Genius of Our Medical Work—II

Now what is the reason that our health work is not in a healthier state? Why do we not have a larger percentage of our doctors in North America within the frame­work of the movement ? Why do we not have more denominational sanitariums? Let us explore these questions.

First, and most important, the answer is found in the fact that our Adventist constitu­ency, in general, have too vague an idea as to why we conduct a medical work, or why we include a doctrine of bodily health in our be­liefs. We are better instructed on the state of the dead than on the state of the living. We too often think of our doctrine of physical health as the Adventist brand of the doctrine of penance. And no one ever became enthusi­astic about practicing or promoting penance. The greatest handicap to our whole health and medical program is ignorance, and the apathy and even hostility that spring from ignorance. In fact, the ignorance is so great that some have equated health reform with peanut butter and whole-wheat crackers. No wonder the doc­trine of healthful living has suffered from mal­nutrition and spiritual anemia throughout most of our history.

Penance and peanut butter kindle no flaming loyalties—except in the hearts of an extreme element who become fanatical in their zeal to promote their conception of the Adventist health doctrine. Their success is measured in terms of the ignorance of our membership as to the true doctrine. Fanaticism always thrives on ignorance. That, in turn, prompts ,another segment among us to make merry with cynical laughter and jest whenever the subject of healthful living is discussed. And I am disclosing no secret when I say that such cynicism is not confined to the laity.

No phase of our work can prosper except as it has behind it the active interest and enthusi­asm of our people. I wonder how long this movement would loyally believe in and preach the doctrine of the Advent, for example, if every time that doctrine was mentioned no small fraction of us immediately began to dis­cuss the fanatical positions that various people have taken on this doctrine through the centuries, and to make merry over it. That, by the way, is the very reaction to the Second Advent doctrine in many religious bodies, and with dis­astrous results.

What we need more than anything else in the realm of our medical work is a healthier attitude toward the doctrine "of healthful living. And how shall we secure it? By an intelligent preaching and teaching of healthful living. If we had done this through the years, we would certainly find ourselves in a marvelously stra­tegic position today, but we missed a great opportunity.

Three Impressive Incidents

I still remember an experience I had in the year 1941, while connected with Life and Health. Anticipating war, President Roosevelt called a great health conference in Washing­ton, D.C., the first such conference in the history of the country. The purpose of it was to devise ways whereby the accumulated scien­tific findings on healthful living, particularly in the matter of diet, could be brought to the public in such a way as to educate them to a better level of health.

This great conference, which gave new and larger impetus to the whole idea of health edu­cation, was much discussed in the public press, and was particularly noted by the great food processors and their advertising agencies. Shortly after the conference I called on a New York advertising firm that handled a whole-wheat breakfast food. My earlier talks with the key man had produced no results. But this time he greeted me most cordially and declared that what he had been reading of the health confer­ence and its recommendations on healthful liv­ing sounded strangely like what I had been try­ing to say to him in the past. And could I find time to give a talk to the whole agency staff on what my journal—Life and Health—and the or­ganization publishing it really taught regarding healthful living, particularly on diet ?

The upshot was I talked one morning for an hour to the whole^- group of executives of the advertising agency on the twenty-second floor of a New York skyscraper. Then they asked me questions for a half hour after that. I left there with the feeling that we have some­thing more significant than we realize in the basic ideas on healthful living that we rather spasmodically, and sometimes apologetically, promote. Of course, in the recent great accen­tuation of health education by the nation, the motive power behind it was preparedness for war. The motive power that should be behind our preaching and teaching of health is pre­paredness for heaven.

During the war I interviewed Dr. Russel Wilder, of the Mayo Clinic, whom the Federal Government had borrowed to help promote the plans laid out by the health conference, partic­ularly in diet. After we had talked together about the health principles for which Seventh-day Adventists have stood, he remarked, "Looks like we are just about catching up with you folks now." I might have replied that it should not be too difficult for them to catch up, seeing we were not moving very fast and some of us were pulling back. I certainly could not tell him that we had been capitalizing very greatly on our knowledge of healthful living through the years. But I did think some sober thoughts as I left his office.

