideas to communications@cmda.org.

Transformations showcasing the impact of CMDA one story at a time

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United We Stand, Divided We Fall – Patrick Henry, 1799

by David Stevens, MD, MA (Ethics)

L

ately, I’ve been thinking about that famous phrase from Patrick Henry. I thought about it as I talked to an OB/Gyn member who was fired on the basis of bogus charges brought by a hardcore abortion activist in the multi-specialty group where he worked. His former bosses then made sure he couldn’t get a job anywhere else in his area. He won in court, but the judge gave almost no penalty to the former employer or compensation to him. Because he had been unable to find a similar job, he had given his services to a Christian clinic for the poor. And since he hadn’t made anything, the court decided he wasn’t owed anything, despite depleting his retirement account to survive.

I thought about that phrase when a CMDA member contacted us recently because he was being investigated by his state medical board due to a patient’s complaint. He had compassionately and competently dealt with the homosexual patient’s medical problems, but wasn’t willing to sign a form endorsing that he would make a good foster parent.

Christian healthcare professionals are pressured, censured, discriminated against, targeted and fired because of their deeply held religious beliefs. And the problem is only getting worse. I believe that we must stand together as physicians, but also more closely unite our efforts with our nurse, pharmacy, physician assistant and other Christian healthcare colleagues.

Otherwise, each group is going to be picked off one by one until Christians are driven out of healthcare.

CMDA continues to strengthen its ties with the Alliance Defending Freedom (formerly the Alliance Defense Fund), the Christian Legal Society, the Becket Fund for Religious Freedom and other legal groups. We have brought more than 50 organizations together to defend right of conscience under our “Freeom2Care” banner.

We are also working to strengthen our ties with other Christian medical groups. I’m happy to announce that the Fellowship of Christian Physician Assistants (FCPA) is joining CMDA. This makes sense since PAs face many of the same issues as physicians do every day. PAs will be associate members of CMDA, and FCPA will become a “section,” a group of members sharing a common bond like our military, academic and family practice sections.

CMDA will provide a greater wealth of resources and

services to PAs than they have enjoyed in the past. I trust this will draw many more Christian physician assistants into membership. If you have Christian PAs working in your practice or community, encourage them to join with us. As we increase our numbers, our voices together will be that much stronger. As Ecclesiastes 4:12 reminds us, “Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.”

We also want to share our resources, services, networks and influence with Nurses Christian Fellowship and Christian Pharmacy Fellowship International. We may even find areas where we can share infrastructure to decrease costs and cross promote membership so that nurses are encouraging Christian physicians and dentists to join CMDA, and we are doing the same by encouraging Christian nurses to join NCF. This is not a totally new idea. CMDA’s Global Health Outreach has been the short-term missions outreach arm of all these Christian health associations since it was started in the late 1990s, and they all have seats on the GHO advisory council.

Ben Franklin’s words at the signing of the Declaration of Independence ring as true today for Christian healthcare professionals as they did in 1776, “We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.” It is time to more closely unite efforts. As a CMDA member, help us do that! ✝

Watch this special video from Dr. David Stevens.

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Ministries of the Christian Medical & Dental Associations®

TRANSFORMATION Ministries that transform medical professionals’ lives through evangelism and discipleship 1. Campus Ministries [J. Scott Ries, MD – ccm@cmda. org] A team of more than 60 regional and area staff who organize campus Bible and ethics studies, mission teams, leadership training and outreach functions on more than 240 medical and dental campuses in the U.S. Hosts the monthly CMDA Student and Resident Life Webinar Series, reaching the current generation of students and residents with critical life skills.

2. Chapel and Prayer Ministries [Jeff Amstutz, DDS – dental@cmda.org] Mobilization of staff and members to pray, as well as chapel services held in Bristol with recordings available at www.cmda.org/chapel.

3. Christian Dental Association [Jeff Amstutz, DDS – dental@cmda.org] Encouraging and supporting dental professionals and students as we strive to integrate our Christian faith into all aspects of our lives.

4. Commissions [www.cmda.org] Singles (networking, conferences, mission trips and resources to meet the unique needs of single members) and Women in Medicine and Dentistry (conferences, resources and networking to meet the distinctive needs of women in healthcare).

5. Community Ministries [J. Scott Ries, MD – ccm@ cmda.org] Our local graduate ministries present an opportunity for members to connect with fellow members in local area ministries to provide mentoring and ministry resources to assist them in living out the character of Christ in their practices and lives.

6. Side By Side [Robin Morgenthaler – sidebyside@ cmda.org] An outreach ministry to support women who are in medical and dental marriages.

7. Specialty Sections [sections@cmda.org] Academic Medicine, Academic Surgery, Dermatology, Emergency Medicine, Family Medicine, Pediatrics, Physician Assistants, Psychiatry and Uniformed Services. These sections equip, network and provide a voice for CMDA members to their areas of specialty or service.

SERVICE Ministries that provide opportunities for doctors and others to use their God-given skills to meet the needs of others and to share the gospel with them 8. Center for Medical Missions [Susan Carter, BSN, MPH – cmm@cmda.org] A CMDA department aiding in the recruitment, training and retention of career medical missionaries, including pre-field orientation training for new medical missionaries.

The Christian Medical & Dental Associations (CMDA) exists to glorify God by motivating, educating and equipping Christian healthcare professionals and students. As it seeks to change hearts in healthcare, CMDA currently serves more than 16,000 members while providing resources, networking opportunities, education and a public voice through its numerous outreach ministries. This easy reference tool provides a list of CMDA’s resources, services and ministry opportunities. Visit www.cmda.org for more information and to get involved.

9. Global Health Outreach (GHO) [Donald Thompson, MD, MPH&TM – gho@cmda.org] One of CMDA’s short-term mission programs that sends 40 to 50 medical/dental/surgical mission outreach teams annually.

Also includes short-term surgical trips to the university hospital in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, through a partnership with Operation New Life. Designed to disciple participants, grow national churches, share the gospel and provide care to the poor and needy on the edge of survival.

10. Global Health Relief (GHR) [www.cmda.org/ghr] An outreach ministry focused on bringing health and hope to people affected by disasters around the world through medical, dental, spiritual and psychological care.

11. Healthcare for the Poor [www.cmda.org] Our domestic health outreach, in partnership with Christian Community Health Fellowship, encourages Christians in medicine and dentistry to provide healthcare for the poor and marginalized, and offers speakers to student chapters to help them discover their missional call.

12. Medical Education International (MEI) [mei.director @cmda.org] Short-term teams teaching healthcare professionals in academic or clinical settings to bring transformation by advancing medical, dental, bioethical and educational knowledge while modeling and sharing Christ with them.

13. Mission Management Consultation [Susan Carter, BSN, MPH – cmm@cmda.org] Consultation service offered to international mission ministries.

14. Scholarships and Grants [www.cmda.org/scholarships] Dental Student Scholarships (provides up to $250 to assist with GHO short-term mission trips), Johnson Short-Term Mission (provides scholarships of up to $1,000 to residents doing rotations in medical mission ministries), Owen Grants (for short-term missions for students at Southwestern Medical School), Risser Fund (training and ministry to Third World national orthopedic doctors), Steury Scholarship Fund ($100,000 awarded annually to a medical student going into career missions), Tami Fisk Mission (for medical personnel desiring mission service in East Asia) and Westra Mission (up to $500 to medical students doing short-term mission trips or medical mission rotations).

EQUIPPING Resources and services that give medical professionals and the church the knowledge and tools they need to effectively serve the Lord 15. Affinity Program [www.cmda.org/creditcard] CMDA Credit Card, a rewards program that supports the ministries of CMDA.

16. Christian Doctor’s Digest [Margie Shealy – communications@cmda.org] Bimonthly audio magazine resource containing interviews on timely topics of interest to doctors and their families.

17. Commissions [www.cmda.org] Continuing Medical & Dental Education (annual two-week CMDA conference in Kenya or Thailand), Marriage Enrichment (provides weekend retreats each year to help doctors strengthen their marriages), Medical Malpractice Ministry (prayer, resources and encouragement to doctors experiencing malpractice suits), Pan-African Academy of Christian Surgeons (PAACS) (surgical residencies in African mission hospitals).

