Biography
Dr. Timothy Johnson is the Medical Editor for ABC News and appears regularly on ABC World News Tonight, Nightline, 20/20, and Good Morning America. In addition to his work at ABC, Tim is Lecturer in Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Associate Minister of Community Covenant Church in West Peabody, Massachusetts. Dr. Johnson earned degrees from Augustana College and North Park Seminary before entering Albany Medical College. Later, he earned a graduate degree in Public Health from Harvard University. [Biographical information is correct as of the broadcast date noted above.]

"Salvation and Health" 
It is my pleasure to be a part of this program in this way for the first time. In the late fifties and early sixties as I was attending North Park College and then North Park Seminary in this area, I often attended the Chicago Sunday Evening Club in Orchestra Hall. I can remember some memorable speakers. For example, it was the first time I heard Martin Luther King, Jr. speak. I was in the balcony of that wonderful auditorium and was moved, as was that huge crowd, by the oratory and faith he presented. I heard Paul Tillich and many other wonderful speakers so I have always had a very fond place in my heart for the work of the Chicago Sunday Evening Club. I consider it an honor to be here.

The title of my talk is indeed as announced, Salvation and Health. I am reminded of a scene in Camus' famous novel, a novel that has been resurrected by the current AIDS epidemic, titled The Plague. In that novel the priest and doctor, who are central characters, meet on a chance occasion. As they are discussing their work in the midst of this plague, the priest suggests that both of them are concerned about salvation, to which the doctor replies, "That is too big a word for me. It is men's health I am concerned with, that's all."

At first blush it might seem that the doctor is indeed right, that those words "salvation and health" are far from synonymous, that they are not at all addressing the same issues. I would suggest that we look beyond the usual thinking about that word salvation and talk about how we use it in every-day language, in every-day life. For example, often we will hear or read of somebody who has been rescued from a burning building. The account will say the person was saved by the firemen or policemen. We use that word in every-day language in the sense of rescue.

Sometimes we will use the word in a secular sense to describe someone who has been saved from a life of degradation or bad habit, literally saying the person's life was saved. In that case the word is used in the sense of restoration — not just rescue, but restoration to a former life or an intended life of health and wholeness. I would suggest that even in religious usage we often use the word "salvation" in both of those meanings — rescue and restoration.

Many of us have heard preachers use the word "salvation" or the idea of being saved to mean being rescued from the fires of hell, from the torment of eternal damnation. In more elegant fashion, we preachers will sometimes use that concept and that very word to mean restoration, restoration to communion with God, to union with God. If salvation can mean rescue from a life of despair and restoration to a life of joy, contentment, completeness and wholeness, why shouldn't the idea of being saved also mean becoming healthy? Part of the hangup is that when we think of health, we think of it primarily as a physical phenomena. We usually have a hard time getting beyond the idea of physical health. Even in the church the relationship between faith and health often has been seen primarily in physical terms.

When I was growing up, there was often a direct connection made between being saved and engaging in certain biological practices. We were told, for example, that we should not smoke or drink because the body was the temple of the Holy Spirit. Today we often talk about those issues without all of those theological underpinnings. Indeed, we can talk about the importance of not engaging in certain practices without resorting to these so-called faith underpinnings.

Mankind has always seen a connection between faith in God and a heightened chance of healing. In faith healing we talk about the possibility of literally healing our physical selves. The scripture that was read for this program, (Matthew 8:5-10, 13), talks about that kind of direct physical healing. My own personal bias is that we in the church are often too focused on dramatic physical healing, on the laying on of hands and the dropping of crutches, rather than the kind of healing in which we are better equipped to engage — the healing of people who are lonely, who are angry. Through our faith, we can offer the kinds of spiritual gifts to people that will literally heal them.

We should understand that there is not an automatic relationship between physical health and spiritual health. There are people without physical disabilities who are far from being healthy in the sense of being whole, of being filled with joy and contentment. There are, conversely, people with serious physical disabilities who radiate joy and contentment. The two should never be thought of as synonymous when we think about healing.

I would like to focus on some less obvious ways in which our faith can affect our health. I may surprise you because you might expect that since I am a physician and spend most of my time giving health advice in physical terms, I would be engaged in that with you now.

I am going to look at something that is a far more common pilgrimage for all of us whatever our state of physical health, a pilgrimage that we all share. As I talk about the need for our faith to affect our health and wholeness, I would like to mention a couple of perils that I think we all face in our lives at this time. These are perils from which all of us must be rescued and restored in relationship to God. I am going to ask very specifically at this point how it is that our faith in Christ can teach us to better handle those perils, to rescue and restore us and make us more healthy.

The first peril I want to address is the peril of achievement. It may sound strange to speak of achievement as a peril. In our achievement-oriented, success-oriented and driven society, we can intuitively understand how all too often we are driven to achieve. We are driven to succeed in a fashion that literally makes us sick. We see it in ourselves. We see it in our children. We understand the pressure our children are under to succeed in school and succeed in life. The message of our time and society is often to be number one. There is no use for being less than that. We have become a society that is driven toward achievement, all too often in a manner that does not make us healthy but makes us sick.

