Paralympics, Disability, Healing and the Church

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

If the opening ceremony of the Olympics was rooted (as I have argued) in a Christian Socialist worldview, is it too much of a generalization to see the closing event of the Paralympics as rooted in a pantheistic mindset?  Certainly, the structure of much of the event - with its overt summons to the elemental spirits of the earth to presence themselves - would not have been out of place in a new age or pagan ritual.  

This is an interesting development, since historically, and contemporarily, Christians have been at the forefront of progressive work among sick, incapacitated and disabled people. This is true whether we are talking about the origins of nursing (in the churches of the Roman Empire during its periodic great plagues), to the modern hospice movement, or to several of the breakthroughs in medical science that have been achieved by people who have integrated their faith into their scientific research.      

 

If, then, a pantheistic rather than Christian worldview is the default position for a global event that celebrates ability rather than disability (to quote Lord Coe's opening speech of the Paralympics), then is it worth Christians asking a number of questions in response to the amazing Paralympic phenomenon? Although a Festival of Flame is itself a pagan idea, my purpose in this article is not to criticise but to reflect and ask questions of myself and my own worldview, which is rooted in the Christian message.

1. To what extent have Christians focused on healing to the neglect of empowering?

If, as in my strand of the Christian faith, physical healing is regarded as an ongoing aspect of the life of the church through both medicine and prayer, have we embraced this exciting prospect to the neglect of thinking through God's purpose for those who do not receive full physical healing in this age? Does this thinking extend to such apparently mundane areas as building design, employment law, education and (inevitably) sport?

2. Have we neglected the economic dimensions to the gospel healing stories?

When we read the gospel healing stories, do we tend to read them as offering hope to the sick - or hope to the poor? The absence of a social security system in first century Palestine makes it imperative that we do not miss the economic and social meanings inherent in an event such as a blind man having his sight restored. Or a widow receiving her (economically productive) son back from death.

3.Does our theology of creation allow us to rejoice in disability?

The opening ceremony of the Paralympics closed with the song "I am what I am." I don't know whether when Jerry Herman penned the song in the 1980s, he was consciously drawing on the words of the apostle Paul or not:

But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain    (1 Corinthians 15:10)

Paul was talking here about his moral unsuitability to be an apostle (because of his prior persecution of the church) rather than any physical disability. Nonetheless, it appears that the same apostle may well have carried permanent disability in his body. The meaning of his "thorn in the flesh" is often discussed, and may have been a physical impairment. I am personally intrigued by the possibility that it may have been a visual disability of some kind.

How do we, furthermore, make sense of such striking Scriptures as Exodus 4:11? 

“Who has made man's mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the Lord?"

While the atheist may shake his fist in anger at the very notion of a God who crates people with what we might describe as physical impairments, do we as believers fail to recognise this as a necessary corollary of a doctrine of the sovereignty of God? Furthermore, in my strand of the church at least, we are so nervous of undermining "faith for healing" that we are missing out on an even deeper appreciation of what the Puritan John Flavel described as "The Mystery of Providence"?

 




If you enjoyed this post, get free updates by email or RSS.

Abortion: the Case for Informed Consent

Whatever one's views on abortion, the fact that, at present, UK law does not require a woman to receive objective information before committing to the procedure, sets it apart from other European countries which have both lower rates of abortion and informed consent enshrined in law.

Nadine Dorries MP, a hated figure among some sections of the liberal left, makes the case for such informed consent to be enshrined in UK law.

I think her argument makes perfect sense.

Forward to 22:20 to hear the MP make her point in the House of Commons here.

If you enjoyed this post, get free updates by email or RSS.

Dismantling the NHS?

Image via Wikipedia

In-depth analysis on the nature, processes and people involved in the Government's NHS reform agenda.

The claim that the long-term outcome of these reforms is a two-tier health service, with only a limited range of treatments available for all, is hard to avoid.

Worth a read.

If you enjoyed this post, get free updates by email or RSS.

The Psychological Cost of New Zealand's Earthquake

Was interested to read a comment by an old friend who lives in Christchurch, NZ, and is living through the aftermath of the country's worst earthquake in living memory.

Ken Shelley is a church pastor and notes on his blog that the New Zealand Government has today allocated NZ$ 2.4 million for counselling services for those affected by Saturday's quake, which measured 7.0.