18. Conferences [Melinda Mitchell – meetings@cmda.org] Includes CMDA’s annual National Convention, the Global Missions Health Conference, Media Training and numerous topical, regional and local conferences listed at www.cmda.org/meetings.

19. Continuing Medical/Dental Education [Barbara Snapp – ce@cmda.org] Accredited by the ACCME to provide AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™ and an Academy of General Dentistry Approved PACE Provider which enables CMDA to offer continuing medical and dental education courses alone or in partnership with other organizations.

20. Development/Stewardship Ministries [Jim Link – stewardship@cmda.org] An educational service, teaching members to be good stewards of the resources God had given them.

21. Ethics Hotline [423-844-1000] An on-call program to assist members who face difficult patient care decisions, provided by the volunteers members of the Ethics Committee that formulates CMDA’s ethical position statements for Board and House of Representative approval.

22. Grace Prescriptions [Melinda Mitchell – meetings@ cmda.org] Training for healthcare providers via conferences on how to appropriately and effectively help their patients with spiritual issues.

23. Internet Resources www.cmda.org [Margie Shealy – communications@cmda.org] A website with more than 4,000 pages of resources (position papers, magazine articles, meeting calendars, audio and video files and other information), as well as social media sites such as blogs (www.cmda.org/blogs), Facebook (www.facebook.com/cmdanational), Twitter (www.twitter.com/cmdanational) and YouTube (www.youtube.com/cmdavideos).

24. Life & Health Resources [www.shopcmda.org] A distribution service for CMDA-produced and recommended resources through the CMDA Bookstore, including Just Add Water (a DVD resource of outstanding speakers for home or other group meetings).

25. Member Services [Raquel McLamb – memberservices @cmda.org] Assists members with information regarding the services and resources available through CMDA, as well as membership recruitment, renewals and retention.

26. Newsletters [communications@cmda.org] A wide variety of informational print and e-newsletters from our ministries providing updates and resources to encourage, equip and motivate readers. For a full list of newsletters available and to subscribe, visit www.cmda.org/newsletters.

27. Placement Services [Allen Vicars – placement@ cmda.org] Recruiting service that brings together Christian physicians, dentists, mid-level providers and practices throughout the U.S. to enhance their ministry and advance the kingdom of God. 28. Prescribe-A-Resource [www.cmda.org/par] A catalog of CMDA-approved resources indexed by topic designed to meet the needs of both healthcare professionals and patients.

29. Speaker Referral Bureau [Margie Shealy – communications@cmda.org] An online self-referral speaker’s bureau of CMDA members.

30. Today’s Christian Doctor [Mandi Mooney – communications@cmda.org] A quarterly magazine with the goal of helping doctors become all that God has designed them to be.

VOICE Outreaches that speak for our members to the government, media, church and public on bioethical and public policy issues while also training Christians to be effective advocates themselves 31. American Academy of Medical Ethics® [www.ethicalhealthcare.org] A forum to help train and equip healthcare professionals to adopt the ethical tents defined by the Hippocratic tradition.

32. Amicus Curiae Briefs [Jonathan Imbody – washington@ cmda.org] A cooperative endeavor with Christian lawyers to develop legal briefs advocating for life and human dignity in important court cases.

33. Freedom2Care [www.freedom2care.org] Coalition advancing conscience rights in healthcare and providing legislative updates and action tools.

34. News Releases [Margie Shealy – communications@ cmda.org] CMDA’s response to breaking news on vital healthcare issues resulting in hundreds of media interviews each year.

35. Public Service Announcements (PSAs) [Margie Shealy – communications@cmda.org] Library of PSAs on ethical and healthcare topics available to radio stations each year.

36. Standards4Life [www.standards4life.org] Free webbased resource for the church or personal education that deals with the scientific and biblical issues surrounding tough bioethical issues in simple, easy-tounderstand language.

37. State Public Policy Campaigns [Margie Shealy – communications@cmda.org] Grassroots campaigns to promote life-honoring legislation/referendums at the state level on physician-assisted suicide, embryonic stem cell research and other issues.

38. Washington Office [Jonathan Imbody – washington@ cmda.org] Serving as a liaison with Congress, the White House, federal agencies and nongovernmental organizations in Washington, D.C. Providing opportunities for federal employment, Congressional testimony and committee service. Coordinating legal initiatives to gain justice in the courts.

c o v e r

s t o r y

Shaping Your Worldview:

by John Stonestreet

Visit www.cmda.org/cdd to listen to a Christian Doctor’s Digest interview with John Stonestreet on this topic and more.

The Challenge of Our Times

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our years ago, the inauguration of the first African-American president in United States history closed with a benediction from Pastor Rick Warren. Warren, author of the bestselling Purpose Driven Life, might be the most well-known evangelical pastor in America. Among the things well known about Warren at the time of his inaugural invitation was his stance on the definition of marriage.

Just weeks before the 2008 election, Warren released a widely-distributed video to the 20,000 member congregation of Saddleback Church articulating clear support for Proposition 8, the California state ballot initiative restricting marriage to one man-one woman unions. Surprisingly, the ballot initiative passed, and traditional marriage continued its streak of unanimous defense in every case in which the citizens were allowed to vote on it.

The invitation for Warren to pray at the inauguration weeks later drew minor protests from lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) activists that went largely unnoticed. After all, President Obama had also articulated his belief in a traditional definition of marriage during the campaign on Saddleback’s stage.

Warren felt more heat from fellow evangelicals for accepting the invitation than the President-elect did for initiating it.

Fast forward to 2013. President Obama’s very public reversal on the definition of marriage during his first term is well known. In the same election in which he was re-elected by a large margin, voters in four states decided to legalize so-called “same-sex marriage.” For the benediction at his second inauguration, the planning committee issued an invitation to another popular evangelical pastor, Louis Giglio, reflecting the President’s interest in C HRISTIAN M EDICAL & D ENTAL A SSOCIATIONS

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Photo by Timothy Vollmer

Giglio’s social justice activity to end worldwide human trafficking.

LGBT activists again went to work, and discovered a sermon preached by Giglio nearly 20 years ago in which he expressed his belief in the historic and theologically orthodox position that homosexuality, like all sexual activity outside of marriage, is sinful but fully subject to the redemptive work of Christ.

LGBT activists swarmed and, according to some reports, the administration swiftly told the inaugural committee to “fix it.” Giglio withdrew under pressure and was replaced by an Episcopal priest who fully endorsed homosexual behavior and same-sex “marriage.” What a difference four years makes.

Decades ago, Francis Schaeffer observed that the West had become post-Christian but was living on what he called “borrowed capital.” If there was any doubt about his prediction, the scenario described above should put those to rest. Simply put, American society is functioning now by a different set of definitions, standards and, increasingly, laws.

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Photo by ep_jhu@yahoo.com

It’s tempting to see anecdotes like the one described above as isolated incidents, but that would be a mistake. Rather, it’s one among many examples where boundaries of religious liberty are shrinking and boundaries of sexual freedom are expanding. Another example is the contraceptive mandate in the Affordable Care Act forcing most employers to subsidize contraception and abortioninducing medication. These medications, which are already accessible and affordable to most, are not only to be available to employees but also free for them. Adding insult to injury, the mandate’s socalled religious exemption is so narrow that it enshrines in law a definition of religious entity that does not include Christian charities, educational institutions or ministries. This represents an incredible shift in what has long been the accepted cultural understanding of the important role religious groups of all sorts play in helping the poor and providing services that the state cannot.

Those in professional sectors are impacted as well.

The religious exemption offers no solution for those like the Green (Hobby Lobby) and Newland (Hercules Industries) families, who wish to run their private family-owned businesses according to their convictions. Unless the mandate is overturned in court, they’ll face significant fines for refusing to violate their conscience by complying.

What do we make of these issues? How do they relate to other areas of Christian concern such as the cultural addiction to decadent media, the increase of personal

Photo by Steve Jurvetson

As the Culture Shifts . . .

and public debt, the normalization of cohabitation and divorce and the shrinking birthrate? How can we properly understand them as Christians and, even more significantly, respond to them with the heart and mind of Christ?

