Lessons from an ageing film star

Dev Anand, the evergreen actor celebrated his 83rd birthday onSeptember 26th. A commendable feat is that he is still active, stillmaking movies and still full of zest. At an age, when many who arestill alive have either fully or partially retired, Dev Saab carrieson unabated. However, looking at things from another point of view,the view of the film lover, his fans and the market, I am reminded ofa quote by the late cricketer Vijay Merchant who retired from theplaying field at the peak of his career. When asked why he retiredwhen he still had plenty of cricket ahead of him to all intents andpurposes, Vijay Merchant replied that people should fade out at a timewhen people ask " why" and not linger on till people begin asking "whynot "

Dev Anand was a great actor of his time and his film "Guide" isconsidered as one of the all time greats of Hindi cinema. Along withDilip Kumar and Raj Kapoor, he was part of the super star triumvirateof Bolly wood of the 50s and the 60s and even till the 70s. the moviesof the time – Hum Dono , Jewel Thief, Black Mail , Kala Pani , TaxiDriver and many , many others were not only box office hits but werealso known for their melodious music and giving breaks to singers andcomposers like Kishore Kumar and R.D.Burman and gave opportunities toveterans like S.D.Burman .

Those days are over. The movies that Dev Anand now makes are hardlywatch able. Mediocre plots, obscure casts, ordinary music and littledistribution channels ensure that only through the media does thepublic get to know about movie Dev Saab is making, what is its titleand what is its plot? You will hardly see these movies being screenedin the multiplexes or even the other movie halls and their DVDs Are rarely available too. Bollywood, which may respectfully call DevAnand, Dev Saab is ultimately ruled by the market and knows that hismovies do not really matter any more as no body watches them.

Looking through Dev Anand's life and work, I thought that there arelessons that we as Christians can learn – lessons that the Bibleteaches us but are best learnt perhaps when there are illustrations.Dev Anand was once a relevant, meaningful film maker who madebeautiful films but he chose to over judge his relevance and slowlybecame obsolete. The Bible teaches us that "Man born of woman is offew days and full of trouble. He springs up like a flower and withersaway; like a fleeting shadow, he does not endure."( Job 14:1-2 (NIV).Also As for man, his days are like grass, he flourishes like a flowerof the field; the wind blows over it and it is gone, and its placeremembers it no more(Ps 103:15-16 (NIV)

But looking at the way some of us and our organizations work, it wouldappear that we feel that the above verses will pass us by. So we carryon and on and on far past our glory days and never ever adapt orchange or give way. The result is that a glorious and productive pastwhich is worthy of remembrance gives way to a dubious present which isaccompanied only by a passive tolerance if not outright derision andridicule. Ecclesiastes 3:1-15 reminds us that there is a time forevery thing. It will be helpful to the legacy we leave behind if welisten to the verse, give away our existing roles when the time isproper and adapt and accept new and meaningful roles that are right and proper for us.

Who would Jesus hang ?

Some weeks ago, CNN/IBN flashed me the news on my mobile that Muhammad Afzal, one of the main accused in the case relating to the attack on the Indian Parliament, was to be hanged at Tihar Jail, not far from where I live, on October 20th. Later on, the news was that perhaps his lawyers will appeal to the President and that perhaps his mercy petition will be granted, then again, perhaps not. Given the many innards of the Indian judicial process, it remains to be seen of course whether Muhammad Afzal will be hanged at all and if so, when actually he will be hanged if at all.

Given that there is so much of death and destruction happening all around us all the time, it should not be surprising that someone who was convicted of bombing Parliament - the ultimate symbol of Indian democracy and its people - should be sentenced to death. And yet, it perhaps still touches a raw nerve whenever the state is involved in the taking of human life - be it as a passive bystander as when farmers commit suicide due to inept policies or when civilians die in custody or encounters or of course as in the current case, where the state formally after due process decides to sentence someone to death using the proviso that the death sentence is to be passed in the rarest of rare instances. Only in the last instance, is the state actually sanctioning and executing a death – in the case of encounter killings or custodial deaths, the government of the day and its instruments are active or passive accomplices, though arguably, the situation could be termed a lot worse if the state is seen as a passive spectator as deaths and killings happen unchecked and without any accountability under its gaze and watch.