Although there were no deaths as a result of the quake, the population of Christchurch is suffering from widespread damage to its infrastructure. The BBC reports that 100,000 of the city's homes (about two-thirds of the total) have been damaged in some way. Residents are unable to flush toilets because of damaged sewers and all drinking water has to be boiled. A state of emergency and nighttime curfew have been extended by a week. Shelley notes that the strong aftershocks are a source of particular distress to city residents:

The situation is unnerving. The big quake on Saturday was bad enough but the ongoing aftershocks are very unsettling. In the last twelve hours there have been 14 shakes of magnitudes from 2.5 to 5.1. Each time the ground starts to shift and the house rattles adrenaline pumps through your body, your heart races and you brace yourself ready to run for cover… only for the moment to pass and you force yourself to calm down. Parents with children are particularly vulnerable to anxiety – well you would be.

Later on, he states:

I have to admit it. I’m rattled. I’m a bit snappy. Perhaps I could help the government spend $2.4 million.

A major aftershock on Wednesday (the biggest so far) apparently reduced some rescue workers to tears, according to reports from the BBC.


The psychological cost of earthquakes is often under-reported. If the government in New Zealand sees the need to invest in counselling services for such an event, it is difficult to imagine the effect on the psyche of a nation which suffers large loss of life through an earthquake.






If you enjoyed this post, get free updates by email or RSS.

Related articles by Zemanta

• New Zealand Earthquake 2010: Christchurch on Alert For Another (nowpublic.com)
• New Zealand earthquake: Christchurch hit by aftershocks (telegraph.co.uk)
• Big quake aftershocks plague New Zealand city (independent.co.uk)

Responding to Jerry Bowyer on Healthcare

The current debate, if it can be called that, about health care in the United States is one that I have generally avoided taking part in on this blog. The following video, however, has proven too strong a provocation for me to resist.

In it, radio broadcaster Jerry Bowyer misuses our beloved British National Health Service in order to give support to his own position on healthcare and in doing so expresses disrespect for an institution which is held in high regard here in the UK. More significantly, Bowyer makes a number of statements that are simply untrue or which appear designed to mislead and sow fear among his listeners.

Specifically:

1) He states that UK doctors are low paid. However, recent figures compiled by the British government's Department of Health and reported in the British Medical Journal here reveal that the average pre-tax salary of a British General Practicioner (equivalent to a local family doctor in the US) was £106,000 per year ($175,000) in 2007. Commenting on this figure, the British Medical Journal suggests that "there is a groundswell of opinion [in Britain] that GPs are being too generously rewarded."

The same article from the BMA compares average salaries among doctors internationally and reveals that British doctors are higher paid than their peers across Europe and trail behind only American doctors on an international comparison of medical salaries.

2) He states that physicians in the UK are "civil servants" comparable to post masters, without the same level of prestige as doctors in the US and that this fact makes the profession less attractive to British citizens as a career choice, opening the door to foreign-born doctors from Muslim majority countries.

As a British resident, I can assure Mr Bowyer that his view of British doctors is way off the mark. It is a highly respected profession and doctors are routinely among the most trusted individuals in their community. A recent poll rated them as significantly more trusted by members of the public than teachers, academics, judges or church leaders.

Furthermore, applications by British students for medical degree courses at British universities are hugely oversubscribed every year. Over 1000 applicants applied recently, for instance, for the 40 available medical training places available at Bart's Teaching Hospital in London.

It may be difficult for Mr Bowyer to appreciate - and this may reveal a cultural difference between the two countries - that "prestige" in a British context cannot be equated solely with salary in the way that he might assume to be the case in the United States. Medicine is very much seen as a vocation rather than a business in Britain - as it happens, a well paid and well respected vocation.


3) He states - ably assisted by the un-professionalism of anchorman Neil Cavuto - that the number of foreign Muslim doctors in Britain increases the probability of terrorist attacks taking place in the UK.

Fox News illustrates Mr Bowyer's thesis with images of Dr Bilal Abdullah who drove a car loaded with gas canisters into the front of Glasgow Airport in 2007, causing 5 injuries.

The message is that, since Dr Abdullah worked in the National Health Service and was a muslim, Americans can expect to be attacked by foreign Muslim terrorists with increased frequency if the current health care reform bill is passed.

That an educated man such as Jerry Bowyer could publicly make so stupid a statement almost defies belief.