My conviction that we have something of great value in our health doctrine was height­ened when I interviewed the head of the Fed­eral Government's great Cancer Research In­stitute at Bethesda. Maryland, a few miles from Takoma Park. This doctor evidently knew of our Washington Sanitarium and of some of the distinctive health views we hold. I had hardly more than introduced myself and stated my connection with Seventh-day Adventists before he turned in his chair and remarked forcefully, "I think you folks have something in your ideas on diet." I^-Te then proceeded to comment on an article in a scientific journal that dis­cussed diet and cancer.

"Slow of Heart to Believe"

Evidently we do have something in our ideas on health. The ideas came from the messenger of God. As I rode home from Bethesda I thought of Christ's words : "0 fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken." If we are to make a great and grow­ing success of our health and medical work, we must first of all believe that it is something more reasonable than extremists and fanatics talk about, and something more serious than cynics laugh about. Is it not time to take a new look at our whole health work—the principles on which it rests, the objectives for which it is set—and see in it a great and good agency for aiding the Advent Movement ? Is it not time to see our health work, not as penance and peanuts, but as an aid to happier and holier living today in preparation for an eternity of such living hereafter ?

I am tremendously concerned about our being convinced and convicted about our health and medical work. Only if we are "sold" on it, will we be ready to put time and money into preaching and teaching it. Indeed, only as we are persuaded that this health doctrine is of God and serves a distinctive purpose, can we protect our whole medical work from settling down to the level of mere scientific, profes­sional service. Only thus can we keep our sani­tariums from becoming merely hospitals.

The success of any feature of our wOrk de­pends on the measure of intelligent belief in it that resides in the hearts of our people at large. For out of belief grows conviction, and out of conviction comes a will to do and to give, and out of the will to do and to give come institu­tions, loyal personnel, constant expansion. Do not tell me that the true genius of the medical mission assigned to the Advent Movement finds expression in the fact that nearly two thirds of our dearly trained doctors are located in one small, sunny area, and in private practice. It is not the sunshine that comes to us, but the sunshine we bring to others, that counts in our medical work.

Let me add, without delay, that the limited geography and vision of many of our doctors is but the ultimate expression of the limited vision and conviction of the great body of be­lievers. I do not wish to chide young medical graduates for lack of vision. indeed, I do not yet know how to answer the question of some, who inquire, "What else can I do?" Of course, I can tell a few that they can offer their serv­ices to our sanitariums, that often lack for per­sonnel. And I can tell a few more to anticipate possible mission service. But that answer is wholly inadequate.

No, I am not interested in chiding young doctors, or any doctors for that matter. But I am tremendously interested in asking the par­ents of young graduates what vision of the medical work they sought to implant in the souls of their children; and in asking confer­ence committees what long-range plans they have laid for an ever-enlarging medical work in their conferences ; yes., and in asking con­ference workers and pastors what program they have followed to keep the doctrine of healthful living and medical missionary work before our people. This last inquiry I would consider most important of all, because in the final analysis conference committees and con­ference plans are but the reflection of the col­lective conviction of the whole constituency.

Not Amen's but Action Needed

I doubt not that if I quoted to a church or a conference committee the familiar line that our medical work is an entering wedge to break down prejudice, there would be many amen's. Indeed, if for every amen that has been given to that statement through the years, a dollar had been contributed and an aggressive step taken, the land would be full of unique medical institutions doing a great work in actually breaking down prejudice.

It is not amen's we need, but action. We need to give attention, first, to breaking down prejudice, or at least apathy, in our own ranks before we seek to break down prejudice among unbelievers. Indeed, when it comes to our health message all the unbelievers are not out­side our ranks!

I confess I do not like the sound of what I have just been saying. But I have said it be­cause I believe it is true, and that it needs to be said. Indeed, it must be said if we are to see the full significance of the preaching and teaching part of our health work. We have a work of preaching and teaching that is to be done for our own people, as well as for the world. Only thus will the roots of conviction go down deep into the soil of our souls, and only thus can we support the tree of medical insti­tutions that should grow stronger and spread its branches ever farther as the years pass by.

