withallyourmind.net

As many readers of this blog probably know, I am a full time practicing emergency physician, as well as a passionate Christian apologist. For years now, I’ve enjoyed reading the columns of emergency physician, Dr. Edwin Leap, in the monthly publication, Emergency Medicine News. As a result of my interest in his latest column, I’ve stumbled across his blog and a reproduction of that column, Hopelessness in the ER.

In the emergency department, we are continually taking care of patients who refuse to take care of themselves. They continue to abuse tobacco, alchohol, and illicit drugs despite multiple warnings about the ill effects of their behavior. Leap asks:

Why do they continue to do it? Why do they shoot up? Why does that young man with asthma keep smoking? Why does that young girl keep returning to her abusive boyfriend?

Why do they have multiple sexual partners, knowing as they do the risks of HIV? Why do they ride motorcycles without helmets? Why do they divorce, when science has clearly documented the negative effects of divorce, on both the adults and children of divorce?

Why do our patients cut, brand and pierce? Why do they attempt suicide, and often succeed?

Dr. Leap suggests that perhaps science and medicine do not have the answers to such questions.

What happens is the emergency department, where they come with broken hearts and maligned bodies, seeking physical answers to non-physical questions. The modern emergency department is a catalog of the failures of man to cope with humanity’s deeper questions.

They don’t come back over and over because we fail. They come back because they have nothing else to do, and because they idea of their own worth is so distant that any and all self-loathing, self-destruction, self-abuse is simply…something to do, with no ultimate meaning, either good or bad. But they still value themselves just enough to seek our assistance when the symptoms get bad enough.

That’s not a politically correct assessment. But it’s true. Humans are told, in schools and colleges, in movies and music, in books and magazines that the old forms of meaning they relied on are no longer valid. That earth is the end, that morality is quaint but pointless, that ethics are relative and heroes are failures. They are told that faith is irrational. And they do the math. There is no hope.

When there is no hope, why wouldn’t we abuse our bodies for brief pleasure? When there is no hope, drugs are as good as being drug free, infidelity is the same as fidelity, drunk the same as sober, risk the same as safety, death the same as health.

So the next time you ask yourself ‘why is he back again?’ ask yourself if he has any hope. And if you do that, without saying ‘whatever,’ without wishing him dead, without anger, you’ll take one step closer to being a physician who sees into the heart of humanity.

And maybe, knowing the disease, you can help suggest a cure.

I need to be reminded of this during every shift and pray that I can help with the cure.

Does this exclamation convey concern over the slaughter of an endangered species? At first, it may seem so. But the exact meaning of such a sentence is difficult to know without some context. Did you read the above headline in National Geographic, or on the front page of your daily sports section. The meaning differs substantially depending on the genre of the written material.

The latest Truth & Consequences from Summit Ministries explores the significance of this fact for reading and understanding the Bible.

Proverbs 22:6 states:

Train up a child in the way he should go, even when he is old he will not depart from it.

How are we to understand this verse? As a promise to be claimed by parents? Walt Russell explains that in order to understand what a verse means, one must understand its context and the genre of the book in which it is found.

The words of the Bible are God-breathed, by the Holy Spirit, into the human-crafted genres exhibited in the Bible. We find every God-breathed word of Scripture within a genre. Because genres set limits on our possible interpretations of words, if God had not placed the words of Scripture within genres, we wouldn’t understand one word of the Bible. So God has spoken to us “in many portions and many ways” (Hebrews 1:1) through particular biblical genres such as historical narrative, law, poetry, wisdom literature, apocalyptic literature, prophecy, gospels, letters, parables, and on and on. If our literary competence with the Bible approaches the literary competence we have with the morning newspaper, we should be able to jump into any part of the Scriptures and interpret its words accurately. But sadly, much of our Bible-reading parallels our weeping for Bengal tigers after reading a headline in the sports section of the newspaper!

The entire piece is instructive and helpful.

The latest free download from ChristianAudio is Foxe’s Book of Martyrs. If you’ve always wanted to read it, but couldn’t find the time… here’s the chance to listen to it while you drive.

On Sunday, I returned from a medical missions trip to Palacaguina, Nicaragua, a small community in Northern Nicaragua just a few miles south of Honduras. It was my first experience in missions, and what an experience it was. I am certain that it blessed me more than it blessed the kind people of Palacaguina. The one week trip was organized by the Global Health Outreach and the Christian Medical and Dental Association. Our North American team consisted of 23 people, including 4 doctors, 2 dentists, 3 nurses, a pharmacist and a number of logistics people. A total of 1850 patients were seen in our daily clinic. During the week we were able to serve 1117 medical patients. 397 eye clinic patients were helped (mainly providing reading glasses). The dentist team was able to fill 75 teeth, do 127 dental cleanings, and extract 134 teeth.