Although the trauma of capital punishment is what it is and cannot be reduced, one of the areas where judicial reform should be directed is towards the speedy disposal of cases where the death sentence is awarded - both from the perspective of the accused as well as the state. If the state really wants an accused executed and feels that in a particular situation the circumstances warrant it, then it needs to do all in its power to ensure that the sentence passed is speedily executed and all appeals for clemency and retrial are expeditiously disposed off. It surely does not help the purposes of justice when the trials and appeals linger on for years and the public feels cheated of the verdict that was originally delivered.

From the point of view of the convict too, although it might at one level appear that justice is being delivered and lives saved by dragging the judicial process for years through numerous adjournments and appeals, in actual fact, the life the convict actually lives with the sword of Damocles hanging over him is actually no life worth reckoning. Cases have been known to drag on for years and by the time the petition is disposed one way or the other, the accused may have spent most of his or her active life in prison. Human rights groups like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch which routinely track custodial deaths and encounter killings have little to say about the prolonged period of time that one can spend in prison simply as an under trial with either no verdict being pronounced or the verdict being challenged in courts through innumerable appeals and adjournments.

As a Christian, I cannot imagine Jesus hanging any body or sentencing any one to death, though of course it could be argued that the final judgement that He will pronounce will be much harsher. But if it is difficult to imagine Jesus actually awarding the capital punishment, it is possible that Christians holding civil position and power may from time to time need to exercise to exercise that option though secular Europe has largely discarded it. But from a Christian point of view , this much can surely be said- that if the right to life and liberty is not meant for some because of the heinousness of their crimes, the least a humane state could do is to ensure a speedy and painless execution of the death sentence. May be Christians could lobby for a humane and painless execution of the death sentence. May be Christians couldlobby for that Surely, if the right to life and liberty is not meant for some because of the heinousness of their crimes, the least a humane state could do is to ensure a speedy and painless execution of the death sentence.

Which languages would Jesus preserve ?

The Karnataka Government's decision to shut English-medium schools in the state if they do not switch to Kannada at the primary school level has predictably created a controversy. The policy was framed in 1994, but had been gathering dust hitherto. The state government’s decision to revive the policy has affected at least 2,000 schools.

The regional language issue has been a bane of independent India and at various points of time has gripped one part of the country or another. The latest is the Kannada controversy, which has reared its head while the nation is in the process of getting integrated with the world primarily on the strength of the English language. For months now, schools in the four Naga-dominated districts of Manipur — Ukhrul, Chandel, Senapati and Tamenglong — are being pressured into adopting the text-book and syllabi of the Nagaland Board of Secondary Education and eventually to affiliate with the Nagaland Board. This, obviously, is a precursor to the demand that the districts should eventually become part of the greater Nagaland.

Whatever the motive or rationale behind such demands, it cannot be denied there are also genuine fears of cultural extinction that fuel such local insistences. One of the dangers of One-India or One-World phenomena is the great insecurity that it creates in minority groups as cultures and languages get swallowed up and there is a struggle for minorities to keep their identities alive. There is a report from Peru’s Summer Institute of Linguistics that 30 of the 100 basic languages in Peru have disappeared in the last few decades and another 12 or so are about to disappear. As monolithic cultures take shape and global languages like English become even more popular, the smaller and less spoken languages will gradually disappear or fall into disuse.

Different communities are reacting to the need to preserve their identity in different ways. Countries like Australia have recently decided that even within the English-speaking world, they need to preserve their own Australian culture and norms and have recently decided that to become a citizen of Australia, it will no longer be enough to just be a speaker of English – one will need to know, according to the Prime Minister, John Howard, “a good deal more about Australia and about Australian customs and the Australian way of life.”

It is important in a diverse country like India to preserve the delicate balance of culture and not allow the hegemony of one culture or language. Many of our tribes are struggling to keep afloat and maintain their identity. It is so easy for them to be swamped completely and be obliterated out of the anthropological map. The people of Karnataka are not a minority and therefore they can express their views, but by fighting for the English language they are teaching us that fighting for language rights and cultural identities can become a tool not of emancipation but of chauvinism.