Mr Bowyer is aware, I presume, that Dr Bilal Abdullah was born in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire - a more traditional English town would be difficult to imagine. His father was a doctor and Abdullah trained for medicine in Baghdad.

More informed sources than Jerry Bowyer have conducted factual research into the nature and extent of Islamic terrorism in recent years. An extensive investigation into the number of terrorist attacks by Islamists worldwide between 2001 and 2006 was carried out by Peter Bergen and Paul Cruickshank of the New York University School of Law and published in 2007.

The facts reveal that, whereas there were no attacks on European soil between 2001 and 2003, the number of fatal attacks rocketed after 2003 - the year that British and American forces invaded Iraq - and that 297 civilians died in these attacks.

What do Bergen and Cruickshank conclude about the reasons for this upsurge in terrorist violence? More Muslim doctors, perhaps? Surprisingly not. The report's authors state that,

"We are not making the argument that without the Iraq War, jihadist terrorism would not exist, but our study shows that the Iraq conflict has greatly increased the spread of the Al Qaeda ideological virus"

and that

"the Iraq War has generated a stunning sevenfold increase in the yearly rate of fatal jihadist attacks,
amounting to literally hundreds of additional terrorist attacks and thousands of civilian lives lost"

and

"our survey shows that the Iraq conflict has motivated jihadists around the world to see their particular struggle as part of a wider global jihad fought on behalf of the Islamic ummah."

Mr Bowyer also fails to mention that in the United Kingdom, national health doctors are required to treat the entire population, not only those who can afford health insurance. 100% of British citizens have a legal right to healthcare, free at the point of delivery. It really would be an excellent thing if our American neighbours caught up with us.

In the meantime, we must put up with this nonsense. Watch if you can bear it.

If you enjoyed this post, get free updates by email or RSS.

A Sick Proposal on the Health Service

The Social Market Foundation, a British political think tank, is proposing that a £20 charge should be payable for members of the public to see an NHS doctor. The proposal, it is claimed, is a response to the "financial crisis" facing the NHS in the coming years.

The proposal, which is of course not government policy at present, illustrates the huge gap that exists in Britain between those who make such proposals and those who would suffer their consequences should they be implemented.

Report author David Furness (pictured) is clearly immune from the pressure that such an outrageous move would have on low and middle income families. The report's recommendation that the charge should not be levied on "anyone receiving tax credits" is a typical piece of nonsense driven by people whose life experience of poverty appears to be acquired from studying statistics and calculating averages rather than from struggling to make a living in the world of low-paid work.

The report's statement that "A charge of £20 for GP appointments should be introduced to encourage healthier, wealthier people to avoid using the NHS except when absolutely necessary, with anyone receiving tax credits totally exempt" represents an incredibly naive perspective - dividing British society up as it does into the wealthy and those on tax credits.

As noted on Left Luggage in May, many poor parents register as self-employed rather than accepting what is described as "poverty pay" in clerical or manual jobs and, in doing so, make themselves illegible for tax credits or other forms of social security. Such low income families would, of course, still be required to pay the proposed £20 charge to see a GP.

Under the report's proposal, furthermore, middle-income families with children would find themselves hundreds of pounds out of pocket every year just for making an appointment with their GP, despite assurances that such charges would be capped at "around £100 per year" per patient. This is before the cost of any prescriptions and other charges and before the hidden cost of illness such as work time lost, travel costs to hospital or the "choice" of going private for major surgery.

When faced with the option of making such payments or risking their children's health, parents will do whatever they feel they need to in order to get the service they are being taxed to provide and will, if they cannot afford the £20 levy, will turn up at A & E centres in large numbers demanding to be seen by a doctor. Hardly an efficient use of public money.

Perhaps we should not be too surprised by the report's lack of rootedness in the real world. The Social Market Foundation is chaired by Lord (David) Lipsey whose statement in the House of Lords in 2001 on the crisis of capitalism seems rather apt under the circumstances:

"However, that does not mean that there will not be a crisis of capitalism. A different kind of crisis can come over an economic system: it is not so much an economic crisis as a moral crisis. It can occur when a system becomes so far divorced from the moral sense of the people who make it work as to become inoperable."
Hansard Feb 2001

If you enjoyed this post, get free updates by email or RSS.

Smoking Outdoors: the Next Ban?

I've observed over the years that trends which take root in California usually arrive in the UK a year or two later.

