The Point of Medicine
The following articles fall under this category of content within The Point of Medicine.
A Declaration Heard Around the World: Protect Our Children from Harm
Whether a healthcare professional, legislator, mother, father or concerned citizen, it should be our highest priority to protect children. Several healthcare professionals, healthcare organizations and others are doing just that.
Selfish with Sadness
“Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her” (Ephesians 5:25, ESV).
Suffering and Facing Death
No fewer than 20 states introduced assisted suicide bills so far in 2024, and polling suggests the majority of Americans are sympathetic to the cause. According to the stats, this must mean a number of supporters would at least call themselves Christians, which strikes me as a sad development considering the rich tradition of Christian thought regarding how we should live in our final days.
On the Side: June 2024
“…let us lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross…”
Hebrews 12:1-2
Faithful
“Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her” (Ephesians 5:25, ESV).
Inconsistent Ideology from ACOG
How can the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology (ACOG) fully support gender-affirmation surgery but strongly condemn female genital mutilation?
The Cass Review Final Report (UK), 2024
The final Cass Independent Review of Gender Identity Services for Children and Young People was released in April 2024.
Mission in the Mess
“…Instead I am single-minded: Forgetting the things that are behind and reaching out for the things that are ahead, with this goal in mind, I strive toward the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13-14, NET).
Seasoned
“Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person” (Colossians 4:6, NIV).
Grabbing For Jesus
“As for other matters, brothers and sisters, pray for us that the message of the Lord may spread rapidly and be honored…” (2 Thessalonians 3:1, NASB).
On the Side: May 2024
The best title of all to have, I think, is the title of “Redeemed.” No matter what other titles we may have, no matter how noble or glorious they are, compared to Redeemed, they all seem to shrink in importance.
Excellence
“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters” (Colossians 3:23, NIV).
God’s Sandwich
One of my favorite patients is a part-time pastor. At the beginning of his visit this week, he shared a frustrating story from the day before. “I was standing in the line at Subway, telling the woman how to fix my sandwich.
Unavailable
I stepped into the fellows’ room to share a bit of wisdom: “You guys are not yet practicing medicine but will get there soon enough. Let me tell you how to build your practice.
The Debasement of Title IX
The latest update to Title IX regulations, introduced by the Biden Administration, will be devastating for women’s sports.
8 Principles of Sound Christian Thinking
Beliefs have consequences. All other things being equal, false beliefs have worse consequences. Pick any issue on which people are divided. COVID treatments? Sexuality? Evolution? It doesn’t matter what.
Pentecost
He was cancer free but suffering from complications of therapy. “This ain’t nothing,” he declared. “In the 80s I was shooting up drugs every day. I would find myself watching my hand inject the drugs and tell it to stop, but it wouldn’t. I even tried to commit suicide. I took an extra-large dose of the drug and injected it.
Hope-Hopping
“We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure…” (Hebrews 6:19, NIV).
We reviewed his CT in our multidisciplinary conference after treating his cancer with radioembolization.
I brought him good news: “Right now, I’m optimistic. There’s no evidence of cancer on your scan.”
He replied, “Optimist nothing, Doc. God said, ‘It is finished,’ and that’s all I need. That’s where my hope lies.”
Xenotransplantation: What’s New and Should We Be Concerned?
In the last month, a patient with kidney failure was discharged from the hospital, off dialysis, with a new kidney—from a genetically modified pig. What an incredible accomplishment.
On the Side: April 2024
Moving is an art form. It’s also an invitation to be gentle with ourselves and fall into the arms of Grace.
Responding to ACOG…Again
On February 27, 2024, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) released a “Consensus Statement on Threats to Reproductive and Maternal Health Care.” ACOG and 12 other organizations act as though they are speaking on behalf of all OB/Gyns to further their agenda that abortion is healthcare. I would like to respond, because they do not speak on my behalf.
Hanging By a Thread
“For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all” (2 Corinthians 4:17, NIV).
Why You Need Church
A 2023 report by Pew Research Center reported that 13 percent of Americans reported attending in-person worship services in the summer of 2020. I was not one of them. Until we had a vaccine, I did not want people gathering in groups.
Gracefully Broken
“The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise” (Psalm 51:17, ESV).
LGBTQIA+ and the Political Divide
To many, the Sexual Revolution evokes nothing more than memories of the summer of love, the emergence of contraception and the “freedom” for sexual expression. However, after years of warnings by Christian cultural commentators, the Sexual Revolution has overtaken the mainstream.