How the Evangelical church has changed- Reeflections from the Micah Conference 2006

1) The passion that is there in responding to humanitarian concernsand being out there in the market place trying to shape and influencepublic opinion – be it on globalization, the war on terror , religiousfundamentalism or any other was missing may be even a decade ago. Then it was a small and motley collection of people who did social work andhumanitarian response of any kind - World Vision and Tear Fund andtheir camp followers and even they did – safe, sanitized social work –feeding the hungry and the poor – instead of asking uncomfortablequestions about inequitable distribution of resources, armsmanufacture in the West and their subsequent export and these sort ofthing. World Vision, Tearfund and their partners are still there andhave evolved but others have joined—so many that there is a need for anetwork likes Micah.

2) The gap between the liberals and the evangelicals is narrowing. Inthe India sub group meeting it was mentioned that what Micah istalking about today was embraced by mainline churches like the churchof North India in the 1990s under the acronym – THUM(Towards aholistic understanding of mission). Today , evangelicals havejourneyed a long way from just planting churches to also caring forthe material , human needs and the liberals have also journeyed toaccept that fundamental sustainable development does not happenwithout a corresponding development of the heart.

3) A decade ago, evangelicals had the war cry that they had all theanswers and the answers had been given to them to deliver- today weare prepared to accept that we might have to learn from others, thatwe have questions too – hence the expressed desire to learn the true
WCC affiliated denominations and churches.

4) The Evangelical church today is a evolving, dynamic and a learningcommunity. There are no more rigid positions in the evangelical worldany more. As evidenced by positions on matters like HIV and AIDS , thefact that there are diverse positions within the church shows thatthere is no rigidity in positions and opinions held and that churchleaders and opinion makers are ready to unlearn and adopt newpositions provided a biblical framework is provided",meaning of incarnation from the Catholics – to pray together with theWCC affiliated denominations and churches.

Lessons from a Cananite woman

Once a Canaanite woman, a foreigner and a stranger, came to Jesus and began shouting. She addressed him respectfully, even calling him "Lord," and "Son of David," and she beseeched him to do something for her daughter who is possessed by a demon. This is just the kind of situation where Jesus usually demonstrates compassion and love. But not this time. Matthew tells us that "He did not answer her at all!" How rude! How uncaring! Not even a word of sympathy for this tormented mother. The disciples note his displeasure, and realizing that he has no intention of helping her, they urge him to send her away. She is bothering them. When Jesus does finally break his silence, it is to say, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel."

It is not clear from Matthew's gospel to whom those words were addressed. Were they spoken to the disciples to justify his actions (or lack thereof)? Were they directed at the woman to make her understand that she had no right to expect anything from him? We don't know, but in any event, they seem cold, unsympathetic, and uncaring. We might expect that response from someone who is prejudiced, but they just don't sound right coming out of the mouth of Jesus.

It's tempting to be so upset, to feel so confused, that we want to stop reading right there. But fortunately, that's not where the story ends. The pesky woman persists. She drops to her knees and pleads, "Lord, help me!" You can hear the desperation in her voice. Life with her daughter must be hell. She wants not only for her daughter to be healed, but also for relationship to be restored and for their lives to return to normal. She ignores the disciples' cutting glances. She overcomes the snub of silence handed out by Jesus, and she cries, "Lord, help me!"

This time she elicits a response, but surely not the one she was seeking or expecting. She hears no words of comfort or compassion, no promise of healing for her tormented daughter. Instead Jesus says to her, "It is not fair to take the children's food and throw it to the dogs." Another stinging rebuke. An insult of the highest order! Or at least that's what it sounds like. Is he really implying that his healing ministry is only for Israel, and is he calling the Canaanites dogs? How much worse can it get?

Put yourself in the woman's shoes for a moment. Women already had little or no status in Jesus' day. For a woman to have dared approach Jesus at all required enormous courage. And to make matters worse, this woman was of the "wrong" religion. She was a Canaanite and Jesus was a Jew. Jesus' comment, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel" is a potent reminder to her that she is on shaky ground. But this woman is not just...a woman, not just a Canaanite, she is also a mother. She is the mother of a tormented child, and she will do anything to make her daughter well. So she humbles herself, swallows her pride, kneels before Jesus and literally begs for help. His stinging rebuke would have turned most people away, but not this woman, not this mother. She squares her shoulders, and looks him right in the eyes and says with determination, "Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their Master's table." She will not stand for being regarded as a nobody. Every person has some rights and deserves some dignity.

