Printed from: https://archive.cmf.org.uk/resources/publications/content/?context=issue&id=6012
No-one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money. (1) Most of us are familiar with Jesus' well known words. But how seriously do we really...
In 2002 the British Medical Journal published an article on 'Unhappy Doctors'. (1) The authors noted declining morale among doctors worldwide, investigated this, and found it was not to do with workload or pay (important though these were). Rather the key factor appeared to be change in the 'psychological compact'...
Millennium Development Goal 4: (1) Reduce child mortality Target: Reduce by two thirds, between 1990 and 2015, the under-five mortality rate We certainly live in a world of difference. The death of a child is a tragic loss, yet every year there is a 'silent tsunami' with 8.8 million children...
And I will give you treasures hidden in the darkness – secret riches. I will do this so that you may know that I am the Lord, the God of Israel, the one who calls you by name. (1) One sufferer has graphically described depression as an 'internal darkness, an...
Joanna Thompson, who died on 24 July 2009 after a short illness, was the head of CareConfidential, a department of the well-known Christian charity CARE. She devoted her life to helping desperate women struggling with the crisis of unexpected pregnancy or with problems following abortion, and her deep faith and...
We first reported in 2001 on the medical work of the Jian Hua (Build China) Foundation in Qinghai province in rural China. (1) We sent annual short term medical teams from 1999 until 2001 – the last brought 40 international health professionals and received much interest, including from the BBC....
Jim Harrison – providing specialist surgery I work at the Beit Cure International Hospital in Malawi, a slightly novel form of Christian mission setting. It's a specialist orthopaedic hospital where our main work is the surgical treatment of disabled children. They come from all over the country, often from...
Historian and haematologist Dr Duffin diagnosed severe acute leukaemia from a bone marrow sample. Surprisingly the patient survived, following prayers to a woman 200 years previously who had become Canada's first Catholic saint. This led Duffin to explore the Vatican Secret Archives. Four purported miracles must lie behind every 'saint', but...
Sex education, argues the Director of Family Education Trust, is not just another aspect of education, but 'an ideological battlefield on which a war is being waged for the hearts and minds of children'. This new booklet explains the government's current plans to make sex education compulsory from the age of...
Christian bioethics growever more complex as technologies develop and new issues emerge. AgnetaSutton has set out to make some of the themes more accessible. She takes a broad sweep, encompassing traditional challenges such as euthanasia and IVF, as well as more novel topics like our roleas guardians of creation and...
This is vital stuff' says Romance Academy director, Rachel Gardner, in her foreword and so it is. As the author, a theologian at Cambridge's Jubilee Centre, clearly recognises, it is also a book many readers may consider 'hardhearted' because it concentrates so much on the societal rather than individual aspects...
This collection of philosophical essays by academics grapple with ethical topics through the medium of film. The essays cover issues such as abortion,personhood, cloning andidentity, memory, euthanasia, eugenics, autonomy and paternalism,using well known films such as 'I, Robot', 'Wit', 'Gattaca'and 'Eternal Sunshine of theSpotless Mind', as well as moreobscure ones...
These 'impressions' by a retired CMF member give a very helpful synopsis of the psalms. The psalms express challenges and provocations which the biblical David experienced as shepherd, army commander, refugee and sovereign. Unlike those times we are not so involved with 'flesh and blood' controversies but with 'the powers...
The book opens with the attempt to rescue some IVF embryos from being destroyed in the flood caused by Hurricane Katrina. One embryo rescued that day was successfully implanted and 'Noah' was born in January 2007, named because he survived the flood! The book begins with the intuition that it...
As both medical doctor and Christian minister, Dr Chapman is well placed to bring an integrated, whole person perspective to this book on biblical health. It is divided into four sections: biblical health, health of the spirit, health of the soul, and health of the body. This is a practical workbook...
For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich. (2 Corinthians 8:9) Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed...
Be sure your sins will find you out Three years is a long time in biotechnology and some may have forgotten South Korean cloning scientist Professor Hwang Woosuk, at the centre of scandals in 2006 when he was found to have falsified research that had been published in Science and to...
On life's journey it is useful to glance in the rear view mirror, because while you know your destination such a glance can keep you from danger when you're thinking about a change of direction. If you are a cyclist you will know that the glance over your shoulder is...
Have you ever wondered where Jesus would be found working if he were a junior doctor today, or how he would respond to the challenges of practising modern medicine? Over the next few articles we are going to look at some of the difficulties and rewards of being a Christian...
Thank you for your article on adoption. I too have adopted a child, not because I 'needed' to – we had a lovely five month old baby at the time – but because it seemed the right thing to do as a Christian. I am working in rural South Africa where...
It was a great help to have the CMF and Care Not Killing literature (1) available when recently asked to comment about assisted suicide on our local radio. Particularly impressive are the statistics comparing the number of deaths in the UK per annum with the miniscule number of Britons who...
Since the 7 July defeat in the House of Lords of the Falconer amendment, (1) and after a final failed attempt to amend it by Lord Alderdice, the Coroners and Justice Bill has thankfully passed through both Houses of Parliament unchanged. It can now no longer be used as a...
The Copenhagen Climate Change Talks happen in December, and at the time of writing media comment suggests that the chance of meaningful agreement on curbing emissions rests on whether the West can persuade India, China, Brazil and much of the developing world to sign up.At the same time, recent reports...
At a resumed inquest in October, the Coroner ruled that doctors at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital had acted correctly in not giving any lifesaving treatment to 26 year old Kerrie Wooltorton when she was admitted in 2007 having suicidally ingested antifreeze. (1) It appears that she had done...
Until recent research from New Zealand (1) it was a medical mantra that it was safer for a mother's mental health to have an abortion than to continue with the pregnancy. I have twice reviewed this topic (2)(3) and in further developments about abortion affecting mental health Fergusson et al...