Unfortunately, the church often sends a mixed message in regard to achievement in our society. The church clearly teaches and preaches the model of servanthood, not being driven by secular success and achievement but instead being committed to the servanthood of Christ and through Christ to others. Sometimes the church carries this model of servanthood to excess and often undermines our good intentions and practices.

Many of us have been raised on the matter of Romans which taught us we should not think of ourselves more highly than we ought. Sometimes we talk so much about the sin of pride and the danger of ego that we literally remove from people the power to feel good about themselves. The church can send a mixed message sometimes when it preaches and teaches about servanthood. Unfortunately, however, the church sometimes does not practice what it preaches and teaches. All too often the church says that it honors servanthood but it really honors people who have power and money. When it comes to the awarding of an honorary degree, preferably people who receive it have both. We send out these mixed messages as a church.

The question becomes how do we as individuals arrive at a healthy balance on this psychic teeter-totter between feeling too good about ourselves and not good enough about ourselves. How do we balance out success and service in this society which drives us to achieve and to succeed? Psychiatrists often help us by trying to explore those early sources of our ego formation: our parents, those very significant others in our lives. That can be very useful at times.

I want to hold up the model of Christ in this regard. I would suggest that Christ models for us a way of balancing these. He provides good therapy for us as we look at His life and teachings. Whatever else Christ was, and He was and is many things to His followers, He was certainly healthy when it came to balancing selflessness and selffullness. He seemed to have that down pat; He seemed to know how to go through life and keep those in balance in His own life. For example, He always had time for others, as we read about Him in the gospels. But clearly, he also took time for Himself and was not ashamed to do so — to go off on His own and restore and renew Himself. He gave of Himself whenever asked. But, He also pursued His own mission and the shaping of His disciples. What was His secret? What can He tell us from His life and teaching about how we should become healthy in relation to this tension between service and success?

Many others can put it better than I. What I see when I look at the life of Christ, is a Man who was able to both develop His gifts and talents and also subject them to service for others. The two were always in balance and together. Clearly, He developed His gifts; He was not afraid of His gifts but always subjected those talents and gifts to the service of others. The message should be the same for us, not to fear our gifts, not to hide our talents, but always to be concerned about how to use them. If your talent is the making of money, then go ahead and make money — legally obviously — but, be prepared to give it away. If your talent is the acquiring of knowledge, do so with vigor, but be prepared to use it for others. Be prepared even to receive recognition — receive it do not grasp for it — then use it to help others. Remember always, all of us ultimately have at the very least and at the very most, the gift of ourselves, our personhood, to give to others.

When we wrestle with this tension between service and success, we have to understand that ultimately it is more blessed to give than to receive. We must understand that we must have something to give and we should develop the gifts that we have been given. We should not be afraid of success and achievement as long as we then take those developed gifts and use them for others.

The second peril I think we all face living in twentieth century America is the peril of money and possessions. If you don't buy that, let me simply ask you this question. In this country why is it that when we ask about somebody's net worth, we immediately think of money, as if to say that somebody's worth can and should be measured in money terms? In our honest place, we know that the evaluation of someone's worth would be very different from the lips of man as compared to the heart of God. The sinful way we talk about self-worth in terms of money should tell us something about how far astray we have gone in terms of what life is really all about.

Once again I would suggest that Christ provides a very useful model for us in terms of how to be healthy in regard to the peril posed by money and possessions in our society. Christ talked more about money and possessions, told more parables about them, than any other practical subject. If you think that was an accident, then you had better question your theory of biblical inspiration. Christ knew that this was the prime peril we would face in life.

Look at some of the specific parables and some of the beatitudes. He is constantly wrestling with this issue of how we relate to money and possession. I want to read one in particular, the one that is the parable of the rich fool found in Chapter 12 of Luke:

And he told them this parable:

"The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. He thought to himself, "What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops."

"Then he said, ‘This is what I'll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I'll say to myself, "You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry."'

"But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?'

"This is how it will be, with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God.'"

This is a chilling parable. I find that the use of the word "fool" is chilling. When we celebrate April Fools' Day, we do so with a certain kind of humor. When Christ uses the "fool" in this parable, "You fool," it is anything but humorous and funny. It should send a chill right up our spine because we understand that this man is indeed a fool. If we were going to use a word to describe him in our modern language, might not we be tempted to say, "That man was sick," meaning that he had his priorities so out of whack that he was literally sick. He was gripped by a sickness; he was far from being healthy.

Having said all of this, I don't mean to suggest that Jesus was naive or foolish about the need for basic needs. In the model prayer He taught us to pray, the issue of our daily bread is very high. It comes right after the opening salutation, "Our Father, who art in heaven, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread." It is the very first issue after those salutations. But daily bread, my friends, is very different from the conspicuous consumption which characterizes our lives in this society. There is very little relationship between the kind of daily bread that Jesus was talking about, which he legitimized, and the kind of crazy, careless and conspicuous consumption that characterizes our lives. I am prepared to say that kind of consumption in our society has literally become unhealthy for us, for our environment, for our ever-grasping psyches, for our stressed-out bodies. This kind of consumption and measuring of ourselves in terms of our worth, possessions and money has reached the point of becoming a sickness, a foolish sickness.

