Posted on 08/08/2014 9:47:15 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
The always provocative Ann Coulter raised a lot of eyebrows this week with her Wednesday column calling a Christian missionary who contracted ebola in Liberia “idiotic.” Headlines making the rounds on social media do a fair job of highlighting her pointed rhetoric without addressing her thesis. Coulter wrote:
Whatever good Dr. Kent Brantly did in Liberia has now been overwhelmed by the more than $2 million already paid by the Christian charities Samaritan’s Purse and SIM USA just to fly him and his nurse home in separate Gulfstream jets, specially equipped with medical tents, and to care for them at one of America’s premier hospitals…
She goes on to ask, “Can’t anyone serve Christ in America anymore?”
We can debate the wisdom of Coulter’s rhetorical packaging (though it’s fair to bet that, if she did not communicate as pointedly as she does, we would not be talking about her at all). However, the substance at the root of what Coulter wrote proves worth Christians’ prayerful consideration.
Are missions to foreign lands undertaken at the expense of needs closer to home? From a monetary perspective, in Dr. Brantly’s case, the objective answer is a resounding yes. Two million dollars could go a long way toward providing for the spread of the Gospel. But more importantly, there’s a spiritual danger in what Coulter calls “Christian narcissism,” confusing earthly mileage with spiritual accomplishment.
It may be a bit much to presume Brantly traveled to Liberia to stroke his ego, or to somehow put God in his debt. Coulter does not know his heart one way or the other, and neither do we. Only God does. Nevertheless, there remains an object lesson for the rest of us to consider which could give us a moment of prayerful pause before eagerly traveling halfway around the world before first ministering to our nearest neighbors. Sometimes — I think it fair to say most of the time — God has you where He wants you.
So, what is the difference between med-evacing a sick missionary and doing the same to a sick member of the US Armed Forces working on similar cases in a disaster zone?
There was already a drug available in pill form, in Japan, that likely would do the same thing.
Fr. Damien didn’t leave a wife and kids either. He knew he was taking a one way trip and did not ask his country to bring him home when he contracted the disease. I would not go as far as Ann but I’ve been skeptical of these feel good lay person with a family missions for a long time particularly the weekend or two week vacation ones to Latin America.
The truth is often harsh and ugly....never the less it is still the truth.
Actually, it appears that she presumed to speak for those who gave to the charity.
It was the issue of money, not of souls that she raised first.
Q; Whats wrong with Ann Coulter?..
A; Shes a lawyer..
Yes, it might be a bit much to presume.
I promise you, no matter what you do in this life, someone somewhere will say, "what do you want to do that for?"
And when things go wrong, there will be plenty of people who will say, "I'd never do that". And the answer is, no, you wouldn't.
I guess “go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature” isn’t in effect any more, because it costs too much?
Paul should have stayed at home and enjoyed his nice home in Judea?
Peter should have stuck to fishing?
Francis Xavier should have done a little farming in Europe?
Forget the China Inland Mission, Hudson Taylor should have worked in a shop in Birmingham?
In China, right now, Christians are sending out missionaries to foreign lands, even though China itself needs evangelization.
Those missionaries expect to be killed in the places to which they are sent (often moslem countries). They don’t have big budgets and their motivation isn’t egotism.
They are obeying the words of their Master.
Their love for him overcomes everything else—including living a comfortable life in this world.
That is very noble of them. I know people who worked at Catholic “Charities” whose job it was to import as many destitute people from foreign lands as possible. They would set them up with government checks and Section 8 housing. And they thought they were very holy for doing so.
Presumably the US Army soldier was ordered to go there.
The pill doesn’t do the “same” thing as it has a different mechanism, but that’s not the real point.
The point is, these small bio tech firms have struggled with funding and have developed these treatments on shoe-string budgets and a small trickle of military research grants.
Now these companies are being eyed by deep pocket investors AND the FDA has to fast track them because if they don’t, the “rayciss” card will be played. It’s already all over the lefty media.