May I venture a specific suggestion or two in this area. I think that the average-sized con­ference should set for itself the goal of a bona fide medical department, consisting of a full-time doctor and nurse and dietitian, and all three as regular conference workers. No phase of our work makes headway until it is manned by specialists who think and plan and dream about that part 'of our work. Where would our multimillion-dollar publishing business be if we did not have highly trained publishing secretaries and assistants in each conference? Without them our publishing houses would soon be crippled, unless, of course, we went into commercial printing. I think there is here more than a vague analogy to our medical work and medical school. And where would our educa­tional work be if we did not have specialists in each conference devoting full time to this phase of the work? Our schools would either weaken and die, or would become increasingly secular in an endeavor to meet their budgets.

Nothing runs of itself. The story of other religious bodies is that they have rather gener­ally lost their institutions, Which have become foot-loose corporations only vaguely related to the body that gave them birth. That sobering fact has helped us to be more attentive to our institutions. By the grace of God and the un­remitting labor of specialists in every confer­ence we have kept our educational and publish­ing institutions tightly tied to us, and caused them to make a maximum contribution to the Advent Movement.

Do we expect a miracle to happen, and our medical institutions, particularly our medical school, to remain closely integrated with the life of the movement and to make an ever-en­larging contribution to the work if we do not have qualified specialists caring for the medical interests in our conferences ? I think that out of the medical departments in fifty-eight con­ferences—if we had them—would soon come an ever-increasing number of tested plans for integrating the medical work with every other part of our work.

Possible Service of Medical Secretary

There is much that a medical secretary could do. For example, he could conduct week-end rallies at key churches. I wonder what might happen if we had a medical team of a conse­crated doctor, nurse, and dietitian in each conference carrying on such rallies. I wonder whether we might not find a healthier view of our work developing. Of this much I am sure, that we could, by these health lectures, bring into the circle of Adventist influence a great many people on whom we have spent much evangelistic effort and money, but who have thus far never entered our doors. There is a great and a growing interest in health. Why should we not capitalize on it?

I think that bona fide medical secretaries could help greatly in drawing young medical graduates into the conference. In fact, I think that a regular medical man in the conference setup, going about in health work, and keeping contact with the physicians in private practice, would soon be devising some plan for a sani­tarium in the conference.

I wonder how many beautiful church build­ings we would have if we left the planning and erection of them simply to the spontaneous and spasmodic action of lay members ! We spend several thousand dollars on an evangelistic ef­fort. We select a good preacher to stay with the company to coordinate their endeavors and finally to lead them out in the erection of an appropriate church building. The minister fires the hearts of the people, ministers to their souls, tells them of the larger work that can be done if proper facilities are provided, and be­hold, the people give, and church buildings rise. Is it not reasonable to believe that a doc­tor, with the right personality, could so lift the vision of our people, so tutor them on health principles, so help them to see what influence for good could radiate from our health work, that they would be of a mind to support a plan for a small sanitarium?

If that is not the proper background for the creation of a sanitarium, then pray tell, what is? No denominational institution can safely be reared simply on a perfunctory committee action and a budget appropriation. The only safe foundation is the crystallized conviction of the great body of the constituency.

A bona fide medical secretary in the confer­ence could set up charitable medical clinics in certain key cities. I have often wondered what effect it might have on our Ingathering, to say nothing of good will in general, if we had such clinics scattered over the land. That is not a fanciful idea. It can be made to work if there is someone to foster it.

I know of one such clinic, well housed and legally incorporated, that for the last sixteen years has been providing medical aid to the ambulatory sick in a county adjoining Wash­ington, D.C. Washington Sanitarium doctors, along with many private doctors, have contributed their services, but the denominational treasury has not had to invest a dollar to operate this health center. The Washington, D.C., Community Chest provides the operating funds, but Adventists receive the credit in the eyes of the county. What is being done in that one place can be duplicated in a hundred places. And to the great gain of the cause.

Some Objections Considered