Medicine

The use of medical care (or rather the absence of medical care) is again being brought up in the news. A family for a little girl who died recently due to an illness that could possibly have been treated medicinally is now in danger of criminal prosecution for not taking the girl to a doctor to receive medical care. The family (and their church) do not believe in outside medical assistance, but lift up all ailments in prayer. This one of those things that just keeps coming back into my personal theology definition, most recently as a result of the "Matter of Opinion?" series done at Frontline a few months back. One of the first topics that was discussed was suicide, and more specifically what constitutes suicide and what is God's opinion on the subject. (The "Matter of Opinion?" series addressed various topics that various denominations throughout the "Christian community" have different opinions on, but God's opinion is clearly stated in the Bible, hence the question mark...these issues should NOT be opinions to be varied throughout Christians, but really are no-brainers. Check out www.frontlinedc.com for more info and free downloads from the series.) Part of the suicide discussion tapped into an area that provides me with great confusion, when is medicine a "gift from God" and when is medicine a human attempt to "play God"? Should we regard every medical discovery as a brilliance that only God could have planted in the mind of the doctor or scientist? Or are some medical discoveries only a deception leading us away from faith in God's supernatural power of healing? When is is okay to refuse medical treatment? When is it okay to give your body the boost it "needs" to become pregnant? Is it okay to undergo the popular invetro-fertilization procedures available to pre-moms-to-be these days? Where is that line drawn? Is there a line? Is this a personal decision made between a person and God after much prayer and mediation on God's Word?

Obviously, there is still much work to be done inside both my head and my heart before I will ever understand the power of medicine in co-existence with the power of God.