CMDA Today Archive – Christian Medical & Dental Associations® (CMDA)

Does Reading Matter?

By John Patrick MD | September 4, 2025

We are not reading as we used to. Does it matter? Before the arrival of television and modern media, reading books from beginning to end was a major activity both for learning and relaxation. Nowadays most people reading on the internet have an attention span of five to seven minutes.

The Skrmetti Decision: A Win for Our Youth, A Call to Continue

By Christian Medical & Dental Associations® | September 4, 2025

In February 2023, the state of Tennessee passed Senate Bill 1, prohibiting the use of “medical procedures for the purpose of enabling a minor to identify with, or live as, a purported identity inconsistent with the minor’s sex or treating purported discomfort or distress from a discordance between the minor’s sex and asserted identities.”

Advancing the Case for Faith in Healthcare: The CMDA Matters Podcast

By Mike Chupp MD FACS FCS ECSA | September 4, 2025

Our goal is simple: to keep reminding Christian healthcare professionals their faith doesn’t just belong in their hearts and heads, but it belongs in every patient, staff, colleague interaction, as well as every ethical decision and how they educate and equip themselves. As this community grows, our prayer is that more believers will be strengthened, encouraged and inspired to live out their faith with boldness wherever God has placed them, and that several will choose to walk alongside us by becoming part of the CMDA family because we are stronger together.

A Healing Touch

By Christian Medical & Dental Associations® | September 4, 2025

In the Scriptures, we see numerous examples of Jesus using touch to demonstrate His message to humankind and to love us. He gathered children into His arms, restored health by a touch and healed lepers, the blind and the lame. He even allowed touch to help Thomas believe: “Then He said to Thomas, ‘Reach here with your finger, and see My hands; and reach here your hand and put it into My side; and do not be unbelieving, but believing’” (John 20:27, NASB 1995).

Rationality, Conscience and Justice: The Foundations of Western Cultural Success

By Christian Medical & Dental Associations® | June 2, 2025

I was appalled this week by a good friend who often acts as a check on my wilder moments, but this time roles were reversed—except he was right. He sent me a report showing that most North Americans are ceasing to read even the Bible. Almost all of us, me included, have reduced concentration spans and blunted critical faculties. Even Nobel laureates have commented that modern awards are less likely to be for stunning insights than for applied technology.

Introducing Real Physicians, Real Faith

By Christian Medical & Dental Associations® | June 2, 2025

Real Physicians, Real Faith was co-edited by Benjamin Doolittle, MD, and David L. Larson, MD, who are both CAPS members. The book is compromised of the writings of selected Christian physicians, from various domains, who each shared a 2,000-word narrative of how their faith impacts their profession.

Dig In! A Daily Discipleship Devotional: A Challenge to Dig Deeper

By Christian Medical & Dental Associations® | June 2, 2025

If you used a depth finder during your daily Bible study, what kind of reading would you be receiving? Throughout my years as a pastor, I’ve observed that faithful followers of Jesus consistently demonstrate both breadth of obedience and depth of understanding—a clear indication of time spent with Him (Acts 4:13). As a master fisherman, Jesus Himself often emphasized the depth finder in His teachings.

Raising Up the Next Generation: A Call to Mentoring and Discipleship in Medicine

By Christian Medical & Dental Associations® | June 2, 2025

It was July 1994. I was a newly married third year medical student on my first rotation: cardiothoracic surgery. Nothing like diving in headfirst for your third year—you have the most energy in July, after all. Unfortunately, while you have energy, you lack both the temerity and the experience to stand up for yourself, even when all you need is a few minutes for a bathroom break. Well, to all the third year medical students out there, I say, “A bathroom break is a very reasonable request, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise!”

One Good Kidney

By Autumn Dawn Galbreath, MD, MBA | June 2, 2025

Spring 2025

Rationality or Reasonableness as the Methodology of Ethical Medicine

By John Patrick MD | March 18, 2025

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.

Spring 2025

Where There is Despair, Let Me Bring Hope: Assisted Suicide, the Moral Dissociation Curve and Compassionate Love

By Christian Medical & Dental Associations® | March 18, 2025

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.

Spring 2025

What’s Your CMDA Story?

By Christian Medical & Dental Associations® | March 18, 2025

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.