If that is true, British people may want to take note of a law being passed through the California state senate this week banning smoking on public beaches and state parks. Senator Jenny Oropeza, one of the bill's sponsors, claims that 1/3 of debris on America's breaches comes from cigarettes.

I predict it is a matter of time before similar legislation is proposed in the UK Parliament - probably via the national assemblies in Wales and Scotland first.

Remember where you heard it!

If you enjoyed this post, get free updates by email or RSS.

Increasing the Unit Price of Alcohol

Like most good ideas, the proposal to increase the minimum unit price of alcohol in order to deter young British drinkers has been ridiculed by many.

It's worth noting, however, that the idea is not only supported by Chief Medical Officer Sir Liam Donaldson but by a growing number of medical professionals.

I was interested in note this week that Professor Martin Plant of the University of the West of England came out in favour of the idea, stating that a minimum price of 50 pence per unit would save 3,000 lives per year in the UK.

My prediction is that the idea will gain increasing support over the coming 3-5 years.

If you enjoyed this post, get free updates by email or RSS.

Duncan Bannatyne Outs British American Tobacco

In case you missed it, here are some clips from tonight's BBC 2 This World episode: Bannatyne Takes on Big Tobacco in which the Scottish entrepreneur (best known for his role in Dragons' Den) finds evidence of British American Tobacco breaking its own rules about advertising cigarettes to children in Africa.

BAT's PR response is as pathetic as it is predictable. In summary, it was, "We don't do that anymore."

Action on Smoking and Health, meanwhile, has produced its own report on the activities of British American Tobacco in Africa. Key points include:

• Smoking rates in Africa are rising most sharply among young people and women. BAT’s marketing associates its brands with glamour, style, beauty, sport and celebrity - methods it claims to have voluntarily given up in the UK 30 years ago.

• BAT breached its own marketing code by allowing cigarettes to be sold singly - popular with children. BAT acknowledged it had begun an investigation into the alleged marketing breaches, but has failed to report publicly on its findings.

• In Kenya, BAT gives loans for seeds, pesticides and fertilisers and buys back the tobacco at a price of their choosing. To quote one farmer: “The loan the tobacco firm provides is really weighing us down. After the deduction you get nothing.”

• In Kenya, BAT’s political connections resulted in a new law compelling farmers to sell tobacco to BAT. It was already paying farmers less than other companies.

• In 2005, the BAT-sponsored Tobacco Grower of the Year award in Zimbabwe went to Monica Chinamasa, wife of the country’s Justice Minister. The couple had been accused of seizing the farm two years’ earlier, forcing off the owners with threats of violence.

• BAT remains upbeat about its prospects in Africa. An internal BAT document noted: “Within the total market, there are areas of strong growth, particularly in Asia and Africa…It is an exciting prospect.”

You can read the full report here.

BAT is based in Globe House, 4 Temple Place, London, WC2R 2PG (just next to King's College) in case you wanted to call by and have a chat with them about why they sell cigarettes to African children. Map.

If you enjoyed this post, get free updates by email or RSS.

Unhealthy Recycling

Hundreds of people have been exposed to lead poisoning in the Senegalese capital Dakar, according to the UN World Health Organization. About 950 people, including many mothers and children, have been exposed to high levels of the toxic metal as a result of their work in the informal recycling of disused car batteries.

Several residents of the Thiaroye Sur Mer neighborhood have already died as a result of the exposure and many children are showing signs of neurological damage caused by the metal. Much of the work is done by mothers with their children strapped to their backs, who ingest the poisonous lead dust while breaking open the batteries and removing the lead to re-sell as scrap.

Update

The story has now been picked up by some of the mainstream media outlets, including MSNBC who have run a long piece about the environmental impact of lead recycling on this town. They also report the deaths of 18 children in Thiaroye Sur Mer as a result of lead poisoning.

If you enjoyed this post, get free updates by email or RSS.

G8 Summit Japan - a Time to Account for Millennium Development Goals

The G8 Summit in Hokkaido, Japan, on 7-9 July is a huge opportunity for millions around the world to call on the G8 to fulfill their commitments for better health for children as part of the Millennium Development Goals. Click here to visit the petition, which will be presented to the G8 leaders ahead of their meeting next month.

If you enjoyed this post, get free updates by email or RSS.

NHS Faces the Challenge of Carbon Reduction

The NHS has produced a Carbon Reduction Strategy for England, highlighting how Europe's largest employer creates CO2 and what it needs to do to reduce it.