The Root of the Fruit

Photo by Veni Markovski

What we are witnessing in our culture is the result of a shift even more significant and fundamental than of values or of morals. The shift that took place over the last several decades was at the level of worldview. The commonly held assumptions about the nature of reality and the human condition that organized American culture were abandoned, and the full consequences are just now coming to fruition.

In our book Making Sense of Your World: A Biblical Worldview, my co-authors and I defined worldview as “a framework of basic beliefs we hold, whether we know it or not, that shape our view of and for the world.” A key part of this definition is “whether we know it or not.”

Everyone has a worldview. The question is not if we have a worldview, but which one is wielding influence over our lives.

Our worldview consists of a framework of basic beliefs. One of the things separating humans from other animals is that we try to make sense of our lives. We explore aspects of our existence such as “Where did everything come from?” “Why are we here?” “What’s right and wrong, and how do we know?” “What happens when we die?” and “Who am I?” Various ways of asking and answering questions like these are at the heart of human interaction with the world. Humans have explored them in the arts and the sciences, privately and publically, in law and in literature.

Based on these assumptions, we make judgments about how the world works. We determine the nature of the problems with the human condition and how they might be fixed. We order the structures of our societies and orient them toward the values we assume to be true.

Ask the average person on the street about their worldview, and you are likely to get a strange look. Still, they have one. Individuals in communities tend to share a common worldview. One of the most powerful aspects of culture is reinforcing worldview assumptions to members of the community. In our culture, this happens primarily through entertainment, media, academics and politics.

Far too often, particularly in the West, cultural assumptions go unexamined. As Czech playwright and political dissident Vaclav Havel once said, “The tragedy

of modern man is not that he knows less and less about the meaning of his own life, but that it bothers him less and less.” Therefore, most people acquire their worldview just as they acquire a cold. They catch it from the environment.

Our worldview, whether we are aware of it or not, does its work in our lives. Worldviews are personal, but never private. According to our definition, it offers a framework both of life and the world and for life and the world.

First, our worldview is descriptive. In other words, it frames reality for us. Is the world we live in a product of God’s design, or the product of mindless natural causes and processes? Is suffering the story of the world, as the Buddha suggested, or is redemption its story, as the Christ suggested? Are there moral norms that transcend all cultures, or is moral-

ity determined by local groups of people as a survival mechanism?

Whatever world we think we live in shapes how we choose to live in it. Thus, our worldview is also prescriptive. Why do some suppose it’s fully acceptable to terminate an unwanted pregnancy while others see it as no less than the taking of an innocent life? Why are some medical scientists in favor of enhancing the evolutionary process through genetic engineering while others see it as “playing God?” In light of this, we can see why Richard Weaver’s oft-quoted maxim is, in fact, very true: ideas have consequences. If we are mistaken about which world we actually live in, we’ll have significant blind spots both as individuals and as societies. For example, the neoDarwinian view of reality offers no grounding for the inherent value or equality of all human beings.

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President Barack Obama greets doctors and nurses following his remarks about healthcare reform in the East Room of the White House, March 3, 2010. (Official White House Photo by Chuck Kennedy.)

Throughout the 20th century, societies oriented around that view of human origins found reason to take the lives of individuals who did not advance their respective agendas. Jews, gypsies, political dissidents, the elderly, the infirmed and the unborn were all victims of what were sincerely held, but very bad, ideas about life and the world.

On the other hand, many American Christians had a worldview blind spot throughout much of the 20th century. Leftover cultural residue of slavery and racism led to the mistaken justification of Jim Crowe laws and other forms of discrimination. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” masterfully challenged those blind spots and iterated a framework for morality and justice from a biblical worldview.

How Worldviews Collide Today

Audience members listen as President Barack Obama delivers remarks at a rally on health insurance reform at the University of Maryland, in College Park, Md., Sept.

17, 2009. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza.)

CMDA CEO Dr. David Stevens met privately with U.S. Sec. of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to discuss advancing U.S. international health programs through the faith community overseas. Meeting participants pictured include: (l-r) David Adams, Assistant Secretary for Legislative Affairs, Department of State; Dr. Rajiv Shah, Administrator of USAID; Galen Carey, Vice President of Government Relations for the National Association of Evangelicals; Susan Johnson Cook, U.S. Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom; Hillary Rodham Clinton, U.S. Secretary of State; Senator Lindsey Graham (SC); Dr. David Stevens, CEO, Christian Medical & Dental Associations; Dr. Kent Hill, Senior Vice President for International Programs, World Vision U.S.; Shepherd Smith, President and Founder, The Institute for Youth Development; Lois Quam, Executive Director, Global Health Initiative (Dept. of State).

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Chuck Colson often said that Christianity introduced the most revolutionary idea in the history of the world: the imago dei, that all humans were made in the image and likeness of God. Ideas we now take for granted in the West about freedom, dignity of work, rule of law, benevolence and charity, women’s rights and scientific potential were unknown in Greek, Roman, Eastern and other pagan societies. The reason is simple: they lacked adequate grounding for it in the broadly held worldviews of their societies.

The ramifications of the idea of imago dei shaped Western civilization and, in particular, the American experiment. When our country’s founders talked of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” they had in mind the classic idea of a good, productive and virtuous existence that all citizens were by nature entitled to and responsible for. These rights were, after all, “endowed by their Creator.”

It is foolish to think we can relegate the idea of God to myth or private belief and somehow think it will not change our understanding of citizenship and responsibility. However, that is precisely the new American experiment. As the structures of our culture become more and more secularized, religion finds itself relegated to purely private matters of personal faith and behavior. We now have what the late Richard John Neuhaus famously called a “naked public square.”

Naked, however, does not mean neutral.

Unfettered freedom has replaced the original understanding of responsible freedom. Moral norms that were once considered obvious and

necessary for human flourishing now seem outdated and oppressive. The new “good life” was stated perfectly in the U.S. Supreme Court decision on Planned Parenthood v. Casey: “At the heart of liberty is the right to define one’s own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe and of the mystery of human life.”1 Authentic freedom, the court declared, begins with no givens, no norms, no design. We are fully autonomous.

We are free to pursue whatever sort of life we wish to pursue.

It is important to note that in this decision, as is most often the case, politics was downstream of culture.

Culture, as Chuck Colson often said, is the “cult” of the people. Culture is merely the flesh of worldview. The political shifts we’ve seen are the fruit of the bad worldview ideas that have been systematically embraced for the last several decades.

A significant outcome of this shift has been the push to see sexual freedom as the right that trumps all other rights, especially religious freedom. In fact, most of the worldview collisions we see today in American culture are between what was historically considered our “first freedom,” our right of conscience, and what is now considered to be our most important freedom, the freedom of sexual expression. Georgetown University law professor Chai Feldblum said as much when asked about conflicts between religious liberty and sexual liberty.

She admitted, “I’m having a hard time coming up with any case in which religious liberty should win.”2 This conflict is not just an issue of shifting morality or legal theories. It results directly from a fundamentally new understanding of the human person. Are humans created or self-created? Are humans responsible to a higher power or fully autonomous? What you believe makes all the difference in the world (and the culture).

encounter. Here are questions every Christian should be prepared to ask:

Our Call: Clarity and Courage

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Understanding worldview used to be a matter of understanding one’s non-Christian friends and neighbors.

Today, it is a necessary tool for understanding the times in which we live. A basic understanding of the Christian worldview, as well as other worldviews, is absolutely vital if one is to heed Paul’s dual warning to not be taken “captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy,” but to “take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ” (Colossians 2:8, 2 Corinthians 10:5).

Every song, movie, television show, law, political ad, academic lecture, textbook, sculpture and sermon reflects the worldview of the one or ones who produce them. Since hiding from the world around us is neither practical nor biblical, active engagement is the remaining option. Parents must walk with their children through the marketplace of ideas, modeling an active discernment that asks revealing questions of what they

• “What do they mean by that?” (Definitions are very important. Often, someone might share our vocabulary, but not our dictionary.3) • “How do they know that is true?” (Assertions are not arguments. We must be able to tell the difference.)

• “What if they are right?” and “What if they are wrong?” (What consequences will emerge from these assumptions?)

• “Who are the good guys? Who are the bad guys?” (This is particularly helpful in discerning entertainment.)

Understanding the world is one thing. Engaging it is another. In recent American history, the key players in what have been called “the culture wars,” have been pastors and politicians. While they still have a significant role, the most important players now are professionals, particularly those in business and in medicine.

