Christian doctors offer course to "transform their practice into ministry"

[Bluebear]

Um, I'll stick with science, thank you.

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Do you want to transform your practice into a ministry? Do you want to integrate your faith into your practice?...

Join the thousands that have been trained to share Christ in their busy practices without offending your patients or backing up the waiting room. Based on the live conference, this video series combines original drama, lecture, and numerous interviews to create a truly unique learning experience for you, your colleagues, and your staff. Additional workbooks are sold separately.

http://www.cmdahome.org/index.cgi?BISKIT=4060746769&CONTEXT=art&cat=16&product_id=105&SUBTRAP=midas_bigview

[niyad]

1. well, if I actually went to dr's--I would start asking if they were xians,

and not go to them--or walk out if I saw the cross or whatever. . .

[Bluebear]

3. You can do a search on their site for a physician near you

In case you might actually like to make your own decisions about end of life care, etc. and avoid them! :)

[niyad]

4. thank the goddess I am a healer myself, and don't have to go near

these quasi-quackians.

[PublicWrath]

2. Several years ago, I was sent to a specialist who had a lot of stuff

on his walls with quotes from the New Testament. And they were lovely passages full of beautiful sentiments and everything was tastefully matted in unobjectionable colors coordinating with the rest of the room and expensively framed and it gave me the absolute creeps.

Wrong time, wrong place.

[tocqueville]

5. it's against the modern Hippocratic Oath

The Declaration of Geneva reads "AT THE TIME OF BEING ADMITTED AS A MEMBER OF THE MEDICAL PROFESSION:

I SOLEMNLY PLEDGE myself to consecrate my life to the service of humanity;
I WILL GIVE to my teachers the respect and gratitude which is their due;
I WILL PRACTICE my profession with conscience and dignity;
THE HEALTH OF MY PATIENT will be my first consideration;
I WILL RESPECT the secrets which are confided in me, even after the patient has died;
I WILL MAINTAIN by all the means in my power, the honor and the noble traditions of the medical profession;
MY COLLEAGUES will be my sisters and brothers;
I WILL NOT PERMIT considerations of age, disease or disability, creed, ethnic origin, gender, nationality, political affiliation, race, sexual orientation, or social standing to intervene between my duty and my patient;
I WILL MAINTAIN the utmost respect for human life from its beginning even under threat and I will not use my medical knowledge contrary to the laws of humanity;

I MAKE THESE PROMISES solemnly, freely and upon my honor."

[malaise]

8. If the constitution doesn't matter to

these 'morans', why should the Hippocratic Oath?

[Bluebear]

16. Good point. nt

[kevinbgoode]

6. If my doc pulled that crap, he'd be proselytizing his way out of

getting a bill paid. . .and I'm serious. When the office sends me a bill, I'd return it with a polite note reminding them of the power of prayer.

[theHandpuppet]

7. Even better, try this:

Book of Matthew, Chapter 6, verses 19-21
"Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. " Then remind him or her that Jesus healed the sick for free.

[Kailassa]

9. *chunder*

There is only one decent way to use a career in healing to proselytize for your religion.

That is to be so damn good and caring in your job, to be skillfully treating your patients, showing respect for their bodies, their minds and their beliefs,

To set an example by acting as Jesus would in your shoes, always remembering his "judge not that you be not judged" and his instruction to work on removing the plank from your own eye, rather than worrying about the dust speck in another person's.

Do this well enough, and someone might ask you where you are coming from, and want to follow your example.

[murielm99]

14. We had a very Catholic doctor in the medical practice we use.

He is retired now.

He had a framed prayer on his desk that asked God to help him understand his patients' fear and pain, and to guide him in his healing. There were other religious objects in his examining room.

He did not proselytize, but asked for guidance for himself. He was a wonderful doctor.

When my husband asked for a vasectomy, he did not have a cow. He sent him to his partner for the procedure.

I think it is great when doctors use their faith to guide them. People in other professions can do the same. It is not okay when doctors or other professionals try to convert the people they serve in the course of their jobs.

[Kailassa]

17. Yes, faith can help a person to both excel themselves

and to be humble.

When a person's faith is deep and genuine, they are not threatened by others having differing ideas, and don't need to convert people.

[knitter4democracy]

10. I should've known it was the CMDA. They're nuts.

My hubby was a member right at the beginning of med school, only to find that they're not the ecumenical group they claim to be. They sent him e-mails even into residency, which just served to tick him off further. They're full-on crazy.

It is one thing to have a prayer group where doctors can get together and share the horrible things they go through in their job every day and then pray together, but that's not what the group really is. It's all about evangelizing other medical staff and using the evangelical Christian faith in the everyday parts of the job.

