Thursday, December 14, 2006
Canadian Christian Research Group on-line
The Christian Committment Research Institute out of Canada has some interesting resources on faith and on faith/health issues. Their most recent monograph looks at diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and hypertension and the relationship with attendance at worship services. Other monographs have examined Canadians' tv watching, teen sex, etc. (I'm having trouble today opening the monograph but the table of contents that came in my email looked interesting.) They also have a regular meeting called ACTs, A Cluster of Tentmakers, that gets together to have speakers and discussions. Looks like it happens in Ottawa. I'll bet I got on this list last time I went to visit John Patrick.
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
Christian Lyrics On Line website
While sending out an email to the members, I was looking for the song "They will know we are Christians by our love." There is a website of lyrics! Here is the link...
Remember the Christmas Party this weekend!
Dec. 15th, email me at denvercmda at hot mail dot com for directions and to RSVP...
CMDA Ministries
My copy of Today's Christian Doctor came, ironically, Today. In the center is a four page foldout listing 83 separate ministries of the Christian Medical and Dental Associations. There are ministries for dentists, students, spouses of docs in training, mentoring for new docs, global health outreach, scholarships, placement services, marriage, OB/GYN, Derm, and Psych sections, malpractice ministry, an online bookstore, speaker's bureau, and public testimony/radio outreach. I find my membership in CMDA to be increasingly rewarding and important. I even got an inquiry to see if I wanted to relocate to Pittsburgh to join a Christian Pathologist. Not right now, but an incredible thing to realize there are actually Christian Pathologists out there! (Denver is lucky to have several.)
If you are already a member, thank you. If not, please consider joining us. "Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken. Ecclesiastes 4:12"
If you are already a member, thank you. If not, please consider joining us. "Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken. Ecclesiastes 4:12"
CME Offering on Human Trafficking
Christian Medical and Dental Associations offers a 2 hour, on line CME about Human Trafficking. Dr. Jeffery Barrows, DO is the faculty. I've seen him speak and the presentation was dramatic. A lot of our brothers and sisters are in servitude, many of them sex slaves. It is worth your time to learn about it. The masters will seek medical care for their slaves on occasion. The course is free, there is a $20 charge if you need a CME certificate.
Tuesday, December 05, 2006
Individuality and Collectivism vs Community
This month's First Things has an article on Dietrich von Hildebrand, a heroic German who stood against Nazism and anti-semitism in the war years. He apparently realized the opposing temptations of individualism on the one hand (inherited from the "enlightenment") and collectivism on the other side.
"If it is unworthy of the human person to exist in a fundamental suspicion of others, individualistically fortified against them, it is no less unworthy of the human person to dissolve as a part into some social whole."
His answer was a God-centered community, where each person is part of a community but is also is individually called to God. This sort of thing doesn't appeal to moderns, who like to have some philosophically pure position. Pure individualism (libertarianism) or pure collectivism (Marxism, communism, socialism) are easier to explain and don't leave one with those nagging tensions. I was a libertarian for a while before I began to realize the importance of tension to a mature, realistic view of life.
He thought that people would try to meet the need for meaning in life by abandoning themselves to instinct. Not bad for a guy in the 30's, a pretty on-target prediction.
Another interesting part of the article is on morality.
"The Enlightenment had thought that one could eliminate the Christian God, and indeed eliminate God altogether, and still have morality, the same morality that Christians had upheld. Nietzsche was one of the first to see through this incoherence of thought...For a time, man might retain a sense of some special dignity, but this is the last light cast by a setting sun."
"All of Western Christian civilization stands and falls with the words of Genesis, 'God made man in His image.'"
I'll try to link this in a couple of months or you could consider buying a copy of First Things. This is an important magazine with excellent writing, deep insights. John Patrick recommended it to me.
"If it is unworthy of the human person to exist in a fundamental suspicion of others, individualistically fortified against them, it is no less unworthy of the human person to dissolve as a part into some social whole."
His answer was a God-centered community, where each person is part of a community but is also is individually called to God. This sort of thing doesn't appeal to moderns, who like to have some philosophically pure position. Pure individualism (libertarianism) or pure collectivism (Marxism, communism, socialism) are easier to explain and don't leave one with those nagging tensions. I was a libertarian for a while before I began to realize the importance of tension to a mature, realistic view of life.
He thought that people would try to meet the need for meaning in life by abandoning themselves to instinct. Not bad for a guy in the 30's, a pretty on-target prediction.
Another interesting part of the article is on morality.
"The Enlightenment had thought that one could eliminate the Christian God, and indeed eliminate God altogether, and still have morality, the same morality that Christians had upheld. Nietzsche was one of the first to see through this incoherence of thought...For a time, man might retain a sense of some special dignity, but this is the last light cast by a setting sun."
"All of Western Christian civilization stands and falls with the words of Genesis, 'God made man in His image.'"
I'll try to link this in a couple of months or you could consider buying a copy of First Things. This is an important magazine with excellent writing, deep insights. John Patrick recommended it to me.
First Things on human sexuality
Here is a post on the First Things website about several movements in America. One is the Quiverfull ministry, which appears to reject human tinkering with birth and welcoming as many children as you are given. Princeton apparently has a more secular student group that has come to the conclusion that traditional marriage and morality work better than the "sexual revolution." An interesting read indeed.
Friday, December 01, 2006
Debate on Atheism
Dennis Prager, whom some of you know is probably my favorite talk radio host, had an online debate with Sam Harris who is an "evangelical atheist." For your reading pleasure.