Further, in past decades, standing for one’s faith threatened one’s reputation. It is quite possible that the coming decades will bring with them tougher choices. We have already seen leaders of companies and non-profit organizations forced to choose between their convictions and their pensions, their profits and even their existence as entities.

Being a Christian in America has not required the sort of courage required of believers throughout history. That is no longer the case. It is the task of Christians everywhere to cultivate informed, winsome courage. ✝

Bibliography A good summary of the case can be found online at http://www.heritage.org/initiatives/rule-of-law/ judicial-activism/cases/planned-parenthood-v-casey 2 As quoted in The Weekly Standard, 15 May 2006.

3 I owe this observation to my friend Kevin Bywater of Summit Ministries (www.summit.org). Kevin is an expert on Mormonism, among other things.

1

About The Author John Stonestreet is a speaker and fellow of the Chuck Colson Center for Christian Worldview. With Eric Metaxas, John is the voice of Break Point, a daily radio commentary heard worldwide. You can follow John on Twitter (@jbstonestreet) or at www.breakpoint.org.

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The Unique Power to Change the World

by Will Rogers

Visit www.medicalmissions.com to register to attend GMHC 2013. Watch this highlight video from GMHC 2012.

Establishing a community of healthcare missions to serve as a foundation for engaging in missions

E

Photos courtesy of Jason W. Spencer ©2012

ach November, something unique happens at Southeast Christian Church in Louisville, Kentucky. It is here that thousands of healthcare professionals and hundreds of organizations gather together because of a shared belief that healthcare missions has the power to change the world. As we have gathered together over the years, that shared belief is turning into a reality. Together it’s happening. But what might be even more unique is that we don’t gather simply because of a conference. We gather because we also believe community is essential for this work, and our gathering over the years has developed this amazing community of healthcare missions.

To share this community with the world, we launched medicalmissions.com, a website tool that equips healthcare professionals with best practices and innovative ideas for ministry. The site had an incredible impact by helping to serve more than 40,000 professionals in 2012, and we’re excited to see the new directions the Lord intends for its continued development. We began this journey of developing the site believing that we needed to share the community we foster during the conference with the world every day of the year. We knew it was going to be a great resource, but the stories of its impact and effect are such a blessing and encouragement to us.

For the first time ever, we exhibited and shared this resource at Urbana 2012, a student missions conference held in St. Louis, Missouri. It was a truly humbling experience as we spent time connecting with students. I may never forget the first day as I explained the website to a first year medical student and showed her how to find organizations in her area of interest, how to access all the GMHC content online for free and how to even connect directly to healthcare professionals in various areas of practice or interest. Her glassed-over eyes suddenly filled with tears as she expressed how she’s been searching for two years for connections and how to make the next step.

And this wasn’t the only story. Throughout the conference, we saw how thirsty this next generation is for community.

And here’s the beautiful thing—this community exists and you are that community.

So where do we go from here? It’s really quite simple— we continue to pursue the problems we see that stand in the way of this community serving the kingdom well in healthcare missions. We believe there is something unique that happens when people of like minds and like interests join together with a common heart. We believe that community is the foundation of how God intends for C HRISTIAN M EDICAL & D ENTAL A SSOCIATIONS

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us to engage in missions and that we are all in this together. We also believe that we have an opportunity and a stewardship to see this community grow and thrive. These are the guiding principles that help guide us in developing both this online resource and the annual Global Missions Health Conference.

You play a critical role in this community, in the kingdom and in how you use your professional talent. In every form, healthcare has a vital ability to reach uniquely into the global healthcare needs of so many countries around the world and even right here in our backyard. There is no healthcare skill that isn’t needed today as we work together to share the love of our Savior. Many will say that healthcare missions is perhaps the greatest means for sharing the gospel. I disagree.

Healthcare missions is the gospel, and if you have a skill then you have a responsibility to steward that well.

We are witnessing countless transitions and innovative approaches to healthcare. With the advancement of technology, we’re even seeing telemedicine and remote patient review where American healthcare professionals are able to visit with and guide patient cases right here in the U.S. Thanks to the leadership of CMDA and Global Health Outreach, we’re seeing amazing best practices presented for how we engage local and national governments while working together toward sustainable solutions in healthcare missions. We stand in the gap of an exciting time when so many things are shifting and you are desperately needed to help be a catalyst of change in the future of healthcare missions.

We invite you to join us as we work together toward this amazing common goal. We invite you to join us at the 2013 GMHC in November and catch just a glimpse of what the Lord is doing around the world. We invite you to join our community. There is a place for you in this community that has the unique power to change the world. ✝

About The Author Will Rogers has worked in various aspects of strategy development for organizations since graduating from Milligan College, and served as the student body president while a student. Following graduation, Will took a leadership position with the Focus on the Family Leadership Institute overseeing the Office of Student Development and was able to journey with the program from its infancy. After Focus, Will moved to Florida to serve as the Chief Operating Officer of Christian Financial Services ($100+ million fund) to assist churches and ministries acquire loans and other financial guidance. Following his time with CFR, he began working with Southeast Christian Church as the Executive Director of the Global Missions Health Conference and continuing work with Focus on the Family’s global offices for strategy development. He is also the administrator of medicalmissions.com, a website designed to connect resources for medical missionaries.

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Experiencing the GMHC Community

by Michelle DuMond Last November, I attended the Global Missions Health Conference as a third year medical student.

My first experience at the conference was during my first year of medical school, and I was very excited to make it back this year. I have aspired to become a missionary doctor since I was young, and the GMHC continues to be a tremendous encouragement to me.

Like Elijah, I often wonder if I am the only one trying to become a missionary doctor, and this conference opened my eyes to the multitude of like-minded brothers and sisters around the world. The conference refreshed me and helped me realize that I am not alone in my endeavor to serve God through medical missions.

I tailored my conference experience to include lectures on my areas of interest. The most challenging part of the conference is choosing which lectures to attend! I was happy to find that they have a trafficking in persons tract which helped to guide my lecture choices. Additionally, I was able to meet some amazing people who are interested in similar areas, and I had a great time browsing the exhibit halls to get an idea of what organizations are out there for when I finish my training.

CMDA has several booths where you can get information about their outreach ministries, as well as meet other CMDA students, members and staff workers from around the country. I was especially blessed to be welcomed into the home of a wonderful Southeast Christian Church family who hosted me for the weekend through the student housing program. I would encourage as many students as possible who are interested in missions to attend next year’s conference because it is an incredible opportunity for learning and networking, as well as a fantastic time for fellowship and meeting new brothers and sisters in Christ!

Sexual Orientation

by André Van Mol, MD

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n September 2012, California became the first U.S. state to ban therapeutic sexual orientation conversion efforts (SOCE) involving minors. “[SOCE] . . . has resulted in much harm, including a number of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth committing suicide . . .This is junk science and it must stop,” said State Senator Ted Lieu, the bill’s sponsor.1 The therapies “have no basis in science or medicine and they will now be relegated to the dustbin of quackery,” Governor Jerry Brown proclaimed after signing the bill into law.2 Though also rejecting conversion therapy, a Los Angeles Times May 11, 2012 editorial “Bill overkill in Sacramento” protested, “Legislators have no special insights into psychiatry. . . . Frankly, it’s worrisome to have them stepping in to tell therapists what they may or may not say or do to treat patients.”

Taking the fight nationally, Rep. Jackie Speier, D-CA, introduced an anti-change-therapy resolution in Congress. Labeling it “quackery,” Rep. Speier finds SOCE “harmful and abusive.” She adds, “Being gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgendered [GLBT] is not a disease to be cured or a mental illness that requires treatment.”

It is all so? Is SOCE a snake oil, a false hope and a harmful pox that must be struck down in the name of science, safety and truth? Is it the science or the ideology that is settled? The answer must address both the record of change therapy and the nature of sexual orientation itself, including the results of behavior based on it.

The (Lack of) Scientific Evidence

Visit www.cmda.org/ethics to learn more about CMDA’s efforts to serve as a voice on issues, ethics and public policy.