That's not good medicine. Patients need to deal with their faith with their families, friends, and spiritual advisors. If they ask to pray with my hubby, he does, but he never offers, and he always has them do the talking so he doesn't offend them by praying in a manner they wouldn't like.

[TallahasseeGrannie]

11. I know my doctor is a Christian

because of the hokey music he plays in the office, but it would freak me out if he asked to pray with me. I dunno...maybe if I were in the hospital or something I could deal with it. He's a good doc...had him for 20 years in an HMO and he never holds anything back..I see all the specialists I need, get all the tests, etc.

However, at my father's death bed in the nursing home, all the doctors prayed with us as did the nurses, and that was okay with me. So I don't know why, really, I'd be so uncomfortable.

[cap]

12. death is the great leveler

but the prayers said for your dad conformed to YOUR religious viewpoint and NOT the doctor's ... that's the difference

[TallahasseeGrannie]

13. Indeed

and there is also something about my feet in stirrups that doesn't invite prayer.

[Kailassa]

18. "Please god make him warm his hands up."

I once had a young hospital doctor start examining me, and then blurt out, "bloody hell, don't go away, I've gotta show me mate this one." Half an hour later mates of his mates were still bringing in even more mates, all arguing about what had caused my problem. Eventually I got sick of the situation, made up a medical sounding name and whispered it to the first doctor.

"Oh of course, I knew that all along," he said. Then he told his first mate, who said much the same. Finally all these half-trained doctors agreed with my invented diagnosis and it was written up nicely for me to take back to my GP.

The GP knew me too well to be surprised. When I'd started visiting him, he kept playing one-upmanship games, but the areas he tried to show off in were ones I'd studied intensively. Then, in a really shirty mood one day, he told me that the glasses I wore just didn't do a thing for me. So I took them off, stared around vaguely and then said to him, smiling appreciatively, "goodness doctor, you could be right. Because when I take them off you look much better yourself."

[Minnesota Libra]

15. The first person in the medical profession to do this should be asked.....

....why should anyone pay you for being a doctor when we can pay you much less for being a preacher?? Then the victim should get up and walk out.

[Bluebear]

19. I like it. nt

[NMMNG]

20. Any doctor of mine attempts to bring religion into my treatment

gets promptly fired. If I want religion I'll go to a church. When I go to a doctor I expect medical interventions.

[Comadreja]

21. My new doc wore a "Promise Keepers" badge.

Nice guy, but the badge was odd in this setting. maybe it was a "conversation starter" for anyone who asked.

[Hekate]

22. My docs can show their religious ideals by being superlative scientists,TY

My doctors can display their religious ideals by being superlative scientists,thank you very much, and by being truly compassionate and highly ethical in their dealings with everyone they meet. That should fill the bill for any religion on the planet -- except the ones eschewing science because they'd rather pray or visit a shaman, and even those systems should be compassionate and ethical.

The day one of them tries to proselytize me is the day I find someone else to treat whatever my problem is, unless he or she is willing to back off far and fast when I request respect for my own beliefs. But I would still feel like a bond of trust and respect had been broken.

When I was very young our family doctor was a general practitioner. He served as our pediatrician, my mother's ob/gyn, and whatever else a family might need a doctor for. He saw us through measles, mumps, chickenpox, poison oak... He also saw my mom through her pregnancies and the miscarriages that almost killed her. He knew how close my mother's already-born children came to being orphans.

When she was carrying my youngest brother, Dr. Orlando advised her that this really ought to be her last try; and since he thought she might need a C-section, this kind Catholic man said that if she wanted a tubal ligation, he would turn his back while another doctor took care of it before stitching her up.

That brother was finally born vaginally, so my dad got a vasectomy -- but the story has stayed with me as a lesson in the intersection of good medicine, compassion, common sense, and ethics. What good is a man's religion without those qualities?

Don't preach to me, doctor. SHOW me.

Hekate

[Solly Mack]

23. Turn your practice into a ministry and get a tax write-off?

If a theme park can do it, I don't see why a doctor wouldn't try and do the same - and I'm sure there's a state rep or two, as well as a federal rep or two, that would back such an initiative.

In America, any absurdity is possible.

In America, the more damaging an idea is to the whole, the more likely it is to happen.

[wickerwoman]

24. You sure won't back up your waiting room...

in a sane nation there wouldn't be a damn person in it.

[realisticphish]

25. That's an outrage

You must understand that someone "sharing christ" is not a good thing for many, if not most Christians while at a doctor/pharmacy/some other non-religious function. If my doctor started talking about accepting Jesus, or even asked me what my faith was (in this case, Lutheran) I would walk straight out. I could never EVER trust a doctor who was preaching to me to give me a proper diagnosis, or proper treatment