Search Results:

In a recent sermon, I learned about a fascinating organization called the Recycled Orchestra of Cateura. A children’s orchestra outside of Asuncion, Paraguay, the Recycled Orchestra plays on garbage.

Until there were ventilators, and until organ transplantation became a therapeutic reality, the designation of death was based solely on cardio-respiratory criteria.

In the final installment of the series, we critique the argument that deviations from normative heterosexuality are a part of God’s design and hence morally neutral.

Ever since the American Medical Association’s (AMA) meetings in both the summer and fall of 2022, I have felt a huge tug on my heart by the Holy Spirit. And that tug is persistently asking me to address the issue of unrestricted abortions as a woman’s right to authority over her body, including the unrestricted right to abortion.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) issued a March 31, 2023 press release titled, “New HHS Report Released on Transgender Day of Visibility Offers Updated, Evidence-Based Roadmap for Supporting and Affirming LGBTQI+ Youth.”

We are all dying. Every day we are alive moves us closer in line to that day of transition from this life to eternity. There is no need to hurry death.

I am one of those parents who didn’t let her daughter (though she begged and begged) read the Harry Potter book series when she was 10…and 11…and 12. Even though her friends were reading them. Even though the whole world seemed crazy about them, and she was an avid reader.

Just today in a text exchange about job hunting, a CMDA friend reminded several of us that God can lead us in a variety of ways. Many times, God calls us, or pulls us, into the roles He has for us. We feel clearly instructed, and we feel certain we are following His leading as we step into a new chapter, be it a job or school or church or a new family decision. As American Christians, we are used to thinking about decision-making this way, I think. We feel that we must not know the right thing to do if we don’t feel pulled to one of the options. We pray for clarity, and we seek advice because we want that sense of calling, of being pulled in the direction God would have us to go.

We have been privileged as American healthcare professionals to practice medicine according to our sincerely held beliefs, at least until the relatively recent past. However, as many of our members know from personal experience, those conscience freedoms are coming under increasing attacks from several quarters. In this post, we want to remind the reader of the conscience protections that exist at the federal level and explore why those protections are currently endangered.

The case for gender (transition) affirming therapy—which is more realistically termed gender imitating medical intervention—for gender dysphoria and incongruence is precipitously weakening.

Continuing our series on the Top Ten Myths of the Sexual Revolution, we now come to the contentious issue of homosexuality, or, if you prefer, same-sex attraction. This is a highly sensitive subject, and for better or worse, LGBTQ issues have consumed most of the “oxygen” over the last 30 years.

Much is being made of the “moral injury” healthcare professionals suffer, which, rightly so, has been exposed and highlighted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Moral injury consists of an accumulation of a number of things, such as straining to care for the overwhelming number of incredibly sick patients, having to make wrenching decisions on prioritizing use of medical resources, etc. The focus on the subject is to address a practical need, like workforce supply in the face of increasing burnout among healthcare professionals, but it also addresses a personal human desire to ensure the personal well-being of another, which is the healthcare professional in this case.

When I was a child—maybe six, maybe seven—I went through a phase of suspecting the entire world existed as a massive play with one star—me. That is, I was the main actor and the rest of humanity played supporting roles. That is, the universe revolved around me. That is, I was all ego.

This week, our kids’ Christian school published The Statement. They sent it out with The Letter. And they asked for The Signature. And once again, our family began the now-familiar dance of shame, grief, anger, prayer, isolation, indignation and so many other emotions that bubble in the toxic stew Christian organizations often throw onto families like us.

When Hagar flees after Abram and Sarai, wary of God’s unrealized promise to make their descendants as numerous as the stars (Genesis 15:5), take matters of procreation into their own hands and take advantage of her in the process, she finds herself in both a literal and physical desert.

The official journal of the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology (ACOG), Obstetrics and Gynecology, (often referred to as the Green Journal because of its traditional green cover) recently featured an article entitled “The Ghost of Savita Halappanavar Comes to America.” The article refers to a pregnant woman in Ireland named Savita Halappanavar who died in 2012 from an inappropriately managed second trimester miscarriage.

On October 31, 2022, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) published an issue brief claiming pregnancy resource centers (PRCs) use various “tactics” such as “misleading information” and “emotional manipulation” to dissuade pregnant women from seeking life-affirming help.

In the third installment of this series, we examine the connection between the sexual revolution and the formation of sexual predators, the social harm of pornography and why children are its biggest victims.

I have a dear Christian friend of whom I have finally had to say, “This is as good as it gets,” and leave him in the Lord’s hands.

One of the most beloved Christmas symbols, the Star of Bethlehem has historic connections appreciated by few. This is a review and comparison of the newest theories.

It will come as no surprise that the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) recently released a special issue filled with articles and opinions arguing for the absolute necessity of access to legal abortion. One opinion that caught my attention was entitled “Implications of the Dobbs Decision for Medical Education Inadequate Training and Moral Distress.” CMDA recently publicly released a new position statement on moral distress, so I was naturally intrigued. Were the authors of this opinion piece actually going to make the argument that the lack of access to elective abortion, a procedure that has been considered immoral for thousands of years, will cause moral distress among upcoming students and residents? Exactly.

Let me introduce you to Aidah. She worked in our home (our “inside worker”) during the eight months our family lived in Kenya in 2003/2004. Don and I worked at Tenwek Mission Hospital as family physicians, and our three children attended elementary and middle school at nearby Rift Valley Academy. She helped me buy food and cook it, and she kept our house clean. Aidah was our backbone. She was a rock.

Is life starting to feel normal again for you? By normal, I guess I mean pre-2020. Is life starting to feel the way it did before COVID and political intensity stretched us further as a society than we might have thought possible just two and a half years ago?

Organ transplantation has saved countless lives, increasing the demand for unpaired solid organs. As a result, the protocols for organ procurement continue to change to include more patients as “dead.”

In this installment, we consider myths concerning marriage, sexual “repression” and the impact of the sexual revolution for women.

As James 4:17 says, “Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin” (NKJV).

I recently had the pleasure of hosting a medical student in my home for a (mediocre) waffle breakfast (my sub-par cooking, not hers). She was a completing a sub-internship locally, and it was a joy to hear how her faith in Christ had inspired her to practice in resource-poor settings. I listened with a grin on my face as she described her heart for the downtrodden and afflicted, the mentors whose compassion inspired her and how she saw the Lord at work daily in her chosen specialty.