SB 1172 is itself unsupported by science. The bill’s only study—Ryan, et al. (2009), 123, Pediatrics, 346-352—examined family rejection and not conversion therapy; used flawed sampling and recruitment bias; excluded youth; and cautioned against generalizing its results. In a press statement, Sen. Lieu erroneously claimed, “There is insufficient evidence that any type of psychotherapy can change a person’s sexual orientation.” But why ban SOCE based on “insufficient evidence?” California’s licensing agencies and mental health associations would surely have issued challenges to

Change Efforts in the Ideological Lions’ Den therapists’ licensures and memberships if conversion therapy was such a known hazard, yet they have not.

Decades of studies meeting the scientific standards of their time showed positive results of SOCE for those who wished it.3,4 Homosexual practice itself leads to numerous well-documented health hazards, including the loss of 25 to 40 percent of life expectancy with higher rates of infectious disease, cancers, substance abuse, depression, anxiety, multiple psychopathologies, domestic violence and suicide.5 Simply put, gay sex is generally bad for people, change is possible and many with GLBT orientation want change. Why should those willingly seeking a chance at therapy be denied it?

Despite the lack of supporting evidence, the modern move to change the professional view of change therapy came in 1973 when the American Psychiatric Association—through the efforts of its GLBT faction with guidance and financing from the National Gay Task Force— decided to delete homosexuality from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, thereby rejecting it as a disorder.6 Neuroscientist and gay activist Simon LeVay boasted, “Gay activism was clearly the force that propelled the American Psychiatric Association to declassify homosexuality.”7 A study four years later in Medical Aspects of Human Sexuality showed 69 percent of psychiatrists did not agree with the decision.8 Psychiatrist and educator Charles Socarides noted that psychiatrists who dissented were marginalized and saw their research papers turned down by journals.9 The process has been repeated in other professional guilds.

Genetic and Biological Input Levay conceded the self-evident, “. . . people who think that gays and lesbians are born that way are also more likely to support gay rights.”10 Few know of Levay, but when Lady Gaga sings that she was born this way, the public hears. If true, it is a convincing sales pitch for the entire gay rights package. If not, reversibility scuttles the politics.

Stanford geneticist Neil Risch noted in a 1998 Newsweek article that the public misunderstands behavioral genetics. “People very much want to find simple answers . . . A gene for this, a gene for that . . . Human behavior is much more complicated than that.”11 A 1993 scientific literature critique by Byne and Parsons in Archives of General Psychiatry reviewed the 130+ major

studies on the subject and found no evidence supporting sexual orientation being primarily determined either genetically or biologically.12 However, the efforts to prove otherwise persisted.

In January 2012, psychologist and educator Stanton Jones posted a marvelous essay, “Sexual orientation and reason: On the implications of false beliefs about homosexuality,”13 which I strongly recommend. Jones details three primary theories predominating in the debate regarding biological origins of same-sex sexual orientation: maternal stress, fraternal birth order and genetics.

Sociologist Lee Ellis proposed a maternal stress theory in 1987 positing that maternal neurohormones functioned in determining the sexual orientation of a fetus.14 Jones found strong selection bias compromising the study in that Ellis surveyed mothers of gay sons, inquiring regarding details of memory, while the mothers were being instructed about maternal stress theory. Selection bias aside, a 1991 study

by Bailey, et al, countered Ellis’ maternal stress theory.15 The theory now holds little sway.

Canada’s Anthony Bogaert published a 2003 survey study reporting that the fraternal birth order of men—the number of older brothers born to the same mother—correlated to increase chances of homosexual orientation.

The proposed explanation involved the sensitization of the maternal immune system to male-derived proteins.

Again, recruitment bias led to non-representative sampling.16 Per Canadian psychiatrist and distinguished fellow of the APA Joseph Berger, “[Bogaert’s study] is rubbish. It should never have been published.”17 However, the media was quick to carry the reported findings.

Jones continues, “Bogaert analyzed two smaller nationally representative samples, finding an exceptionally weak ‘older brother’ effect only for same-sex attraction (and no effect for same-sex behavior).”18 Bogaert then assessed “an independent . . . and representative sample eight times the size those of his previous studies, in which he found that the older brother effect had disappeared.”19 Jones further cites that a study of two million Danish subjects20 and another of 10,000 American adolescents also identified no “older brother” effect.2 The genetic hypothesis of same-sex sexual orientation has long held sway in the media, and twin studies helped propel this. Jones wrote that, in a 1991 Archives of General Psychiatry study, J. Bailey claimed that the concordance rate for homosexuality was 52 percent in identical male

twin pairs.22 Bailey had second thoughts about how his study subjects were recruited through advertisements in Chicago’s gay community. He next examined samples from the Australian Twin Registry, producing an identical male twin homosexual orientation concordance rate of 20 percent with simple descriptive matching at 11 percent. Bailey reported finding the genetic contribution to homosexual orientation failing to show statistical significance, but the media did not tune in.23 A 2010 study of the Swedish Twin Registry noted only 9.8 percent of identical male twin pairs matching for homosexual orientation.24 Per N.E. Whitehead, PhD, “. . . if one identical twin—male or female—has SSA, the chances are only about 10 percent that the co-twin also has it. In other words, identical twins usually differ for SSA.”25 In this case, how much of sexual orientation is of genetic versus environmental derivation is the question. Eric Turkheimer, an expert in the field, warns that heritability statistics are tricky due to difficulty in clearly seeing and assessing environmental factors, which he feels contribute strongly to development.26 Elsewhere, Turkheimer states, “. . . there are no known complex human behaviors in which genetics render the actor unable to resist performing a behavior . . .

Furthermore, the amount of influence that genes have on behaviors is considerably smaller than one might think.”27 He insists, “. . . genetic essentialists were wrong about gay genes and similar nonsense.”28 Epigenetics analyzes the interaction of genes and environment. Chains of choices and their consequences have a lifelong interplay with our genetic blueprints. For example, the more weight one gains, the more likely diabetes manifests. But even in the genetically disposed, diabetes can often be avoided by the right choices over time. Ultimately, genes determine predispositions, not destiny. Heritability is not inevitability. Were it otherwise, the Olympic games would be held in test tubes.

Even a 2008 APA brochure stated, “There is no consensus among scientists about the exact reasons that an 28

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individual develops a [GLBT] orientation. . . no findings have emerged that permit scientists to conclude that sexual orientation is determined by any particular factor or factors. Many think that nature and nurture both play complex roles . . .”29 The professional literature does not support sexual orientation being primarily genetic or biological. Lady Gaga missed the memo.

But Is Sexual Orientation Immutable?

In Sexual Orientation and Psychoanalysis: Sexual Science and Clinical Practice, Friedman and Downey state, “At clinical conferences one often hears . . . that homosexuality is fixed and unmodifiable. Neither assertion is true” (p. 39). Several large studies demonstrate that spontaneous changes of sexual orientation exist. The University of Chicago’s 1994 National Health and Social Life survey found that 8 percent of 16-year-olds thought they were gay, but by age 25, only 2.8 percent still did.

A 1999 New Zealand study followed 1,007 people longitudinally from birth through 21 years, by which age only 2 percent claimed homosexuality/bisexuality.30 During his 20-year tenure as Kaiser-Permanente HMO’s Chief of Mental Health, psychologist and past APA president Nicholas Cummings estimated that 16,000 clients presented at Kaiser facilities with conflicts over their homosexuality. He stated 67 percent had good outcomes, with 20 percent being successful in reorientation and the remaining 80 percent “pursuing sane, sexually responsible gay lives.” He observed, “There are as many kinds of homosexuals as heterosexuals. Homosexuality is not a unitary experience,” and “. . . our clinical experience contradicts efforts to reduce homosexuality to one set of factors.” Per Dr. Cummings, “Given the state of research, the APA should not reject the possibility that sexual orientation might be flexible for some . . . .”31 The 2009 APA task force report on SOCE offered severe critique of pro-SOCE research.32 The task force made Olympian demands of the pro-SOCE literature for what they deemed adequate scientific standards, such that

only six studies made the cut, with each subsequently dismissed. The report stated, “We thus concluded that there is little in the way of credible evidence that could clarify whether SOCE does or does not work in changing same-sex sexual attractions.”33 Dr. Jones observed, “They then had the chutzpah to warmly recommend gay affirming therapy while explicitly acknowledging that it lacked the very empirical validation required of SOCE,” and further warned, “the entire mental health field would grind to [a] stop if the standards articulated for sexual orientation change were applied . . . to low self-esteem, depression, anxiety disorders, eating disorders or personality disorders . . .” It’s called a double standard.

