Bakery Run #4 – St Peters Bakery

Pie Buddy: Nathan Eardley-Harris

Topic: Being a Christian and a doctor

I’ve been hearing good things about St Peters Bakery for a while now, and the day had finally come to see if the hype was justified. To be fair, most of the hype I had heard was from Nathan, who lives just a few hundred metres away from the place. With that in mind, who could be a better bakery buddy for today? That’s right, nobody. Nath has just finished his medical degree and begun working as an intern at a hospital, meaning that he can now officially be called ‘doctor’. I thought it would be interesting to get his perspective on how his Christian faith impacts his thinking as a doctor.

But such a deep conversation would be impossible on an empty stomach. We arrived at the bakery late Sunday afternoon, by which stage they had run out of steak and pepper pies. Understandable, I guess. We both opted for the vindaloo beef pie, which turns out to be a very worthy substitute. I can’t fault the quality of my donut, and Nath chooses one of the cheesecakes on display, which hits the spot just nicely. Lots of indoor and outdoor seating, lots of food options both sweet and savoury, good portion sizes, not too expensive, friendly staff (who allow us to stay and chat well after closing time) – this bakery gets two thumbs up for sure.

“In your experience,” I ask Nath to kick things off, “what are the implications of living by Christian ethics as a doctor?”

“I’ve been thinking about that a fair bit,” he replied. “To start with, what do Christian ethics imply? Caring for your neighbour and looking out for others. Praying for patients and evangelism. Most doctors would do the first bit of that regardless of their beliefs. But evangelism as a doctor is hard, and I’ve never really seen it done well.”

He then takes a few moments to consider Christianity from a doctor’s point of view. “As a doctor, I see God’s creation every day. And as a medical student, we were all taught to ask questions – most of my friends find it hard to have faith in what they can’t see and touch. I believe faith and science work hand in hand. But people seem to think it’s a case of faith versus evidence.”

“Have you met many Christian doctors?” I asked.

“Yeah, I’ve seen pretty much the full spectrum of Christian doctors. Some of them openly exhibit everything and more that you would expect in a Christian.” He recounts an experience of meeting a doctor in Papua New Guinea who would pray with each of his patients. “You could tell that he cared for them both medically and pastorally. But then I’ve met a lot of other doctors – Christian and non-Christian – who have a complete lack of respect for patients. And it’s hard to find the right balance between caring for your patients on a pastoral level – like praying for them – and on a professional level – like giving advice, treating them, that sort of thing. If you were always praying for your patients, I think that would be quite unwelcome in general - most people wouldn’t appreciate it.”

I can completely understand his point. I can imagine that if I didn’t believe in God and was wanting a doctor to find a cure for my sickness, I’d be pretty keen for him to crack out the stethoscope rather than the prayer book. But God can reveal himself to people in all sorts of ways, it seems. “During placement a few years ago, I met a guy who was dying,” Nath said. “We had a bit of a chat and he said he had lived a bad life – he had treated people badly, and everything he’d done had been out of pure selfishness. But then he got given a Bible, discovered God’s truth and realised life’s meaning and his own sinfulness. He wanted to talk to me about Jesus. We prayed together, then I left, and when I came back to see him the next week, he was gone.”

It’s always incredible hearing stories like that, and being constantly reminded that it’s never too late for someone to give their life to Jesus and be saved.

“I think the time factor is something that makes it hard to be a doctor and a Christian,” said Nath. “The busyness of it can sometimes stop people from going to Church. It becomes not just a job, but a lifestyle. You become career minded. It’s the one thing they think will make them happy.”

Although I’m not a doctor, I’ve seen enough of this in my own working experience to know that he is absolutely right. Finding a work/faith balance is a huge task, and something I’m sure I’ll chat to someone (while eating a pie) about sooner rather than later. “Yeah, I’ve definitely seen people who live for their careers,” I agreed. “We all worship something in our lives. For some people it’s God, for some it’s the gym, for some it’s their work.”

“Yeah, and I have to feel sorry for them,” Nath said. “It’s just such a hollow way to live.”

I’m interested to hear Nath’s thoughts on abortion and euthaniasia, which are two medically related topics in which his Christian perspective is sure to be in opposition to that of many of his colleagues.

“As far as abortion goes, I never thought I’d have a choice,” he said. “I assumed it was kind of like being in the army and having to go to war – it just comes with the territory. But now I’ve come to see that I do have a choice. I can disagree. If someone asks me to perform an abortion, I can point them to someone who is willing to do it, but I can choose not to do it. I remember a non-Christian obstetrician I met in Port Pirie, who said: ‘I refuse to do that. I’m not here to kill.’ It’s such a gray area. Many people will ask ‘what if the mother was raped?’ or ‘what if the mother is sick and the birth will endanger her?’. And I think you do have to look after the mother’s wellbeing. The doctor in Port Pirie used to say ‘God looks after the babies, we look after the mother’, which I thought was interesting. Personally, as a Christian I disagree with abortion and I definitely wouldn’t want to perform one. But I don’t think it’s my place to judge others with a different worldview who do choose to have one.

“As far as euthanasia goes, I see it as taking a life, just like suicide. And I don’t think family members should have a say in whether someone is euthanized. If a person isn’t competent to make a decision, then a decision shouldn’t be made. Living isn’t a decision, it should be the default option. I think if someone states in their will that they don’t want to be kept alive if they’re in a vegetated state, then that’s a different matter.”

“There’s a difference between ceasing to keep someone alive and causing a person to die, isn’t there.” I said. From my personal point of view, if I was in a comatose state, being kept alive by a machine, with no hope of recovery, I would much prefer them to pull the plug rather than prolong the pain for my family. “Have you been challenged on your views by other people you’ve come across in the profession?” I asked.

“Not really. My views on abortion have never really been held against me. And from my experience, euthanasia really isn’t that popular. People have more pressing issues against Christianity, like gay marriage for example.”

I found it quite interesting that most of the things he was challenged on didn’t seem to be medical related. Overall, it was fascinating to get a perspective of life from the point of view of someone doing such a sensitive, people-focussed role in the secular world, while seeking to obey and honour God in everything. Following Jesus means not just to obey him when it suits us, but to honour him in all that we do:

Whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. (Colossians 3:17)

That’s a big ask for any person in any job, and it’s encouraging to see that Nath is thinking through what that looks like in his role. Medicine is a field of work that will produce situations of great biological and moral complexity. Many issues that arise – such as abortion – are extremely difficult to deal with, due to the often complicated circumstances and, of course, the impact on human lives involved. Christian doctors may at times differ with each other in their opinions on such issues, but my prayer is that they would be trusting in God to give them discernment in the decisions they make, and strength to stand firm in their faith as they carry out their work.