In what ways are followers of Jesus demonstrating God's loving character through caring for the sick, preventing disease, and even attempting to eradicate some diseases?
Photo credit: Sanofi Pasteur - Flickr
by Beth Snodderly, Editor
Ralph Winter founded the Roberta Winter Institute to “declare war on [the] sources of disease, in addition to being kind helpfully to sick people.”[1] Although Winter wrote in 2002 that “Virtually no one is trying to figure out how to eradicate pathogens” (Winter 2008, 174), that is no longer true. WCIU Board member, Dr. Richard Gunasekera, is carrying on Winter’s vision through his research with nano molecules, first at Rice University and now at Biola University.
Resources compiled by Timothy Skinner, MLS.
Read MoreA post shared from the Roberta Winter Institute website.
There is a considerable list of diseases which we know how to extinguish, but haven’t taken the trouble to extinguish. Below are five reasons why disease eradication is worth the trouble and five reasons why the body of Christ should play a significant role.
Read MoreResources compiled by Timothy Skinner, MLS.
Read Moreby Thu Ha Chow, WCIU student
As this momentous year comes to a close, I cannot help but reflect on how a virus with such a small beginning could cause so much suffering and devastation. Its path is altering the lives of every human being on this planet. It is a reminder that we should not overlook the evil which we fight, and yet we must also see that where evil prevails, grace is even greater.
Read Moreby Brian Lowther and Beth Snodderly
People are being wounded physically, psychologically, and spiritually by activities instigated by the adversary, the devil, the sniper, that “ancient foe” that seeks “to work us woe.” In this cosmic battle with the prince of darkness, health care workers need affirmation and support from the body of Christ so they do not grow “weary in doing good” (Gal. 6:9).
Read Moreby May Nor Clara Cheng
As a survivor of childhood polio, Dr. Cheng is particularly at risk during the coronavirus crisis. In this Reflection she shares her initial fears, how she found peace, and her prayer for vulnerable people around the world.
Read MoreResources compiled by Timothy Skinner, MLS.
Read MoreResources compiled by Timothy Skinner, MLS.
Read MoreConsequences and Cures for Inadequate Waste Disposal in Hospitals in Camaroon
by Samuel-Béni Ella Ella and Louise Chrésance Silinou
This article is in French. Copy and paste into Google Translate to read one segment of this article at a time (3900 character limit per translation).
The authors are associated with the Institut Universitaire de Développement International (Francophone University of International Development) founded by Moussa Bongoyok with the assistance of WCIU.
The World Health Organization (WHO 2011) reports that inadequate disposal of hospital waste has caused 21 million hepatitis B virus infections, 2 million for hepatitis C and at least 260,000 HIV infections worldwide in 2000. The same study shows that 18 to 64% of health facilities south of the Sahara do not correctly dispose of their waste, which nevertheless constitutes "a reservoir of potentially dangerous microorganisms capable of infecting hospital patients, staff and the general public ”(WHO 2015). To remedy this dangerous situation, the Cameroonian State has taken political and financial measures.
Read Moreby Brian Lowther
“There is absolutely no evidence I know of in all the world of any theologically driven interest in combating disease at its origins. I have not found any work of theology, any chapter, any paragraph, nor to my knowledge any sermon urging us—whether in the pew or in professional missions—to go to battle against the many disease pathogens we now know to be eradicable.” —Ralph D. Winter, December 2001
This quote has inspired much of our effort here in the Roberta Winter Institute. It has also compelled us to search high and low to prove this notion wrong. In recent years a few initiatives addressing malaria have cropped up; some led by Christian groups.
Read Moreby Ralph D. Winter
Thursday, April 25th was World Malaria Day 2019.
World Health Organization: After more than a decade of steady advances in fighting malaria, progress has leveled off. According to WHO’s latest World malaria report, no significant gains were made in reducing malaria cases in the period 2015 to 2017. The estimated number of malaria deaths in 2017, at 435 000, remained virtually unchanged over the previous year.