In 2011, Drs. Jones and Yarhouse published a longitudinal study of SOCE in the Journal of Sex and Marital Therapy showing positive results.34 In 2000, NARTH published a survey in Psychological Reports of 882 reparative therapy clients, who rated their experience positively across a range of variables. Only 7 percent said they were worse off on three or more of 17 psychological well-being measures.35,36 The categorical (all-or-none) versus the continuum view of change are at war. The former, held by many SOCE critics, views any recurrence of same-sex attraction or arousal as both a disproof and invalidation of therapy. But change occurs along a spectrum, not as an all-or-none result, and this holds true for nearly any form of therapy.37 The realm of the probable or possible is not limited to the bad personal experiences or speculations of a few. Any treatment has a failure rate, subpar practitioners, disgruntled patients, the truly abused and the not-so-compliant exaggerating their grievances—the enormous failure rate of drug and alcohol rehabilitation being a case in point— and yet, we do not condemn or ban these therapies.

Much media attention is given to those with negative stories of therapy to overcome their same-sex attraction.

Those with positive change experiences are intimidated into silence by the near certainty of vicious attacks and mockery in the press as well as from organizations committed to debunking sexual orientation change efforts as fraud. With good news taking cover, bad news owns the field.

Finding Identity in God Identity is the rallying cry, and many GLBT-oriented people think of this as their identity. Yet people are not primarily defined by their potentially ever-changing appetites. Sexual orientation is not immutable and behaviors are controllable. What is our identity then?

We are each creations made in the image of God, from whom even our Declaration of Independence notes our just rights derive. We should respectfully and compassionately identify people as people, regardless of their sexual orientation. One of my patients told me, “I love you because you always treat me like a woman, not a ‘lesbian woman,’” she emphasized with air quotes.

What if current evidence is one day reliably disproven and it turns out GLBT-oriented people are born that way? Theologically, two things come to mind: (1) that would be only another way that we are all born into sin; all have sinned; we all need a savior; and (2) it doesn’t matter what you were born, you must be born again, as Jesus pointed out.38 I’ve known more than 60 people who formerly were GLBT, along with several currently working on the transition. None of them waited for a medical guild or para church group to finalize their position papers on it before moving for change. Change is possible, as is shown in both scientific and theological literature, and many people of GLBT-orientation want it.

Truth and love should be traveling companions. As my wife puts it, “What is loving about telling someone they cannot change?”

The Los Angeles Times had this much right, it is worrisome to have legislators telling therapists how they can treat their patients. However, the broader question here is conscience rights, which are under increasing assault as seen in the abortion/abortifacient fronts of healthcare reform. Government engages in soft totalitarianism by presuming itself the final arbiter of both medicine and of what can and cannot be practiced or protested, thus neutering the First Amendment.

This development must be peacefully but vocally challenged by Christian and other culture-of-life physicians, lest ideology completely impair truth, science, medicine and freedom to the detriment of all. ✝

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http://sd28.senate.ca.gov/news/2012-04-23-senate-panel-cracks-down-deceptive-sexual-orientation-conversion-%E2%80%98therapies.

2 Calif. first to ban gay teen ‘conversion’ therapy. Associated Press. October 1, 2012.

3 Stanton L. Jones (January 2012), “Sexual orientation and reason: On the implications of false beliefs about homosexuality,” digitally published at www.christianethics.org or http://www.wheaton.edu/CACE/ Hot-Topics.

4 Satinover, Jeffrey, MD, Homosexuality and the Politics of Truth, (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1996), p.

185-187.

5 “Negative Health Consequences of Same Sex Sexual Behavior” by Dr. Andre Van Mol, pdf at http://tinyurl.com/4xvdghk.

6 Socarides, Charles, MD, “How America Went Gay.” www.leaderu.com. Oct. 18, 1995.

7 Satinover, Jeffrey, MD, “Dr. Jeffrey Satinover, M.D. Testifies in Mass. in Defense of the Family,” www.Satinover.com, 4/29/20004.

8 Satinover, Jeffrey, MD, Homosexuality and the Politics of Truth, (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1996), pp. 30-37.

9 Socarides, Charles, MD, “How America Went Gay.” www.leaderu.com. Oct. 18, 1995.

10 Satinover, Jeffrey, MD, “Dr. Jeffrey Satinover, M.D. Testifies in Mass. in Defense of the Family,” www.Satinover.com, 4/29/20004.

11 Leland, J. & M. Miller, “’Convert’?” Newsweek, August 17, 1998, p. 49.

12 Byne, W. & Parsons, B. (1993), “Human sexual orientation: the biologic theories reappraised.”

Archives of General Psychiatry, 50, p. 229-239.

13 See citation #3.

14 L. Ellis and A. Ames (1987), “Neurohormonal functioning and sexual orientation: A theory of homosexuality-heterosexuality,” Psychological Bulletin, 101, 233-238.

15 J.M. Bailey, L. Willerman & C. Parks, (1991), “A test of the maternal stress theory of male homosexuality,” Archives of Sexual Behavior, 20, 277-293.

16 A.F. Bogaert (2003), “Number of older brothers and sexual orientation: New tests and the attraction/behavior distinction in two national probability samples,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84 (3), 644-652.

17 http://www.narth.com/docs/bogaert.html.

18 A.F. Bogaert (2003), “Number of older brothers and sexual orientation: New tests and the attraction/behavior distinction in two national probability samples,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84 (3), 644-652.

19 A.F. Bogaert (2010), “Physical development and sexual orientation in men and women: An analysis of NATSAL-2000,” Archives of Sexual Behavior, 39, 110-116.

20 M. Frisch, & A. Hviid (2006), “Childhood family correlates of heterosexual and homosexual marriages: A national cohort study of two million Danes, Archives of Sexual Behavior 35(5), 533-547.

21 A.M. Francis (2008), “Family and sexual orientation: The family-demographic correlates of homosexuality in men and women,” Journal of Sex Research, 45, 371-377.

22 J.M. Bailey & R. C. Pillard (1991), “A genetic study of male sexual orientation,” Archives of General Psychiatry, 48, 1081-1096.

23 J.M. Bailey, et al (2000), “Genetic and environmental influences on sexual orientation and its correlates in an Australian twin sample,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 78 (3), 524-536.

24 N. Långström, et al (2010), “Genetic and environmental effects on same-sex sexual behavior: A population study of twins in Sweden,” Archives of Sexual Behavior, 39, 75-80.

25 http://www.narth.com/docs/isminor.html.

1

E. Turkheimer (2000), “Three laws of behavior genetics and what they mean,” Current Directions in Psychological Science, 9, 160-164; quotes p. 162.

Dar-Nimrod, I., & Heine, S.J. (2011b). Some thoughts on essence placeholders, interactionism, and heritability: Reply to Haslam (2011) and Turkheimer (2011). Psychological Bulletin, 137(5), 829-833, (quote on p. 831).

28 Turkheimer, E. (2011). Genetics and human agency: Comment on Dar-Nimrod and Heine (2011).

Psychological Bulletin, 137(5), 825-828.

29 http://www.apa.org/topics/sexuality/orientation.aspx.

30 “Is Sexual Orientation Related to Mental Health Problems and Suicidality in Young People?” Fergusson, et al.

Arch Gen Psychiatry. 1999; 56:876-880.

31 Warren Throckmorton, PhD. “Homosexuality and Psychotherapy: An Interview with Nicholas Cummings.”

February 19, 2007.

32 http://apa.org/pi/lgbt/resources/therapeutic-response.pdf.

33 APA Task Force Report (2009); 28.

34 S.L. Jones & M. A. Yarhouse. (2011),“A longitudinal study of attempted religiously-mediated sexual orientation change,” in the Journal of Sex and Marital Therapy, 37, 404-427; see also www.exgaystudy.org.

35 Nicolosi, J., Byrd, A. Dean, Potts, R.W. (June 2000), “Retrospective Self-Reports of Changes in Homosexual Orientation, A Consumer Survey of Conversion Therapy Clients,” Psychological Reports, 86: 1071-1088.

