Bedside Manners: The Broken Spirituality of Contemporary US Medical Practice
Sparked by his elderly mother’s impersonal medical care, our writer laments the fact that doctors aren’t spending nearly enough time listening to and getting to know their patients and its implications for a medical culture that focuses almost exclusively on the body; ignoring soul, spirit, and specificity.
Air Kissing the Mezuzah: Religion and Science Collide in Fight Against Virus
In both Israel and India, religious rituals governing purity and health are clashing with efforts to stop the “swine flu” virus from spreading and killing more citizens.
Shouldn’t a professed “health and wealth” preacher be concerned with health care? Apparently, politics get in the way...
When a coalition of religious progressives stands firmly in support of the president’s health care reform, why insist that it’s not a partisan move? How about “God’s Partisanship”?
Deep, rich, wingnuttery abounds as everyone from Pat Buchanan to Fred Thompson falls over one another to try to terrify us about government-sponsored eugenics.
How End-of-Life Issues Are Being Used to Thwart Health Care Reform
As they muster their forces against health care reform, Republican culture warriors and conservative media outlets stir fear of “deadly doctors” and "government-encouraged euthanasia".
Sex Work: In Bed with the Religious Right
Is American sexual culture schizophrenic? Yes, and this has everything to do with the sexual politics of the religious right. Sexual opportunity is everywhere, but sexual rights have, at the same time, been concretely eroded.
Of Values and Viruses: The Challenges for Obama’s New Global AIDS Coordinator
Dr. Eric Goosby, Obama’s pick to run the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS relief, will face the challenge of faith-based opposition to condom distribution, among other difficulties, when he assumes this important position.
Buddha-Mind, American Style
The oldest living man in the US (just two years younger than the oldest living woman) reveals his secret for a good life: Yogurt? Aerobics? Goji berries? No, he says, “I believe we are here to help other people.”
Bearing Witness: The Work of Hospital Chaplains
Hospital chaplains provide spiritual care to the sick and dying, and they tend to both patients and their families. While their voices are not often heard in the larger conversation about religion and medicine, this is slowly changing.