It is unclear what it is about her response that makes the difference, but Jesus instead of ignoring her or sending her away, he says to her this time, "Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish." And her daughter was healed instantly. We are relieved as the final scene unfolds. At last Jesus responds as we want and expect him to. But what really happened earlier? Was Jesus testing the woman? Was God testing Jesus? Had Jesus set limits for himself recognizing that in a limited time he could not be all things to all people? Whatever the reason, it is clear from the beginning, that this woman falls outside the realm of Jesus' intended ministry. Remember that old sailor's prayer, "O Lord, the ocean is so big and my boat is so small." Jesus knew that he could not erase all prejudice from the world; he could not feed all the hungry, clothe all the naked or heal all the diseased. He could only do so much. But he could teach by example and hope that his lessons would be passed on.

That's one of the problems we have with this story. Jesus' apparent prejudice and his hard heart are hardly what we want to cling to or believe. So we must look deeper for a message that does make sense. We all set limits. We say, "I can give, but only a little." "I can teach, but only occasionally." "I can serve on the committee, but only this once." "I can put a coin in the beggar's cup, but only once this week." Even Jesus, who presumably has divine authorization for his limits ("I was sent..."), even Jesus allows his limits to be stretched by another's need. In other words, the rule here is that there is no rule, only a creative tension between our finite capacities and the world's infinite need. We can always give a little bit more, or help a little bit more, or love a little bit more. Love and compassion don't belong in boxes with tight-fitting lids. They are to be shared, and there should always be enough to go around, always room for one more inside our circle of love. God's mercy is infinite, and ours should be too.

Humanity was created in God's own image. We each have the capacity to reflect God's goodness in our lives. We strive, we fail. We love, we hate. We admire, we envy. We pray, we curse. We welcome, we reject. We compare, we judge. We are human. We are imperfect. We are loved. We are forgiven. God's love and mercy know no bounds. We are jealous, deceitful, and afraid. We are loved and forgiven. We are the Canaanite woman, rejected, desperate, persistent in prayer, and our prayers are heard. There is no limit to the amount of love God showers upon us, no limit to the number of times forgiveness is offered. God's mercy, love and forgiveness know no bounds, and neither should ours. Our instinct should be to help not hurt, to forgive not condemn, to love not judge, to give without counting the cost. One simple act of mercy, of love and kindness, can have enormous ramifications.

The Canaanite woman is every marginalized person in our society. She is every mother or father with a desperately ill child. She is like the political refugee clinging to hope, believing in second chances. She is a person of faith. Of course, there is also Jesus, at first put off by too many demands, overwhelmed by responsibility, drained from giving and giving and giving, trying to be faithful to his mission, and finally giving in, finally responding in love. I would bet that each of us relates to one or more of these characters in some way.

I still cringe a bit when I read this story about the Canaanite woman. Jesus' words still ring false and elicit a protest from deep within, but now I can move beyond the words and rejoice in the underlying lesson, a lesson summed up in the words of the hymn which we will sing in a few moments, "There's a wideness in God's mercy, like the wideness of the sea; there's a kindness in God's justice, which is more than liberty." And in verse three: "For the love of God is broader than the measure of our mind; and the heart of the Eternal is most wonderfully kind." God's love and mercy are wide enough to encompass everyone, wide enough to encompass the Canaanite woman, wide enough to include you and me.

God’s house and our household

All of us have places where we feel closer to God, or places where God feels closer to us, more accessible. We speak of holy places or sacred space when we refer to shrines, sanctuaries, special places in nature, or ancient pilgrimage sites. The church where I worship is such a place. The architecture, furnishings, and decorations has been chosen to enhance the perception that God is in this place in a special way-the ceilings or arches soar heavenward, there is a cross and other religious symbols, the space is open and airy, not cluttered, all designed to help us draw near to God, to remind us that God is here.

We all need places where we can come out of the bustle and press of our daily life-especially in these crowded, noisy, furiously-paced city-spaces that make God more accessible, or that make it easier for us to get back in touch with God. For many people, there are special places in nature that serve this purpose, perhaps a favorite mountain top or garden or a perch by the ocean. There are places in the world that many people recognize as "thin places." Places that have been sacred for centuries, even millennia, where the veil between the spiritual and the material is tissue-paper thin.