The Nudge
“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8, NIV).
Bulvarism and Bias: Responding to Flawed Scholarship
In early 2023, I read the article “Gender bias in postgraduate year one pharmacy letters of recommendation” published by in the Journal of the American College of Clinical Pharmacy. The analysis contained methodological flaws, and it presented conclusions that were not derived from the evidence presented.
Fickle Faith
He is one of our few remaining World War II heroes at 97—a retired pastor, still alert, able to walk with a cane, writing great stories about his life and sharing wisdom that only comes with experience.
The Status of Frozen Children
Anyone paying close attention to current events has likely heard about the Alabama Supreme Court decision declaring that frozen embryos created through IVF are legally children under the state’s constitution. The legal case arose when a person unauthorized by an IVF clinic destroyed frozen embryos from three Alabama couples who later filed a lawsuit against the clinic.
ACOG Doesn’t Speak on My Behalf
In this statement, ACOG is calling for “the ability of every patient to access abortion when they need it…,” while further claiming that “abortion is an essential part of comprehensive healthcare.” As a practicing OB/Gyn, I again cannot stand by and let this organization speak on my behalf.
I Need to Do Better
He is one of our few remaining World War II heroes at 97—a retired pastor, still alert, able to walk with a cane, writing great stories about his life and sharing wisdom that only comes with experience.
On the Side: March 2024
I hear Wade talk about his interviews for residency sometimes. I hear him describe flying to a centralized location in the Southeast and renting a car. I hear him describe traveling from program to program to hit as many schools with one flight as possible.
Sophisticated Lies Endanger Everyone—Black, Brown, White and Other
Language can be cloak and dagger—particularly when that “old serpent” is speaking who is none other than Satan. He is the father of lies, as noted in John 8:44. He is the original liar. Adam and Eve experienced Satan’s craftiness firsthand when he asked Eve in Genesis 3:1, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” and then went on to lie and say to her in Genesis 3:4, “You will not certainly die” (NIV).
The Squeeze
Is the juice worth the squeeze? This is a reasonable question to ask about following Christ, and Jesus encouraged His followers to do so.
Eutychus
The battle between faith and science is a battle in people’s minds, not between two great opposing forces. In my discussion with her, she shared her faith in God and the spiritual. “I’ve seen spiritual healing,” she said. I then tried my best to lay out for her my understanding of the integration of faith and science in healing.
Does Acceptance of “Deep Time” or Evolution Imperil Christian Belief?
Does acceptance of evolution or geological time imperil Christian belief? The evidence says no. But guess what does?
Multiplication
I received this message from a young Albanian physician I had not seen for many years: “Hello, brother. As I am reading your book (which I borrowed from my brother’s wife). I cannot help but thank you for your mission in Albania. In March 2016, I came to the Lord in one of the conferences in Durres. That led to my mom, her mom, my brother, my cousin, my father, my other cousin coming to Christ!” As I learned more, it became clear I had not been the one who led her to Christ, but I had been present as part of the team. What amazes me about her story is the beautiful way God works if we just show up.
Painful Redirections
There are times we want things badly: good things, even Godly things, that God has not chosen for us. The tearing away of those dreams is painful but not evil if we leave God in charge.
The Case for Conscience
The United States has long been a beacon of freedom in the world, and it has held the hope of a better life even before it was an independent nation. We see this exhibited in history when the Pilgrims left Europe in 1620 to come to the New World.
How Then Should We Live?
What does the Bible say about the body in light of today’s gender confusion? How then do you think we should live? While not new, a form of a gnostic dualism is ascendent in our world today. Our postmodern culture has rallied behind a two-tiered view of the human being, promoting the mind or consciousness at the expense of the body.
The Ethical Healthcare Professional
No one would choose to be treated by an unethical healthcare professional. So, how do we as established healthcare professionals go about teaching the next generation of caregivers how to behave ethically, and what are some of the most important areas we should focus on in education?
Broken Legs and Grenades
We can’t always hide from the huge cruelty of life. It’s always there, mixed in with the great wonder and joy of life—a brokenness seeping up up from the soil of our fallen world.
On the Side: February 2024
We all need advice, and from time to time we may even look for it. The question is, where should we seek it? The Internet? The Bible? Our pastor? A friend? A family member? Where can a Christian find godly advice?