The study, which was created in partnership with the Stockholm Environment Institute, concludes that:

• Procurement (obtaining medicines, equipment and office resources) is the largest area of carbon production - accounting for 59% of carbon emissions
• Building energy use accounts for 22% of emissions
• The NHS generated 3.2% of England's total CO2 emissions in 2004

The reports recommendations are:

• The production of a strategic approach to travel plans within the NHS. Derriford Hospital in Plymouth is cited as providing an effective example of such a plan.
  
• Targeting wastage of pharmaceuticals
• Sub-metering building energy

The report covered all NHS estates and activities in England.

If you enjoyed this post, get free updates by email or RSS.

It's Official - Global Warming is Bad for Your Health

Health professionals around the world have issued a variety of warnings about the impact of global warming on human health.

In Canada, the Ontario College of Family Physicians has issued a report highlighting the dangers to public health of continued climate change. These include an increase in the incidence of heat stroke and respiratory illness, especially among children and older people. Citing a two-week heat wave in France in 2003 which resulted in 15,000 premature deaths, the College is urging medical services to prepare for similar events in Canada and elsewhere in the coming years. The report also predicts an increase in the number of cases of malaria and dengue fever, caught by Canadians returning from vacations in a warmer Caribbean. Climate change will, says the report, also lead to an increase in Lyme disease (pictured) and west Nile virus – conditions which the vast majority of Canadian physicians have never seen let alone treated.

College President, Dr. Renee Arnold, says the negative health effects of climate change will be irreversible "if we don't get our act together now and stop damaging our environment."

Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation has issued a warning of 150,000 deaths a year as a direct result of climate change, with more than half coming from the Asia-Pacific region.

This number of fatalities will be caused by increases in malaria, malnutrition and diarrhoea as well as by flooding triggered by climate change. Citing outbreaks of malaria in regions once considered too cold for the disease to survive – such as the highlands of Papua new Guinea – WHO spokesman Shigeru Omi describes the health effects of climate change as lasting for the long term: "it is inevitable climate change will get worse for some time," Omi said.

Related health developments cited by the WHO include:

• Increased water-borne illness caused by sea water seepage into ground water supplies in Pacific Island nations such as Tuvulu and the Marshall Islands
• Deaths caused by increased flooding and droughts
• The spread of disease caused by the migration of people rendered homeless through environmental degradation

In a separate report, the WHO has also highlighted the link between climate change and mental health with evidence that extreme weather conditions can lead to psychiatric illness.

"Psychosocial illnesses are a part of the various health issues associated with climate change," according to Poonam Khetrapal Singh, Deputy Regional Director of the WHO.

Studies of severe flooding in England and a cyclone-affected area of Orissa in India have demonstrated an increase in post-traumatic stress disorder among affected populations, up to one year after the initial climate event.

The relationship between drought and mental health has been long established: "The phenomenon of farmers’ suicides in India is a typical example of consequences of climatic vagaries in poor, predominantly agrarian economies," according to the report.

Following the Asian tsunami, the WHO estimated that 20-40 per cent of affected people suffered from short-term mild psychological distress and that another 30-50 per cent experienced moderate-to-severe psychological stress. Similar results emerged from those affected by Hurricane Katrina in the United States.

The report concludes that people living in poverty, those in geographically vulnerable areas and those highly dependent on farming for their livelihood are among the groups more likely to experience mental health problems sparked by extreme weather patterns.

Australian doctors, meanwhile, have warned of increased rates of climate-change related illness in Australia and the Pacific, citing heat stroke, mosquito-borne illness and gastroenteritis as representing particular problems.

Dr Graeme Horton is quoted by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation as saying, "Climate change is clearly much, much more than an economic inconvenience, it is a threat to our life support systems."

The final warning comes from the British Medical Association which is calling on health professionals to take the lead in responding to the public health aspects of climate change.

Predictions include the possibility of malaria occurring in the UK, increased water-borne illnesses caused by flooding and a possible increase in skin cancers and sunstroke caused by heat waves becoming “common” by the middle of the C21. Head of Science and Ethics for the BMA, Dr Vivienne Nathanson, also foresees increased mental health issues sparked by climate change.

The BMA report predicts an economic imbalance in the health effects of climate change in the UK with the most deprived 10% of the population “eight times more likely to be living in the coastal floodplain than the least deprived 10 per cent” and thus more at risk.