Although we were blessed to be able to serve the folks of Palacaguina in medicine and dentistry, we were privileged to see 131 people come to Christ for the first time as a result of the Spirit’s work through our team. 5 others were reconciled in their relationship with Christ. Following are some random pictures I thought I might share.

The first two are of me and some young patients I took care of:

Here is my interpreter, Lauren (who was wonderful) and in my corner of the school where my “clinic” was set up:

I was honored to go with several folks from my local area of Lakeland, Florida. This is the local contingent:

I was privileged to meet Santiago and his wife, one of several local Palacaguinan pastors who worked with our team. I was able to practice my Spanish at length during a dinner discussion one evening:

Here is a small friend who wrote me a nice letter of thanks on the last day. He said that the thing he enjoyed most about the whole week was when I blew bubbles for him and other children to chase down and pop:

This is the typical landscape of the area surrounding Palacaguina. It is the dry season, so things are quite brown. Yet the mountainous terrain was still beautiful:

Here is a beautiful Catholic Cathedral in the Spanish Colonial city of Granada, which we visited on our last day in Nicaragua:

And, last of all, this is me walking down the aisle of the small boat we were in on Lake Nicaragua:

The term “trillion” is becoming more and more a part of the public vocabulary with the recent financial fiasco. It also is a term used in dealing with very small probabilities (as in fine-tuning arguments for the existence of God). William Dembski provides a visual help in thinking about such large numbers here.

Many of the readers of this blog may be aware of the controversy which has ensued over the invitation of President Barack Obama to speak at the May 17th graduation ceremony in which he is to be awarded an honorary degree. Obama’s pro-abortion position is clearly at odds with the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church. Many Catholics have expressed their concern and distress over the honoring of a man whose policies do not reflect the inherent value of every human life.

Mary Ann Glendon, Learned Hand Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, has now declined to accept Notre Dame’s Laetare medal and to offer her acceptance speech at those same ceremonies. I appreciate her sacrifice. First Things has reproduced her letter to the president of Notre Dame in which she offers her reasons for declining. She offers a number of reasons, but here is how she begins:

First, as a longtime consultant to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, I could not help but be dismayed by the news that Notre Dame also planned to award the president an honorary degree. This, as you must know, was in disregard of the U.S. bishops’ express request of 2004 that Catholic institutions “should not honor those who act in defiance of our fundamental moral principles” and that such persons “should not be given awards, honors or platforms which would suggest support for their actions.” That request, which in no way seeks to control or interfere with an institution’s freedom to invite and engage in serious debate with whomever it wishes, seems to me so reasonable that I am at a loss to understand why a Catholic university should disrespect it.

Russell E. Saltzman has a well-written piece on “The Mental Murder of Torture” over at First Things. Here’s a little bit of that piece:

I’ve been trying, like many Americas, to think this thing through. There is the altogether practical question: Did torture help us? Did it make America safer? Was the information really good, helpful, in thwarting terrorists? Did it actually in fact spoil pending plots? Frankly, the evidence is mixed.

But I really don’t care. Whether torture “worked” or not as an interrogative tactic is far from the main question. I’m a pastor. I think as a pastor, which is to say as a parish theologian. I don’t care if these guys shrieked like little girls on the playground and blubbered out plots for everything from the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre to knocking over Bagdad candy stores as juvenile delinquents. Torture is morally wrong. It is morally wrong, theologically speaking, because it is an attack upon the imago Dei, upon the image of God inherent to every human life.

Christianity Today has provided a book excerpt from the book, Bono: In Conversation with Michka Assayas. I’ve heard about Bono’s Christian commitment in the past, but this is good stuff. Here’s an excerpt in which he talks about the difference between Karma and Grace:

It’s a mind-blowing concept that the God who created the universe might be looking for company, a real relationship with people, but the thing that keeps me on my knees is the difference between Grace and Karma…

You see, at the center of all religions is the idea of Karma. You know, what you put out comes back to you: an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, or in physics—in physical laws—every action is met by an equal or an opposite one. It’s clear to me that Karma is at the very heart of the universe. I’m absolutely sure of it. And yet, along comes this idea called Grace to upend all that “as you reap, so you will sow” stuff. Grace defies reason and logic. Love interrupts, if you like, the consequences of your actions, which in my case is very good news indeed, because I’ve done a lot of stupid stuff.