An Invitation to Sign the IFTCC International Declaration on Therapeutic and Pastoral Choice
The International Foundation for Therapeutic and Counselling Choice (IFTCC) and their global community of member mental health and medical professionals have authored “An International Declaration on ‘Conversion Therapy’ and Therapeutic Choice,” proposing that “Signatories of this International Declaration call upon our governments, local authorities, human rights, media and religious organisations, to recognise that the right to self-determination is an established principle of international law, and therefore must include the right to shape and develop one’s own sexual identity, feelings and associated behaviours, and to receive support to do so.”
Beautiful Mornings
We can’t always hide from the huge cruelty of life. It’s always there, mixed in with the great wonder and joy of life—a brokenness seeping up up from the soil of our fallen world.
900 Professors?
I am responding to the January 2024 article in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology entitled, “A statement on abortion by 900 professors of obstetrics and gynecology after the reversal of Roe v. Wade.”
How Long is Grief?
How long is grief? I guess what I’m really asking is, “Does grief ever end?”
Enlightening the View
Since the overturn of Roe v. Wade by the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization in June 2022, the acrimony within the abortion debate has increased exponentially, accompanied by a marked increase in the amount of misinformation contained in the debate.
The Core of Things
The Core of Things | Weekly Devotions by Al Weir, MD | “She was a medical student and a new Christian. She came with a small group of Christian students from Macedonia to our Albanian student evangelism conference. Small in stature, smart and soft-spoken, she rarely spoke up in our small discussion group of mixed Muslim, orthodox, atheist and agnostic students.”
Boldness or Respect?
“Therefore, since we have such a hope, we are very bold” (2 Corinthians 3:12, NIV).
Stopping the Pain and Saving Lives: Successful Treatments for Sickle Cell Disease
As Christians in healthcare, we must hold fast to the belief that all life holds value, and all human beings are made in the Imago Dei. To veer from that belief is to allow room for the lie that some lives are not worth living.
Texting Prayers
I caught myself misusing my prayer life today. A friend whose mother is very ill sent a text and asked for prayers. I immediately replied by text, “Praying for you now,” and I lifted up a quick one.
Discussing Difficult Cases
As Christians in healthcare, we must hold fast to the belief that all life holds value, and all human beings are made in the Imago Dei. To veer from that belief is to allow room for the lie that some lives are not worth living.
What Good Has Christianity Ever Done for the World?
This Advent season and new year, it’s fitting to reflect on what came of Christ’s coming. How did it change the world for the good? Foundational tenants—fundamentals, if you will—are key, and those of Christian biblical faith ignited a cultural revolution that continues to this day.
Eternity in Our Hearts
Our Christmas schedule was different this year. Helped by a day off for bronchitis, I had more time to reflect; and I did so, remembering many healthcare professionals, and others, who have impacted my life for Christ through the moments I have spent with them.
On the Side: January 2024
I finished school many years ago. My children are almost grown. My youngest is a senior in high school. There are no grandchildren on my horizon to date. Yet, I still put the new crayons in my shopping buggy at least once a year. There is just something wondrous about a brand-new box.
1946: The Mistranslation that Had Absolutely No Effect on Anything
This December marks the official theatrical release of 1946: The Mistranslation That Shifted Culture. According to Tim Malloy of MovieMaker magazine, “This film may change your mind about homosexuality and the Bible—if you watch it.”[1] Will it? Should it?
First Things First
The family structure, grounded in a foundation of parental respect, is at the center of God’s plan for humanity. The more we mess with it, the more our culture will crumble. The more we honor it, the more we will be individually blessed. It comes with a promise.
Goldilocks Faith
Blaise Pascal said, “I do not ask for health or sickness or life or death: I ask that you dispose of my health, sickness, my life, and death—for your glory, for my salvation, for the use of the church and the saints of which I am a part…Give to me, take away from me, but make my will conform to yours.”
Intentionality
Yesterday morning was Saturday. I was on call for morning rounds. On my drive in, I asked the Lord to let me speak the name of Jesus to at least one person that day. After rounds, I made it to the second half of my granddaughter’s basketball game, and then a friend called.
Stirring Up Fear Unnecessarily
This article questions the ethics and the challenges to female physicians’ well-being of hosting professional meetings in states where abortion is restricted.
Why God Invented Swimming Pools
A Christian physician, whom I should not name for safety reasons, told me of God’s faithfulness to complete that which He had started. He and his wife have led a ministry to Afghanistan for many years that included medical care, personal evangelism and hospice development. When the U.S. pulled out of Afghanistan, their ability to continue ministry in person was torn from them.