So Samaritan’s Purse didn’t waste $2 million dollars bringing their sick people home for treatment. They saved their lives and brought a serious need to world wide attention and pulled off a PR coup that goosed the FDA and juiced the research dollars.
Ann Coulter completely misses this in her screed. God is an iron.
I got into a class discussion once about this notion. They had recently been with a teacher who taught some current theory that everything we do is done for some personal reason and that there is no such thing as altruism. I suggested that this was a rather skeptical point of view, to which they agreed.
I then explained the entire notion of Christianity is to do “good works” so that Christ gets the glory (and not the individual doing the act). They didn’t know what to think of this.
1Co 10:31 Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.
Col 3:17 And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.
The compound I was speaking of was developed by FujiFilm corporation in Japan. I have no idea what sort of funding was used to develop that particular compound.
It’s not ‘our’. It’s ‘theirs’.
One of my biggest question is why haven’t we heard about it. We’ve only been told about the magical serum that’s in dire short supply and gotten the opinion of ethicists as to who will be allowed to partake of it. I suspect should ebola get to japan they’ll just distribute this particular compound that they’ve *already* stockpiled there in case of a flu outbreak. We will have a ‘rationed’ treatment only available to the ‘right sort’ of people.
Therefore I command you, 'You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in your land.'"
Meanwhile, Fujifilm’s U.S. partner, MediVector Inc. of Boston, is in talks with the FDA to submit an application to use the drug Favipiravir in humans for Ebola, according to Department of Defense spokeswoman Amy Derrick-Frost. If successful, the treatment drug will be one of the first allowed by U.S. regulators to fight the disease in humans.
The Department of Defense has prioritized the completion of a study that tests the drug in Ebola-infected monkeys, Derrick-Frost said. The drug can be fast-tracked through the regulatory review process after the studies are complete, she said. Preliminary monkey data are expected in mid-September, she said.
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2014/08/08/national/science-health/ebola-drug-japan-may-emerge-among-key-candidates/#.U-UOUPldWSo
The Department of Defense in 2012 awarded a $138.5 million contract to MediVector to further develop Favipiravir against multiple influenza viruses.
Fujifilm shares rose 5.4 percent to ¥3,089.5 in Japan on Thursday, the biggest gain in more than a year.
The Defense Department has been funding U.S. clinical trials of the medicine for influenza as part of its effort to boost the country’s biodefense capabilities and protect the military against flu pandemics.
If the U.S. Food and Drug Administration gives some kind of accelerated approval for an Ebola drug, that could provide guidance for developing countries, said David Heymann, an infectious disease expert at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, who has studied Ebola since the first outbreak in 1976.
I think the idea is focus on the treatment that’s very limited and analyze the ethics of the angels on the head of a pin while AFricans die in droves. The elites would dearly love to halve the African population. Meanwhile, I suspect given that it’s already being manufactured for the Japanese stockpile, they all have their very own bottle of pills just in case.
It’s easier for liberal elites to feel superior to third world types than to Americans in this country. Plus the travel and stories are better...
That said, there are saintly people who actually do a lot of good in the world... I suspect the good doctor who came down with Ebola was in the group that was doing good. Ann Coulter has also chosen a difficult path - she brings goodness to the world also... just in a different way.
Deuteronomy 15 refers to the cancellation of debt. The Great Commission refers to saving souls for Jesus Christ.
Coulter misses in both context and application. She presumes to speak for God in judging a missionary’s Christian calling and her personal condemnation of the man shows her to have also failed in a human context.
Sorry, no sale, on multiple fronts.
Smart people should ask themselves why a drug that has been approved and stockpiled in Japan is still not available in the US. Why is the FDA approval process so damn long and repetitious?
What’s interesting to me is the magic tobacco serum because it has huge potential for a broad range of acute infectious disease treatments. Serum antibody treatments have a long history of effectiveness and relative safety but it’s expensive as hell.
Creating and harvesting “plantibodies” from tobacco plants will be dirt cheap in comparison. Very exciting stuff.
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