Editor,

Lee Collier expresses some pertinent points in his letter to Nucleus (April 2004). He contrasts the attitude of church members to a man in a premarital heterosexual relationship who finds faith, with a man in a homosexual relationship who finds faith. A third scenario appears in churches and goes like this:

A person or a couple receive salvation and come to church on Sunday. One or both is previously divorced and although this couple is not married they are in a sexual relationship. The church deals with this as for (1) in Lee’s letter - pleasure at their salvation and a desire to work with them to help them understand that their current relationship does not fit with a biblical pattern for life. Some don’t see any need for the couple with new-found faith to stop their sexual relationship. ‘After all,’ they say, ‘they have been married before. What sense is there in stopping the intimacy they share? Just encourage them to marry as soon as possible; they’re middle aged now and past being treated as youngsters.’ This scenario gets more complicated when there are children from previous marriages who may live with them in a new family unit.

Some church members have no problem with the couple being given roles in the church, eg sidesperson, musician etc. However, it is not honouring to God to ignore the situation and it’s discouraging for the young Christians in the fellowship who are trying to live godly lives as singles.

I suspect that this third scenario is not uncommon. Wise leaders are needed to counsel and guide these new Christians.

Dr Clare Cooper,
CMF Medical Secretary

Editor,

Recently a local newspaper emailed my medical school, asking for a student willing to write a short piece about sex education. Again, another email requested medical students to come to a televised debate on obesity. Furthermore, whilst flicking through old issues of Nucleus, I came across a letter by Jocelyn Cherry, who was inspired to write to the members of the House of Lords to put across a Christian viewpoint on euthanasia. Not only were her letters replied to, but in one case her words were read out in the House of Lords itself (Nucleus 2004; January:40).

This made me realise again how much potential there is for Christian medics to make an impact on people, if only we are willing. It would be wonderful if we could inspire a regular flurry of letters/emails in response to Nucleus articles that would encourage the writers and challenge others to action.

Adam Ibrahim,
St George’s Hospital Medical School, London