On the Side: December 2023
We drove to Mississippi from Chicago while in medical school. We had three under two and knew we probably wouldn’t make it the entire way in one day but weren’t exactly sure how far we would make it. And so, we decided to drive until we had to stop. It was a great decision right up until the triplets were past exhausted and there was not one hotel room to be found. Not one.
Pitching Our Tents in This Present Darkness
This clashing of worldviews calls me and other believers to confront darkness more often than we would prefer as we demonstrate and promote God’s truth and love in a world that pursues destructive answers for healing in the brokenness of our fallen humanity. Such healing only comes through a spiritual transformation, such that we are conformed to the mind of Christ (Romans 12:2).
MRI
“He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear the Lord and put their trust in him” (Psalm 40:3, NIV).
The 100th Birthday Party
Permit me to humbly suggest the following: If you are ever invited to a 100th birthday party, consider attending. And if the centenarian is one of your dearly departed mother’s most treasured friends, do whatever you can to attend.
A Song from the Heart
“He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear the Lord and put their trust in him” (Psalm 40:3, NIV).
A Reflection on Friends, Mortality and Eternity
I was surprised that the death of a celebrity, whom I did not know and was not likely to ever meet, caused such deep reflection. And yet, these kinds of moments in life always seem to do that. It’s as if we forget from day to day that our human bodies are, in fact, mortal and our days here are truly numbered.
Four New Books Dealing with Transgenderism
Publications exposing transgender ideology and its capture of academics, medicine, the entertainment industry, government and the business sector are picking up steam. What we might term the breakout books, those that caught traction and burst onto the public square addressing and countering the whirlwind of transgenderism.
A Brilliant Machinist
Somehow in our fall from grace, we were distorted to become creatures to suck life in, like this vacuum cleaner. Our natural, fallen selves are wired to take from the world, to seek good things for ourselves and possess them, to suck in all that our hearts long for.
Who’s Calling Who a Blob?
Well, there they go again: science reporters are calling human beings “blobs.” Not blobs as in the classic science fiction movie that wreaked havoc and death on unwitting victims. No, they are back to labeling innocent embryo-age human beings as mere “blobs of cells.”
My Way, Not Yours
I’ve been discouraged over my “effectiveness” for Christ recently. It seems that, though I love Him, I am not accomplishing the work for Him that I imagine. At 10 a.m. this morning I took a 15-minute break and kneeled in the hospital chapel, just asking for Him to do what He wanted with me for His service.
Tucker Gets It—Abortion is Child-Sacrifice
In case you missed it, political commentator Tucker Carlson was speaking at an event hosted by The Center for Christian Virtue back in September in Cleveland, Ohio, where he brought up two key ballot initiatives Ohioans will be voting on in early November.
On the Side: November 2023
As I am writing this article, it has been just a few days since hostilities erupted in the Middle East. Every morning I have to get up and see what they are doing over there. It is unquestionable that any information I have today will be obsolete by the time you read this. I don’t know what else to say except, “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: ‘May they prosper who love you’” (Psalm 122:6, NASB).
Taking It with You
She’s had two cancers and is free from both now. She moved to be near her daughter, but her daughter has rejected her. “I have to love her from a distance. She got a new job and bought a Range Rover. Now she acts like I never loved her. She don’t know that you can’t take nuthin’ but your good works with you when you die.”
Making God Smile
It was a number I didn’t recognize and answered too late. When I called back, no one picked up. Later the same number called me and said, “Dr. ___?” I recognized her voice from the past immediately. I called her name and said, “You must have butt dialed me.”
Pride Kills
Pride deceives us in many ways. One of the more dangerous expressions is to overestimate our competence and skill. In high-risk situations, the consequences can be disastrous. Too often, greed is offered as a simplistic explanation. The truth runs much deeper.
Almost Eaten
Last week I felt inspired. I delivered the first half of a Christian-life lecture to local healthcare students, and it was smooth.
On the Side: October 2023
God knows everything He is planning to bring about in our future. He is the One who makes a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland. We may look around us and see nothing of that promise, but He encourages us to look anyway and to see with the eyes of faith.
Birthday Trip
The hospital notified me today that one of the residents I supervise had more than 600 “view alerts” on her computer that had not been addressed. Alerts contain critical labs, radiology results or notes from other physicians who need a response.