Of course, we know intellectually that God is no more present in one place than any other place. God is in all places. Yet we persist in thinking of places of worship as "houses of God," and there's no denying that we become aware of God's presence in particular spaces and under certain circumstances. They are places where we feel like we have access to the Spirit, places where we are able to feel in communion with God, where we find renewal, peace, comfort, guidance, inspiration, strength, and assurance. In God's house, wherever that may be for us, we find a sense of belonging, the reminder that God knows us, cares for us and loves us. These are places where we feel most deeply at home.

The concept of God's dwelling place, God's house has evolved over time. We see that evolution in scripture. In fact, what is probably the most significant event in the whole story of God's relationship with the people of Israel is regarding God’s dwelling place. King David is settled in his house in Jerusalem. He has been made king over all Judah and Israel, has taken Jerusalem for his capital and made it the center of worship by bringing the Ark of the Covenant to it. For centuries, since God brought the people out of Egypt, the symbol of God's dwelling, God's throne has been the Ark of the Covenant and the tabernacle that housed it-they signified that God was in the people's midst. As long as the people had the ark in their possession and took it with them from place to place, God was there with them.

That was the stark plight of the Gentiles before Christ. They did not belong, to God or to the community of God's people. But now, says this writer, "now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us." Through the death of Christ, the Gentiles, all those who were not part of the commonwealth of Israel, now have access to God. And a new community has been created, a new people, where once there were two peoples, now there is one new humanity.

It is an all-inclusive household. No one is disenfranchised. There are no more aliens, strangers, or outsiders. Through Christ, both groups now have access in one Spirit to the Father. There are no more doors or walls on God's house. The law, which once served to set God's people apart and was a dividing wall between the Jews and Gentiles has been abolished. This imagery reflects the intense struggle the Gentiles went through to be accepted into the church. The early church really wrestled with whether or not Gentiles could be full members without having to adhere to the law in all of its commandments and ordinances. That struggle is over. Jews and Gentiles both are members of the household of God, having equal access to God through the Spirit.

God's dwelling place is no longer a physical structure-it's not a movable tabernacle or a glorious temple, or this beautiful sanctuary. The temple of God is now the people of God, the community of the faithful. The cornerstone is Christ Jesus and the foundations are the apostles and prophets-all those who have gone before us-and we are the structure, joined together in Christ and continually growing into the dwelling place of God. Note that it is not individual followers of Christ who are referred to as God's house here, but the community. We all have our individual relationships to God, but the Christian faith is communal. To be Christian means to be a part of the body of Christ, the household of God. Together we are God's house, God's dwelling place.

When people say, "oh, I'm spiritual, but not religious," or "I don't believe in an institutional church," they are missing what it means to be Christian. To be Christian means that we are part of a community of faith. We are part of the body-whose individual parts cannot survive on their own. Feet, hands, arms, legs, even heads have to be attached to the body in order to carry out their function, in order to thrive, in order to survive. Together, we are God's house. That's a far more demanding calling than just to be "spiritual" on our own. We have to put up with other people. Learn to work with them, learn to love them. Put up with their quirks and eccentricities and all their annoying habits and traits.

We have to accept that we're going to think about things differently, have different opinions about what is most important or the best way to do things. We're accountable to one another for the way we live our lives of faith and we are to hold each other accountable for our actions and words that may disrupt or harm the community or its members. It's hard work being the church-but God has called each one of us into this household, told us that we're all welcome here, and that with Christ as our cornerstone, we are God's dwelling place.

God's house is not this building. God's house is all of us who follow Christ. May we always be mindful that we are God's house and that all are welcome. There are no outsiders or strangers, no aliens. God calls this kaleidoscope of diverse human beings together, and by the sheer grace of God, builds us up together into God's dwelling place. May we strive to make our community our sacred space, as holy a place as the most glorious cathedral or grandest mountain top. The household of God should be the place where we find our deepest sense of belonging, where we discover over and over again that God knows us, cares for us and loves us.

