This is a continuation of my previous article. I was not able to address all the issues related to medical missions in my previous article. Also I had seen many comments regarding what I had said previously. I will try to address those and also give more clarification regarding my position on medical missions. This is a long article. Kindly do bear with me.
Role of Mission hospitals and Church:
A lot of doctors working in mission hospitals in this era are of the opinion that mission hospitals should be independent of Church. The reason why they claim to do so is because of all the corruption which is present in the mainline churches and its influence is felt even in mission hospitals. Some doctors say mission hospitals should be the first to be established in an area where Christ is not heard so that it would facilitate the missionaries to preach the gospel without the opposition because the locals would be impressed by the good works of mission hospitals and thus be more willing to listen to the gospel which is preached.
I agree that our good works would give a positive influence on those to whom we preach the gospel. But Bible says in Romans 1:16 that gospel itself is a power for those who are destined to be saved. We don’t do all the good works and charity to facilitate the preaching of the gospel but out of good will to fulfil the second greatest command of God, “Love thy neighbour”.
And Biblically it is Church which should lead in doing missions, not the mission hospitals. If you read Acts 6:1-6, Church in Jerusalem actually was overburdened with both teaching and doing charity (which at that time was to serve their poor widows). So the Church actually set apart some of its leaders to do the act of charity while others can do the act of preaching and teaching. This was the basis in which many of the mission hospitals were established in India. Mission hospitals should be under the authority of the church. This does not mean that Church has to influence the mission hospitals in all the decision which it takes but mission hospitals should be in a way doing the work of a charity in the area where church needs, to help the poor brethren who are sick.
Now you would ask me why all the mission hospitals under the church are very badly affected by politics? The answer is because the Church is sick now. The church in India is really sick and dead. The leaders of our mainline churches are not regenerate. They don’t fear the Lord. They are not loving him. They are not afraid of his holiness and righteousness. They fear men. And these men dominate the governing board and they all want to 'eat' whatever property church owns and thus our mission hospitals are dead. So the politics of mission hospitals under churches is a symptom of the greater disease, which is dead Church.
Can the good deeds done by the mission hospitals like CFH, Oddanchatram justify its existence without the authority of Church?
A Christian should base his actions on how Bible instructs. As I have said before, a Christian charity hospital should be a helping arm of the local Church in that locality of need. Mission hospitals like CFH and current Christian Medical College, Vellore are not under the authority of Church at least in practice nor do they directly help the church in that locality. I am not saying what they are doing is of no use for Christ. They are very charitable and I commend their efforts to be straight forward and ethical in their practice. But we cannot call them as Mission hospitals in biblical terms. They are at the maximum doing charity to poor people and there are not actively involved in helping the Church in preaching the gospel.
For a Christian, end does not justify the means. So just because good deeds are done by these hospitals, does not necessarily mean they are established by Biblical means. For example, Aravind eye hospitals, Ramakrishna Mission hospitals etc, are also established with charity as a motive. And they do a really good job in treating poor patients. But that does not mean that they are established according to God’s will nor their belief is right.
Can mission doctors propagate good deeds done in the mission hospitals to inspire people and to gather funds for their hospital?
A Christian should be inspired to do good deeds out of love for God not out of compulsion or persuasion of others. And a Christian should depend on God first for all the provisions. George Muller is a good example of that. He ran orphanages without asking anyone for help because he trusted that God would provide for the functioning of his orphanage. Likewise, doctors working in the area of need should be primarily dependent on God for their help. And Church should actively address the needs of the hospital. If you read Acts, the Christians of Antioch helped the saints of Jerusalem spontaneously without anyone prompting them to help (Acts 11:28-30). So we should also have faith in God for our physical needs to be fulfilled in our mission hospitals in need.
A Case study of the mission hospital where I am working now (and I am not a medical missionary just because I am working in mission hospital!)
Most of my readers will know that I am also a medical doctor. I am currently working in Danish Mission Hospital, in a small town in Tamil Nadu, India called Tirukkovilur. This hospital is also a mission hospital. Our hospital was established in 1911. Before that Lutheran missionaries from Denmark Missionary Society came to India to this locality to preach the gospel and they established churches here. In those days, infectious diseases were quite rampant and both missionaries and the locals were dying because of that. So believing doctors from Denmark, under the guidance of our Church, Denmark Lutheran Church, established our hospital in this place. It served it's purpose at that time. After 100 years, the scenario is completely different. Tamil Nadu is one of the most developed parts of India. And this town has all the basic facilities with good government secondary hospital along with many private hospitals. And because of better sanitation and education, most of the endemic diseases of the past are controlled now. And people here also are well off than the past. So technically, the existence of my hospital in this locality does not serve the purpose of why it was established, 100 years back.
So does that mean that mission hospitals are not relevant now? Absolutely not. Like I said in my previous article, mission hospitals are still in need in parts of our country where there are missionaries who are planting churches, where the health care is poor and endemic diseases are common. For example, the tribal villages in Chattisgarh, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh. The doctors who are doing charity in such mission hospitals are the ones who are doing medical missions, in historical point of view.
So the point is this: Just because a doctor is working in a mission hospital now situated in a fairly developed part of India, does not make him or her, a Medical Missionary. Medical Missionary is one, who is actually helping the Church of a primitive place with poor health facilities primarily through his charitable good deeds for preventing the locals and Christian missionaries dying of endemic diseases.
Please read my previous article Medical Missions- My thoughts (Part 1) also
No comments:
Post a Comment