Childhood Bereavement—Our Response
It’s been reported that a total of 8 percent of all children in the United States will experience death of a parent by the time they reach the age of 18 years. If the endpoint of this analysis is 25 years, a total of 14.7 million will experience this tragedy in their lives.
Forbearance
The hospital notified me today that one of the residents I supervise had more than 600 “view alerts” on her computer that had not been addressed. Alerts contain critical labs, radiology results or notes from other physicians who need a response.
Not Progressive, Not Conservative, But Christian
Whenever I hear the word “polarization,” I can’t help but think of cell division. Specifically? Anaphase, which perhaps you remember from high school biology. All the organelles have been doubled and are bunched at the edges—in moments it will split down the middle and become two cells.
Contending as One
We were sitting at a small table in the cheap furniture section of the hospital employee dining room, my first chance to get to know her: a young, chief of in-patient psychiatry, mother of three small children, follower of Christ—me: an old guy, chief of oncology, 50 years married, grandfather of six, follower of Christ.
No Man is an Island
Have you ever felt like an island? Do you have days when you talk to people all day but, when the day ends, no one knows anything more significant about you than they did when it began?
Oxymoronic
He spoke of the Lord often as we addressed his malignancy, acknowledging Jesus as the one he trusted with his health. But somehow, he sidetracked us into a conversation about his sexual exploits in ways that were natural to him but too graphic for me. I was somewhat perplexed by these two lines of conversation that seemed a bit oxymoronic.
What’s in an Age?
I was visiting a patient in the rehab center who had undergone a knee replacement. He was fine except for the slow pace of rehab. His wife was there, vivacious, energetic, appearing far younger than her stated age, which I will not share. I asked her how they had met.
“We actually met in church,” she shared. “You know, I am older than he. When we started dating, he wouldn’t tell me how old he was. I called the church office to find out, but they wouldn’t tell me either. By the time I found out he was five years younger, I was already in love, and the rest is history.”
What difference does age make anyway?
Quite a bit, actually…
On the Side: September 2023
I met my best friends from high school this summer in North Carolina. It was our third annual trip together—we have been to a couple of beaches, but this year we chose the mountains.
Turn Around
“And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and with all your mind and with all your strength” (Mark 12:30, ESV).
Zoom Encounter
“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well” (Matthew 6:33, NIV).
AAP calls for “systematic review of evidence,” yet reaffirms 2018 gender-affirming care policy
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) announced on AAP News on August 4, 2023, “AAP reaffirms gender-affirming care policy, authorizes systematic review of evidence to guide update.”
The Conductor
He spent a month with me as a fourth-year medical student, an Alaskan who loved the Lord.
Victims of the Sexual Revolution, Part 2: The Decline of Happiness, and the Plight of the Young Liberal Woman
Increasing levels of depression and other mental illnesses in Western societies have been well-described, but there are many theories as to why. In this installment, we argue that the decline of marriage is the most critical yet overlooked factor, and why the young liberal woman suffers the most.
Of Course I Cared
Before we could even get to his chronic leukemia, he opened the conversation, “My father passed.”
Who Do You Believe, and Why?
When we are attempting to think rationally in appropriate syllogistic lines, for us to draw accurate conclusions from news items we see on television, in the news and on social media, the information we receive as the input to our process must be accurate, and to a great extent must be complete.
The Unexpected
As a physician, I was not shocked at my dear friend’s death, but I was surprised by the way I discovered it. It was clearly unexpected when I walked into his room.
On the Side: August 2023
God knows everything He is planning to bring about in our future. He is the One who makes a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland. We may look around us and see nothing of that promise, but He encourages us to look anyway and to see with the eyes of faith.
The Way Back
Whatever the cause of the separation, God wants us back. He stands with open arms, running toward us, like the father of the prodigal. All it takes from us is surrender.
On the Side: July 2023
Several years ago, there was a house down the street from us that had the most amazing landscaping! Ok, I’ll admit it, I experienced a little “flower envy” every time I walked by with the dogs. I may have even sneaked a pic or two to save for when spring came around again so I could plant similar flowers.
Belonging
“People without our Lord believe the world belongs to them or to some unnamed, unapproachable power out there. They live reactive lives, responding to the actions of fickle circumstance—making plans, and changing them as the world changes around them, hoping to steal something good and meaningful from an Olympian-like god of Fate who has never existed and never cared.””
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