The Challenges before a Christian doctor

We are looking at the challenges faced today by a Christian doctor but just for the sake of clarity; let us define who is a Christian doctor any way! Is it some one from the Christian community? Some one who studied at Vellore or Ludhiana or some such institution? Is it some one who works in a mission hospital? Well it could be and often is some one who is one and more of all of these. But these things alone do not entitle one to be called a Christian doctor. There is more to it. The basic definition is whether the people who call themselves Christian doctors practice medicine in the spirit of Jesus? There is the story about Sadhu Sunder Singh that once when he was visiting London and called to see some one , a little boy who opened the door , took a look at the Sadhu and then went back to his mother to say they had a visitor. When asked das to who it might be, the little boy replied that he didn’t know, but it was some one who looked like Jesus. It would be nice to be described thus – that Dr so and so looks like Jesus – not in the sense of physical appearance since we don’t know what Jesus looked like of course, but in terms of an inner likeness. What does that mean? It is important to study what goes into the making of a Christian doctor, because the challenges they face and how they try to deal with them is all tied up with that identity.

What makes a Christian doctor?

A good Christian doctor: has good training, keeps current in what he does, is reasonably caring, is as thorough as professionally needed, and is helpful to the patient. He exhibits common sense, wisdom, and decisiveness, though being willing to admit to it when stumped; and he is willing to direct the patient to second or other opinions or specialists. In short, he/she does as he/she would have it done unto himself/herself (the Christian "golden rule").

But what makes a doctor Christian is not only all of the above or a set of well founded doctrines he or she professes or the church background they come from or whether or not they serve in a mission hospital--- but whether a person is clear about his call, wherever he or she may serve. It is possible to be living with integrity in a secular setting as well as build kingdoms and practice intrigue in mission settings. The call is important. Indeed , it is the sheet anchor of any life – and when things are unclear as they often are , when ethics are changing , practices are changing , values are changing and changing fast , it is one’s calling that one holds on to , that provides the consolation and conviction and the ammunition to meet the challenges as they come.
As I talked to several doctors about the challenges they face in their professional life , I found this one thing in common - the challenge is not from the context alone – remote, lonely mission hospitals – under paid, under equipped and unrecognized, important as they are but to live and serve in the spirit of Jesus , in the place they are , doing what God wants them to do and find fulfillment in the work that has been uniquely been given them to do , when all along , many others including close friends and batch mates perhaps are finding it in some place else. If this is the expectation, what are the challenges?

Ethical Challenges:

In the public domain, the Christian voice is often muted on most issues of public and social importance. But there are a few areas where this voice is loud enough to be termed a noise - talk of stem cell research, cloning and euthanasia and abortion and there is lots of discussion on these things- though largely initiated through Western Christian doctors and scientists and activists and often not interpreted adequately in Indian terms. For instance take abortion. The abortion debate in the West for instance is all about a woman’s right over her own body and the right she has to choose to have or abort the baby. The issue of abortion and a Christian response and stand towards it is as important in India as else where – except that in India most abortions happen not because women are choosing to have them and are happy about them, but because it is not a decision they make – it is a decision that often that their husbands make or their in laws make. Or if at all a woman makes them, she does because she is cognizant of the social realities she will be confronted with if she chooses to keep the baby.

When our Christian doctors blandly refuse to do abortions, and turn women away as is also the practice in the West, they are often consigning the woman to a hellish existence. A Western woman has the option to choose and act in several different ways according to her conscience; mostly she has the economic independence and the required social space to do so. An Indian woman often doesn’t and her rejection by a Christian doctor often means that she will still have to have the abortion any way, pressured by her family – except that now she will probably have it in some dinghy ghetto and die of septic abortion. No body has thought that as we are Pilate like cleansing ourselves of the unborn fetus’s blood and patting ourselves on the back, we are taking on ourselves, the blood of the woman who might die of septic abortion or hemorrhage or many of the other complications that go with unsafe abortion.

The answer is not to say, that we must reverse our position and do abortions from tomorrow. But the point to me made is that in most ethical situations, we take our stand and practice straight from text book situations in the West when the societal realities in India are quite different and the challenge is that no one has thus far unpacked these ethical matters for us in Indian setting and therefore artificial constructed responses are more likely to be seen as fundamentalist rather than humane and compassionate.