36 Please see citations 6 & 7 for non-exhaustive listings of other studies.

37 NARTH Statement on Sexual Orientation Change. January 25, 2012.

38 Sy Rogers has long taught this point. See syrogers.com.

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27

About The Author André Van Mol, MD, is a board certified family physician in private practice. He serves on the boards of Bethel Church of Redding, PrayNorthstate and Moral Revolution (moralrevolution.com) where he writes the “Ask the Doc” blog. He speaks and writes on bioethics and Christian apologetics, and is experienced in short-term medical missions. He and his wife Evelyn—both former U.S. Naval officers—have two sons and a daughter, and are foster parents. His Twitter address is @docvanmol and more of his writings can be found at andrevanmolmd.com.

Heather Armstrong Photography

Bibliography

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Facing the

Aftermath

by Drs. David and Janet Kim

T

he date was October 26, 2012, and Hurricane Sandy was headed toward New York City. But as the founders of Beacon Christian Community Health Center, New York State’s first state-supported, federally qualified community health center, we were prepared. We knew the drill: prepare supplies; get staff phone numbers ready for emergency communication; get patient lists in the event we lose power and need to reach our patients; and move equipment off the ground in case of flooding.

We were trained to handle times like these. After all, we had endured Hurricane Irene just a little over a year before with little damage or disruption of business. “The last hurricane was nothing; this one should be fine,” many said.

We thought we were prepared to handle whatever came our way. But the storm barreling toward us was far worse that anyone could have prepared for or predicted. And our health clinic was situated in the middle of its path.

Bracing for Impact At Beacon, we serve a diverse, underserved population of Mariners Harbor in Staten Island and the surrounding areas. We help our patients and community to improve their health, independence and self-identity, as part of our

Photo by www.flickr.com/photos/spleeness/

mission to share the Good News of Jesus in word and deed to the community.

As we went into the weekend, the weather forecasts were worse than we originally thought. We stayed open longer to handle an increased patient load, even moving up appointments in anticipation of the storm. On Sunday, October 28, the wind and rain worsened as the day progressed. Evacuation orders started coming, but most people were not aware of the instructions.

Weathering the Storm When Hurricane Sandy made landfall near Atlantic City, New Jersey on Monday, October 29, its hurricane-force winds devastated the local area. The storm surge hit New York City, flooding streets, tunnels and subway lines and cutting power in and around the city. It was a super storm of mammoth proportions, now labeled as the secondcostliest Atlantic hurricane on record as it affected 24 states and caused more than $63 billion in damage. After the storm abated, millions were left without power, thousands were displaced from their homes and more than 200 were dead. Of those who died in New York City, half of them lived on Staten Island.

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Photo by Jim Greenhill

Throughout the night of the storm, we received text messages from friends who were witnessing the flooding in the South Beach area, one of the hardest hit areas of Staten Island. We heard about streets turning into rivers with cars floating down them. People needed to be rescued using boats and canoes. Our own home lost power as well, and we wondered how the health center was doing. What would happen to our vaccines if power was lost? Was there any flooding or other damage to the facility? As we imagined the awful possibilities, we tried to remember Psalm 29:10-11, “The Lord sits enthroned over the flood; the Lord is enthroned as King forever. The Lord gives strength to his people; the Lord blesses his people with peace.” This was our trust and hope during the storm, because all we could do was pray and trust in Him. Facing the Aftermath The day after the storm, we started to figure out how to get reopened during the acute recovery phase. Our center had endured the storm with little damage but we had no electricity, phones or internet connection.

How could we open without any power? We asked God to open the necessary doors to provide for our needs, while also using us to meet the needs of our community.

Even without power, we opened the center two days after the storm and started providing emergency triage care. Using ambient light, we converted our waiting room into temporary treatment rooms.

Courtesy of a donation by AmeriCares, we received a mobile medical van for the first week after the storm that doubled our exam room space. Despite their own struggles and family concerns, our staff members reported to work to help provide care to patients coming in to seek assistance and medical services. To the best of our ability, we tried to provide care in a way of showing that Christ was present.

When our power came back on four days later, we truly started seeing the destruction on Staten Island.

What we saw was unbelievable, with the damage rivaling what the world saw after the tsunami in Japan and Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. The destruction was tremendous, the needs were great and the resources were so few. Along with countless others, we were struggling and it felt like we weren’t getting any assistance or help. During those first few days, what was most disturbing was the apparent lack of church presence and involvement for our community. Maybe we were just frustrated over the situation; maybe we couldn’t see the work that others were doing. Nevertheless, we just didn’t see the church helping. And times like this are when the hurting need to see the love of Christ lived out in front of them. (Due to the vastness of Staten 32

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Island and limited communication networks available for the first couple of weeks after the storm, it took quite a while for us to see and hear of the mobilization efforts by local churches and Christian organizations.)

So many people didn't think that the storm could be as bad as it was. Many did not evacuate when they were told to do so and paid the price with their lives. As we started praying for God to open doors for us to go where the needs were, we started working with our local emergency management officials to become a triage site for the worst hit areas on the eastern section of the island. Despite the little infrastructure to mobilize a public health intervention, we also put together a point of distribution for tetanus and flu vaccinations for the hard hit areas.

And then offers of help started pouring in from our fellow CMDA members and local churches. Beginning the first weekend after the storm, we set up relief operations working with the Staten Island Evangelical Association and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. Volunteers from New York City and upstate New York contacted us to see what they could do to help. It was amazing to see the body of Christ come together from all over the city and offer their assistance without any regard for their own safety or comfort. Just to know that there were brothers and sisters in the church and CMDA who were quick to act and respond to provide help to the hardest hit areas was so amazing.

We led weekend outreach efforts throughout November, mobilizing volunteer medical professionals, students and nurses; providing flu and tetanus shots; and performing medical triage and first aid services for relief workers.

People who were reluctant to open their homes to strangers slowly accepted the help being offered to them. Our teams of volunteer workers were there not just to help clean out homes; they were also there to listen and hear their stories.

Photo by The National Guard

One story was about a local resident who was about to run out of insulin and couldn’t get in touch with his endocrinologist to get a refill on his medications. His home was flooded and he had no power, so he was calling from a nearby coffee shop, using its electricity to charge up his phone and use the internet. His persistence helped to connect him to our health center. When he came in for a visit, he shared that his copays for medications were higher than he could afford, even with health insurance. He was waiting for his social security check and had just enough money to get gas to come see us at the clinic. We enrolled him in our program to help get his medications at an affordable cost—one that he could afford right now while waiting for his next check. We had an opportunity to pray with him, encouraging him to stay strong for him and his family. We also gave him some donated cleaning supplies to share with his neighbors.

This one encounter caused a ripple effect of blessings towards others in his family and his neighborhood.

The openness and willingness for people to accept help as well as to share about their recent experiences gave many of our team members the opportunity to pray with people who just experienced a traumatic event. During this time, our prayer was that our community would see and know that our God is near and has not left us during this time.

Seeing the Fruits The weeks turned into months and recovery still continues. The health center is back to normal operations. The initial adrenaline we experienced faded as we started to feel the stretch of maintaining and running the health center in addition to providing disaster relief. Pray for us as a

health center as we seek God’s will and plan for us in ongoing disaster relief while we continue to maintain our daily operations. We also ask you to join us in praying that the seeds of His gospel and love planted during the initial outpouring of volunteers and outreach efforts will continue to take root and yield fruit in due season. Pray that hearts will continue to be softened toward Christ without a root of bitterness.

As our community attempts to rebuild and recover from catastrophe, our needs continue to be great. Many areas are still without power and basic utilities. Please pray for the residents who are still displaced as they rebuild. Pray for their physical, emotional and spiritual healing and restoration. Pray for God to provide opportunities for Christ-based counseling to be made available to those who lost everything and for others also impacted by the hurricane. Pray for the local churches and pastors, many of whom are very stretched to continue to shepherd their congregations and also provide disaster relief services.

