SPRING 2024

Only recently has British academic and ethicist Oliver O’Donovan made me see how different these two concepts are, despite the same purpose of providing guidance for peaceful living. Behavioral norms are common to all societies, and once established they resist change very effectively for long periods of time.

I suspect several of those reading this essay have had patients like the one described. How are we to care for this suffering person? Do we acquiesce to his request if we’re in a state where assisted suicide is legal? As a medical culture and a society, we are at a crossroads as to how we will care for the aging and infirm populations of our graying nation.

When you become a CMDA Lifetime Member, you make a lifetime investment in bringing the hope and healing of Christ to the world plus make a lifetime commitment to the ministry of CMDA. It’s truly a lifeline for a lifetime. It also means no annual dues payments! Your one-time lifetime membership investment eliminates the need for annual dues payments for membership renewal.

Evangelical Christianity has never had difficulty understanding how a Christian healthcare professional might be able to speak a message of the truth and hope found in the salvation offered by Jesus in the context of a hurting patient or her family. Our theological framework makes it easy to understand why God would care about medicine that leads to evangelism.

You ask how I came to choose medicine. I guess I’d have to say it chose me. That is, I was 12 years old when I first heard and responded to the good news of salvation through Jesus, and simultaneously, in some mysterious way, I knew I was supposed to be a doctor. I had never considered medicine before I became a Christian, and afterward I never considered anything else.

In the spring 2025 edition of CMDA Today, take a side-by-side look at the impact both healthcare and CMDA can have on a mother and daughter, explore a central question to the discussion of faith and healthcare, bring hope to the suffering, hear personal CMDA stories and much more.

In this edition of CMDA Today, Protecting Conscience in Healthcare, Helping Patients Navigate an Unplanned Pregnancy, How God redeemed a marriage using CMDA’s Side By Side ministry, Equipping the healthcare community to respond to the human trafficking crisis, Preserving biblical unity amongst Christian healthcare professionals with differing views, and Foundations built on trust sustain stronger culture.