POST SCRIPT

Exactly one year after this post was published, evidence was submitted today by the US Environmental Protection Agency confirming that greenhouse gases represent a significant and direct threat to human health. Findings include:

• concentrations of six greenhouse gases - carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons and sulfur hexafluorideare - are at unprecedented levels as a result of human emissions
  
• these high levels are "very likely" the cause of the increase in average temperatures and other changes in our climate
• Climate change is resulting in increased drought and flooding; more frequent and intense heat waves and wildfires; greater sea level rise; harm to water resources, agriculture, wildlife and ecosystems
• the health of the poor, the very young, the disabled and the elderly are disproportionately effected by climate change and increased concentrations of ground-level ozone
  

If you enjoyed this post, get free updates by email or RSS.

Somalia - Some Good News

Polio has been eradicated from Somalia, despite the absence of a functioning central government in the war-torn country.

The announcement comes from the World Health Organization and is the result of a mass movement of volunteers and health workers who have implemented a pioneering immunization programme over recent years.

The 10,000-strong team of Somali volunteers successfully visited every household in every settlement across the entire country several times to administer the polio vaccine to more than 1.8 million children under the age of five. This was achieved without any national database and against the backdrop of mass migration and widespread conflict between rival militias, government forces and Ethiopian troops.

Mass community participation and repeat vaccinations within short time periods have been factors in the programme's success, which has resulted in health workers not reporting a single case of the disease since March 2007.

"This truly historic achievement shows that polio can be eradicated everywhere, even in the most challenging and difficult settings," said Dr Hussein A Gezairy, Regional Director for the WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean.

Polio remains in only four countries - Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and Nigeria. Stopping the disease in these nations would result in the complete eradication of the polio from the planet.

If you enjoyed this post, get free updates by email or RSS.

On World Water Day, Billions Lack the Basic Commodity

March 22nd is World Water Day, when signatories to the Millennium Development Goals are reminded of one such target - to halve the proportion of people living without access to basic sanitation by 2015.

UN General Secretary Ban Ki-moon has taken the opportunity to asses progress towards this commitment, concluding that "we are nowhere near on pace to achieve that goal." The Secretary General cites population growth, widespread poverty, insufficient investments to address the problem and, most significantly, a lack of political will on the part of world leaders. Low lights of the current situation include:

• the death every 20 seconds of a child as a direct result of poor water supplies

• 2.6 billion people worldwide currently living without access to basic sanitation

• a prediction that, by 2015, 2.1 billion people will still lack basic sanitation with sub-Saharan Africa not reaching the Millennium target until 2076

It is further estimated that every dollar invested in water and sanitation produces seven dollars worth of productive activity by those affected. This is in addition to the benefits and financial savings in terms of improved health and raised standards of living. The video Liquid Gold illustrates the economic and social dimension of the presence of clean water in a community.

As well as demanding action from our elected leaders, concerned individuals can also contribute directly to the supply of clean water through Water Aid and can make a financial donation on their web site.

If you enjoyed this post, get free updates by email or RSS.

The Death of Ama Sumani - it's a Religious Issue

Some people want to keep religion out of politics.

I'm not one of them.

The deportation of the Ghanaian woman Ama Sumani and her death today of cancer back in her native Ghana is a religious issue. It reveals that those charged with the decision to deport her from the University Hospital of Wales in January believed that her terminal illness - for which she was receiving treatment unavailable to her in Ghana - was not sufficient grounds for extending her right to remain in the UK to continue that life-extending treatment.

In making this judgment, the immigration officials in the British government were clearly not moved by the Biblical regulations concerning the treatment of the destitute within society:

• He (God) defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the alien, giving him food and clothing (Deuteronomy 10:18)

Furthermore, we see specific Biblical injunctions against efficiency (albeit in an agrarian context) that make life harder for the poor:

• When you are harvesting in your field and you overlook a sheaf, do not go back to get it. Leave it for the alien, the fatherless and the widow, so that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. (Deuteronomy 24:19)

The system, says Almighty God, must have slack in it for the sake of the poor. Efficiency, much less money, are not the bottom line when it comes to issues of social justice.

The decision to remove Ms Sumani was described as "atrocious barbarism" by leading medical journal The Lancet.

The more modest publication Philosopher's Tree also sees it as an immoral and irreligious act.

If you enjoyed this post, get free updates by email or RSS.