Drugs and prescribing practices

Continuing education is a challenge to any one these days with changes occurring rapidly , newer drugs coming into the market thick and fast and the enlarging scenario of not just drug competing with drug but also brand competing with brand.. The ubiquitous medical representative is increasingly playing a multi faceted role in a doctor’s life – be it in providing academic supplements and literature, sample drugs, sponsoring family vacations in exotic locales. Brand recalls are created by excessive and often unethical visibility. Since the drug companies are not in the charity businesses, the costs of these freebies are written in the drug pricing, adding to the already burgeoning costs of health care. This strategy also ensures that lesser players or makers of generic drugs who can not afford lavish gifts but can afford to supply drugs at a lower cost fall out of the market. Prescriptive practices invariably come under challenge as a Christian doctor is constantly under pressure to conform as most others do. This often proves difficult and many succumb. An added dimension is not just that of prescribing this brand or that but that of prescribing out rightly irrational drug combinations, some of which might be banned in several other nations with a more aware and alert enforcement machinery.

Closely related to this is the matter of sponsorship of medical conferences, seminars and symposia. Prima facie, there is nothing wrong because these are professional fora where people come together to share, learn and network. All of this is good and necessary. The danger is in the hidden strings attached in the form of endorsements that professional bodies often end up giving to products of their sponsors and the issue relating to the conflict of interest in a pharma company sponsoring a program where the attendees are those who would then be prescribing their products. In short, one is being invited to suspend professional judgment or at least compromise it and go by the recommendations of the pharma companies. Some people say that they will attend these conferences but use their own judgment. Is this really possible on the long haul? If one chooses not to go, then one loses out on the professional benefits that accrue out of attending such events.

The allure of glamour

The medical profession is hierarchical. So are many sections of the church. But we can not conceive of a situation where the clergy has only Bishops but no priests. But that is precisely the lot of the medical profession where every one, who is anyone is a specialist and this is a prescription which we Christians have willy nilly absorbed in toto. The question of call is relevant here again. Instead of Christian doctors asking the question of what they are required by God to do in life and then asking the subsequent question of what they need in terms of training and equipping , Christians like any one else decide their own agenda , what they will study , where they will study and then build their career and future plans around this. It is not unheard of for students to sit and prepare for two and three years in a row to get a PG seat in a subject of their choice speaks volumes for the rat race this whole game has become. While God welcomes hard work and healthy ambition, is a rat race Christian?

In our parent’s time or our grand parent’s time, the first port of call for a sick person was the G.P, the family doctor to whom all turned for succor. He kept track of all that went on, arranged referrals, deciphered complex medical jargon to the patient and his family, provided comfort and his consolation saw families through grief and bereavement. Today that institution has disappeared. GPs were accessible, affordable, and available and provided personalized care. Today that space is captured by all manner of quacks that provide treatment of questionable quality at the door step. While it is considered socially appropriate to decry them by running anti quackery campaigns, it is worth recognizing that they occupy this space because the GPs who once occupied this hallowed space have vacated this space and the GPs that do exist, almost do so by default not having passed the PG entrance exam and are so aware of their de glamorized state that they exist in a shadowy world with a ghost like existence with low self esteem and little of worth to contribute. Sadly, Christian institutions have been second to none in glamorizing post graduation and holding it up as a goal ideally to be pursued by all by the simple expedient of treating non specialists so shabbily that every one wants to be a specialist, irrespective of whether they have the aptitude for this or not.

Conclusion:

The definition of a Christian doctor will keep changing and we only keep changing it so that the definition speaks our language and vocabulary. A Christian doctor is not necessarily one who practices in some remote mission hospital forgoing comforts, affluence and recognition. It is possible to live with far greater comfort in the confines of a mission hospital with lots of people to fetch and carry for you and many doctors live like kings of the mission compound and lords of the manor. The challenge always for a Christian doctor is whether he or she is displaying in his/her life and persona the virtues and character of Christ. The main feature or characteristic of Jesus was and is that He is accessible to all. He is an inclusive God and Healer. Are we? Through our pricing, through our hierarchy, through the way and manner in which we have structured our practice, the aura we are surrounded by as well as by our physical availability, have we distanced ourselves so far from the ordinary patient that only a select few and that too often from the elite classes can approach ? The caliber of the institutions we trained in, our sound professional competence, even the low fees we charge and the quality of care we provide are all irrelevant if we are not really accessible in full measure. It was said of Christ, that he left his heavenly glory aside when he came down to earth, so that ordinary people like you and me could see him, touch him. Can that be said of us?