Ralph D. Winter: Some will say, “What in the world could microbes have to do with the Kingdom of God or global evangelism?” The answer is simple. Distorted microbes war against the Kingdom of God. Distorted genes make animals violent and destructive. Destructive parasites kill off many varieties of plant and animal life, as well as, by the malarial parasite, 1.2 million people a year, most of them children—four of whom die every minute from malaria alone. All this massive damage to the purposes of the Kingdom of God amounts to noise so loud that people can’t hear what we are preaching to them.
Read Moreby Ralph D. Winter
We have greater opportunities and greater obligations than ever in history. Yet the chasm between our unemployed resources and an effective challenge to big world problems is very great. It is apparent that organized believers are largely missing in the conduct of the Kingdom of God, in bringing His will into the dark and suffering places in our world.
Read Moreby Ralph D. Winter
There are two significant barriers to Christian belief: the rampant suffering, violence, and evil in this world as if there is no Satan behind it, and a Bible that is thought to have feet of clay, beginning with Genesis 1. Both of these obstacles to belief can be dealt with in an unusual way: a brief scenario that attempts conjecturally to interpret Genesis 1 in such a way as not to conflict with the latest scientific views. Most of all, it highlights a strikingly new dimension in the definition of Christian mission.
Read Moreby Dan Poenaru, M.D.
“I have a dream…” The iconic words, spoken by Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1963 resonate in the ears of all those who, like me, would like to see true transformational development be born and flourish through the church of Jesus Christ in global communities bound by poverty, sickness, injustice, and apathy. This is the dream which has led me to a more than decade-long health care career in Africa, and the dream which made me join, in 2000, BethanyKids, a small faith-based organization whose motto is “healing children in Africa, transforming lives.”
Read Moreby Ralph D. Winter and Greg Boyd
What if all disease pathogens as well as all violent forms of life are the work of Satan? What would Jesus have said about fighting germs in the name of Christ had the people of his time know about germs? How would that amplify and refocus our global mission? Christ has called us to be salt and light in a world of evil, corruption, and disease. We have a mandate to restore the glory of God among all peoples by more adequately representing His character. We misrepresent him if we talk only about getting to heaven. We must also reveal by our actions his concern for the conquest of evil and evil disease.
Read Moreby Richard Gunasekera
Phytochemicals play a decisive role in breast and prostate carcinogenesis by influencing their biological processes such as cell-cycle control, programmed cell death (apoptosis), inflammation, and DNA repair. Their pathogenesis includes the effects of environmental factors such as diet that may trigger the initiating of cancer in those who are predisposed genetically and epigenetically. Dietary phytochemicals can act as blocking agents by obstructing the initiation phase of carcinogenesis or they can act as suppressing agents by hindering the promotion and progression phases of carcinogenesis. My team has designed a food pyramid based on phytochemical bioactive molecules (PBAM) that will provide consumers, survivors, and cancer patients with information on bioactive foods that contain PBAM for cancer prevention.
Read Moreby Brian Lowther
The Roberta Winter Institute is dedicated to investigating and discussing evidence of an intelligent evil having a destructive influence on God’s good creation and the implications that notion would have on disease eradication efforts. Disease is a major cause of underdevelopment in many countries around the world, and so this discussion is extremely pertinent to the WCIDJ.
Read Moreby Beth Snodderly
God is not the author of disease and suffering although he certainly uses it to bring about good things in this fallen world where humans and angels make free choices that result in the evil and suffering.
Read MoreA Conversation between Mike Soderling, M.D., and Rebecca Lewis, Strategist
The whole point of getting to the root causes of disease is to prevent them from happening at all, like scurvy or death in childbirth due to unwashed hands of doctors. Most of these insights have not come from the mainstream in any generation, unfortunately.
However, we need to be very careful about what we become convinced is the truth of a subject of interest to us. What we buy into must be proven and valid, not anecdotal.
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