Here’s another where he responds to the suggestion to think of Jesus as anything more than a great teacher is lunacy and farfetched:

No, it’s not farfetched to me. Look, the secular response to the Christ story always goes like this: he was a great prophet, obviously a very interesting guy, had a lot to say along the lines of other great prophets, be they Elijah, Muhammad, Buddha, or Confucius. But actually Christ doesn’t allow you that. He doesn’t let you off that hook. Christ says: No. I’m not saying I’m a teacher, don’t call me teacher. I’m not saying I’m a prophet. I’m saying: “I’m the Messiah.” I’m saying: “I am God incarnate.” And people say: No, no, please, just be a prophet. A prophet, we can take. You’re a bit eccentric. We’ve had John the Baptist eating locusts and wild honey, we can handle that. But don’t mention the “M” word! Because, you know, we’re gonna have to crucify you. And he goes: No, no. I know you’re expecting me to come back with an army, and set you free from these creeps, but actually I am the Messiah. At this point, everyone starts staring at their shoes, and says: Oh, my God, he’s gonna keep saying this. So what you’re left with is: either Christ was who He said He was—the Messiah—or a complete nutcase. I mean, we’re talking nutcase on the level of Charles Manson. This man was like some of the people we’ve been talking about earlier. This man was strapping himself to a bomb, and had “King of the Jews” on his head, and, as they were putting him up on the Cross, was going: OK, martyrdom, here we go. Bring on the pain! I can take it. I’m not joking here. The idea that the entire course of civilization for over half of the globe could have its fate changed and turned upside-down by a nutcase, for me, that’s farfetched.

Go Bono!

HT: Every Thought Captive

During my residency in emergency medicine in Orlando, Florida from 2000-2003, I attended Northland, A Church Distributed, a megachurch pastored by Joel Hunter. I gladly recall my time spent there as a time of edification, growth, and being drawn closer to God. It was an uplifting experience for me and my family.

So, it was with sadness that I read Hunter’s recent statement explaining his view of President Obama’s first 100 days in office. Hunter gave the benediction at the 2008 Democratic National Convention (which I have no problem with, by the way) and is one of President Obama’s spiritual advisors. Hunter stated that he believed that Obama was…

… displaying wisdom and balance in his approach to the moral and controversial issues.

Acknowledging that he does not agree with all of Obama’s positions, he states he is not disappointed with the actions of Obama on cultural and social issues thus far. I believe Pastor Hunter is sadly mistaken and is, unfortunately, misleading other Christians on this issue. Obama’s actions thus far on social and cultural issues have been abysmal. His actions on embryonic stem cell research, the Mexico City policy, and health care workers’ rights of conscience are morally reprehensible. I pray that Pastor Hunter will change his mind and see that his endorsement of the president’s social agenda is mistaken and that this agenda is responsible for the death of many innocent human lives.

HT: Between Two Worlds

Al Mohler, commenting on the recent news concerning the morning-after pill links to this New York Times editorial which begins this way:

In a further break from the Bush administration’s ideologically driven policies on birth control, the Food and Drug Administration has agreed to let 17-year-olds get the morning-after emergency contraceptive pills without a doctor’s prescription. It is a wise move that complies with a recent order by a federal judge, based on voluminous evidence in F.D.A. files that girls that young can use the pills safely. (emphasis mine)

Note the description of the policies of the Bush administration as being ideologically driven. There is no question as to the veracity of that description. The problem with it is that it implies that the policies of the Obama administration and of the New York Times are non-ideologically driven. It is a subtle attempt to discredit and demean a point of view with which the New York Times disagrees. As Mohler points out, there are no serious discussions of public policy which are free from ideology. Ideology is defined as:

a: a systematic body of concepts especially about human life or culture b: a manner or the content of thinking characteristic of an individual, group, or culture c: the integrated assertions, theories and aims that constitute a sociopolitical program (Mirriam Webster Online)

An ideology is a set of beliefs, aims and ideas, especially in politics. An ideology can be thought of as a comprehensive vision, as a way of looking at things (compare Weltanschauung), as in common sense (see Ideology in everyday society below) and several philosophical tendencies. (Wikipedia)

It is obvious that Obama and the New York Times both have a set of political beliefs, aims and ideas which guides their political agenda. Don’t fall for the constant attempts liberals to paint conservative opinions as somehow ideologically driven, yet maintaining that there’s are free from ideology. It is a fallacious attempt to make their ideas seem better or more rational. Mohler states:

Whenever anyone (including this writer) claims that a policy reversal means a break from someone else’s “ideologically driven policies,” it simply means that one ideology is replacing or modifying another. The New York Times is the central media organ of the secular left. It is as ideologically driven as any other sector of this society. Furthermore, the idea that any serious policy discussion can be free from ideology is a farce. The editors of The New York Times merely prefer their own ideology to that of the Bush administration, yet they write this editorial as if they have come from their own private planet of ideological purity.