When it came to resources, we weren’t prepared to meet the viciousness of one of the worst storms our country has ever faced. But we were prepared in other ways. We were equipped to be His hands and feet in the midst of disaster. We were armed with the protection and love of God. And we were prepared by His love to face the aftermath and meet the needs of our community. “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do,” (Ephesians 2:10). ✝

About The Authors Drs. David and Janet Kim are both internal medicine/ pediatrics physicians, and they work together at Beacon Christian Community Health Center, a ministry they helped launch in Staten Island, New York. As a medical student, David was involved with the startup of New York City's medical and dental student campus ministry, Intermed. David has been the chief executive officer for Beacon since its inception in 2004. Janet joined Beacon as a staff physician in December 2006 after also completing her residency at Staten Island University Hospital, now serving as the chief medical officer. They are both involved with student and resident mentoring and teaching, focusing on the roles of Christian healthcare professionals in a secular society. They have four children and are active CMDA members.

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c l a s s i f i e d s Miscellaneous

Liberty University College of Osteopathic Medicine is currently seeking candidates for the fulltime position of Chair, Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine/Osteopathic Principles and Practices.

Interested candidates may email their resumes to Ronnie B. Martin, DO, FACOFP-dist, Dean, Proposed College of Osteopathic Medicine, rbmartin4 @liberty.edu. Liberty University is an EOE. Liberty University College of Osteopathic Medicine is currently seeking candidates for the full-time positions of Chair Department of Primary Medicine, Chair Department of Specialty Medicine and Chair Molecular and Cellular Sciences, as well as faculty in all clinical and biomedical science disciplines. Interested candidates may email their resumes to Ronnie B. Martin, DO, FACOFP-dist, Dean, College of Osteopathic Medicine, rbmartin4@liberty.edu, and/or apply online at www.liberty.edu/HR. Liberty University is an EOE.

Adult and/or Adolescent Psychiatrist Alpha Omega, a faith-based mental health center located in St. Louis, Missouri and the Metro East in Illinois, is looking for a like-minded, earlycareer psychiatrist to work with our adult population. Ideal candidates will be compassionate and warm individuals and logical thinkers able to work in an organized fashion at a quick pace.

The successful individual will serve as a key member of an outpatient psychotherapy team sharing their expertise with clinicians from other disciplines. Candidate must be sensitive to the faith backgrounds of a relatively conservative Christian patient population with ability to provide clear, factual information and education regarding how pharmacological treatment relates to mental health and faith. Advancement opportunities available in both Missouri and Illinois.

Income is percentage-based with a solid healthcare plan. Full administrative support including electronic billing, scheduling, prescription services, first level collections and 24-hour emergency phone support provided. Clinicians are wellversed in medication management to support a psychiatric practice. Interested individuals should email letter of interest and resume to drdmk17@ gmail.com or fax to 314-729-1953.

Anesthesiologist/CRNA Private practice anesthesia group in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania seeking full-time anesthesiologist(s) and CRNAs in a beautiful central Pennsylvania community. Expanding into ambulatory endo-

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org), master’s degree in nursing (NP) or physician assistant (PA), minimum of one year practice, with experience/training in primary care/internal medicine and women’s health. For full job description, email info@dreamcenterscos.org.

An independent dermatology practice in Kearney, Nebraska seeking a full-time or parttime dermatologist. Great potential for a busy practice in a wonderful family-centered community. Mission is not only to provide excellent dermatologic care but also minister to patient’s spiritual needs. Currently one full-time dermatologist treating an average of 35 to 40 patients per day. Please contact Sharon Bond, MD, at 308-440-3945 or sbbderm@charter.net, or Lori Grubbs, office manager, at 308-865-2214.

Medical Doctor and Nurse Practitioner – Low Country Health Care System, Inc., a non-profit, 501©3 primary healthcare organization, is seeking two providers for our main office in Fairfax, South Carolina. Flexible work schedule, competitive salary and excellent benefits. No hospital call, nights or weekends required. We also provide loan repayment for National Health Service Corp recipients. Contact Darainey Hudson, HR Director, Low Country Health Care System, Inc. 803-632-2533 (p) 803-632-2451 (fax).

scopy center(s). Contact Frank Yanoviak at 570809-3522 or frankyanoviak@gmail.com.

Clinical Tropical Medicine & Traveler’s Health Course ASTMH accredited. May be taken in person or online. June 11-August 2, 2013. Sponsored

by West Virginia University School of Medicine Office of Continuing Education and the Global Health Program. Contact Nancy Sanders at 304293-5916 or email nsanders@hsc.wvu.edu.

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To place a classified advertisement, contact communications@cmda.org.

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Family Practice Mad River Family Practice is a progressive community-based family practice in West-Central Ohio. Currently seeking a full-time family physician to join a practice founded on lifelong learners and forward-thinking clinicians. Enjoy the rewards of a full scope of practice in a supportive group environment. Our family physicians place strong emphasis on addressing spiritual needs, as well as physical and mental needs. Practice offerings include: a vibrant and long-standing practice with varied demographics, flexibility in style and range of family practice, opportunities to foster medical education among students in healthcare, a welcoming community in West-Central Ohio, with easy commuting to Columbus and Dayton, Ohio and a competitive salary and benefits package. Contact Tara Wagner at tara.wagner@ maryrutan.org or call 937-465-0080.

Family Practice/Internal Medicine – Ozark Health Medical Center, located in Clinton, Arkansas, is seeking a full-time family practice or internal medicine physician to provide primary care services. Clinton is located on U.S. Highway 65, just one hour north of Little Rock and two hours south of Branson, Missouri. Nearby Greers Ferry Lake, Buffalo National River and Ozark National Forest offer abundant opportunities to enjoy outdoor activities. Income guarantee, practice startup assistance and relocation allowance available. For more information, contact David Deaton at Ozark Health Medical Center, P.O. Box Clinton, AR 72031. Email: david.deaton@ myozarkhealth.com. Cell: 501-253-8271. Office: 501-745-9502. Fax: 501-745-9501.

Rewarding & Purposeful Career Opportunity – Mid-Level Christian Clinic Director needed to lead primary patient care and women’s health.

Clinic Director oversees five staff and 200+ volunteers to provide holistic healthcare for women 18 to 64 who are uninsured/underinsured.

Dream Centers of Colorado Springs Women’s Clinic is a collaborative effort to provide spiritual, mental, social and physical care while balancing motives of compassion and justice. Requirements: strong communicator, visionary leader with values and vision of the clinic (dreamcenterscos.

Medical doctor, doctor of osteopathy or nurse practitioner needed for medical ministry to older adults in homes, SNFs and ALFs. Non-profit Christian practice serving frail elders and homebound with a focus on quality care, compassion and connection with Christ. Mission-minded team. Flexible work schedule. No hospital rounds required. On Site for Seniors (N. Idaho).

Visit www.onsite4seniors.org, email lmartin@ onsite4seniors.org or phone 208-664-3301.

Internal Medicine/Pediatrics/Med-Peds Mercy Community Healthcare of Franklin, Tennessee, is a new FQHC looking for one fullor part-time internist to staff an adult clinic and one full- or part-time pediatrician to join our pediatric practice. Med-Peds physicians are welcome. Spanish is a plus. Loan repayment is available. If interested, please call the clinic at 615-790-0567 and ask for Dr. Alexander Brunner or email AlexB@mercytn.org.

BE/BC Otolaryngologist BE/BC Otolaryngologist needed for well-established, busy two-man practice located in a Big 10 college town in Lafeyette, Indiana. Excellent opportunity for fast track to full partnership. Our private practice includes: general ENT, head and neck, facial plastics and allergy. Onsite physician-owned ASC, CT scanner and voice lab with video stroboscopy staffed by speech language pathology personnel. The audiology department provides a full range of services staffed by AuD. Please contact Ruth at 765-477-7436. Send CV to 2320 Concord Road, Lafayette, IN 47909, or email lafayetteent@comcast.net.

Pediatrics Busy primary-care, out-patient only, small-town practice in the hills of Virginia’s beautiful Blue Ridge. Join a three-provider mission-minded group seeking to replace a physician nearing retirement. Contact Anita Henley or Becky Ewald at 276-783-8183.

CHRISTIAN MEDICAL & DENTAL ASSOCIATIONS PO Box 7500 Bristol, TN 37621-7500

Nonprofit Org. US Postage

PAID Bristol, TN Permit No. 1000

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