The question becomes for all of us, "What is enough?", "What is proper?" "What is reasonable?" "What constitutes our daily bread?" Unfortunately, there are no easy answers to those very important questions except the certain answer that most of us have way too much in terms of what we really need and what is good and healthy for us. When we think about the relationship of our salvation, our commitment to follow the life and teachings Christ, we need to apply that to this life of money and possession in very concrete terms.

Maybe one of the ways we should start doing that, if we do not do it already, is to seek the counsel of our fellow Christians. We should sit down with a group of people we can trust on a regular basis and say, "This is what I am doing with my money and possessions. This is what I am earning; this is what I'm spending. Am I on the right track? In your loving judgment and care, am I making the right decisions?" Perhaps once a year with the group we should share our income tax returns; look at them with each other; talk about them together; pray about them and say, "Are we leading a healthy life in regard to our money and possessions?"

What I am saying is that to be saved is not a theological abstraction. It is not something to be left to the theologians to argue about in legalistic terms, in terms of transactions between God and man. The issue of being saved is very real and practical in terms of every-day life. If we take it to heart, if we agree to follow the life and teachings of Christ, then it is going to affect all of our lives. It is going to affect our sense of achievement and how we try to go about that; it is going to affect the way in which we live and spend our money. Salvation will become for us in that way, the gift of health.

Interview with Timothy Johnson
Interviewed by Floyd Brown

Floyd Brown: Your message was extremely interesting and enjoyable — combining our daily commitment, our professions and our religion. That was an interesting song we just heard (Michael Kelly Blanchard singing "Danny's Downs," a song about a Downs Syndrome child). With so many diseases in the world and so many catastrophic illnesses, where should we be as individuals with regard to our personal commitment. Are we sympathetic enough as Christians?

Timothy Johnson: In the kind of life I've led, one has to separate the two in a technical sense. When I am called as a physician to deal with a physical illness, I have to make sure that I do my work as a physician and do it as well as I can. But in fact, very often even as a physician and certainly it is true for all of us in lay capacity, we cannot change the physical circumstance. Certain illnesses simply will not be amenable to that in terms of our present knowledge. What becomes very important in that circumstance is how we handle the illness. That is where our faith has a lot to say about the circumstance.

As I said in my message, we all know people who are physically in bad shape but who are in great shape spiritually. They radiate joy and contentment that all of us would want to have whether we are physically healthy or not. Strangely, there are people who do not find that kind of spiritual health until they have been forced to give up their physical health. In a strange, almost perverse, sort of way, they take their physical health to be almost as an idol. It is not until they loose that idol they worship that they are willing to search for spiritual health.

I think we see that very often with handicapped people. They teach us a lesson. They teach us that you can be dear to the heart of God without being a specimen of beautiful physical health. Handicapped people, Downs Syndrome children in particular, constantly do that. One of the things that you hear when you talk to families of Downs children is the wonderful way in which that child has been a blessing to them. They have learned new spiritual lessons about life through the physical disability of that child. We make a terrible mistake if we think that physical health and spiritual health are synonymous. They are not.

Brown: Earlier today I heard an interview with a young woman who had become a paraplegic. Her expression was that God had given her a new challenge in life. He had found a new work for her, a new job. I suppose in medicine when you are dealing with people, this is your ministry, isn't it?

Johnson: It can be. Again, I am careful not to jump on people and surprise them with a spiritual message if that is the last thing in the world they are expecting. I think we have to respect who they are and where they are coming from. Very often we do have that opportunity. By the way, I never suggest to people that their illness is a result of God's direct action. That is not consonant with the way I believe. I don't believe God makes us ill for His glory. I do think that when in the course of life's circumstances, we do become ill, handicapped or have this kind of a problem, we can learn from it and use it to the glory of God. We see examples of that all the time.

Brown: You touched very briefly on faith healing in your message. I still find myself a little bit on the limb because I have a minister speaking to me and also a doctor talking to me. What position do you take if someone comes to you and asks for faith healing?

Johnson: I suppose what I want to try to find out is what kind of faith and what kind of healing they are talking about. I don't automatically offer a formula or an easy answer. It is very important to know what they mean by that when they ask for it. Some people will indeed mean that they want some magic wand waved over them in prayer so that their crutches can be put aside. Others will understand that is perhaps not possible or not what we are here to offer. They will be looking for another kind of affirmation. It is very important in that sensitive area to know what you can offer and do and what the person is looking for and needing. As I said, I think that we in the church too often have been preoccupied with dramatic physical healing and missed the boat altogether on the kind of spiritual healing that we are much better equipped to offer than anyone else in our society.

Brown: You have a marvelous message and we thank you very much for joining us on the Chicago Sunday Evening Club.