The Bible and the Headlines: News You Can Use – Blood Issues
By David Bachelor, PhD
March has been designated National Bleeding Disorders Awareness Month by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The department designates national awareness months to focus attention on particular maladies. Some recent headlines reflected how groups took part in this spring’s sanitation campaign.
Firefighters in northern Illinois were the subject of the March 14th story in Shaw Local News’ “Gurnee Fire Department to Host Blood Drive.” The first responders were partnering with the local blood bank because an, “…adequate blood supply must be ready for patients every day.” Spring storms can keep donors in their homes and limit the supply of blood available. The blood drive was part of the awareness campaign for blood disorders. The article stated, “The most common bleeding disorder, von Willebrand disease, affects the blood’s ability to clot.” This was offered as an example of non-emergency situations addressed by blood banks nationally.
Also on March 14th, the newsletter for the biotech company CSL inquired, “Are Bleeding Disorder Patients Getting the Most Out of Physical Therapy (PT)?” The article explored how PT is utilized at a national chain of clinics that treat hemophilia. The need for such therapy was explained, “ When blood doesn’t clot as it should, bleeds can occur inside joints, causing pain. Older patients are especially affected… they experience the compounding effects of age-related joint problems, like arthritis.” Despite the benefits of PT to those who have bleeding disorders, PT is often neglected or uses out of date techniques.
In Pennsylvania, the March 15th edition of StateCollege.com featured, “March Is Bleeding Disorders Awareness Month and American Red Cross Month in Centre County.” The article featured comments from the guest speaker at the March meeting of Centre County commissioners. The speaker represented Pennsylvania chapters of the Bleeding Disorders Foundation. A particular task for these chapters is to, “… find more women to get diagnosed because there are so many women going undiagnosed since many medical professionals were trained that only men could have these [bleeding] diseases.” The speaker herself was one of those women who had been long undiagnosed.
The Bible makes it clear that women can suffer from bleeding disorders. The Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke each contain the narrative of a woman who suffered with this malady. The text in Matthew says, “A woman who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years came up behind Jesus and touched the edge of his cloak” (v. 9:20). Under the Old Covenant, this woman would have been forced to live outside her family’s home and she would never have been allowed to worship in the Temple (Lev 15:26 and 31). Also, by touching Jesus, he too would have been made unclean (Lev 15:27). Instead of shunning her for this bleeding disorder, Jesus said to the woman, “’Take heart, daughter, your faith has healed you.’ And the woman was healed from that moment” (Matt 9:22).
The Bible talks more about blood than it does about bleeding. God told the priests, “The life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life” (Lev 17:11). This is why Jesus says at the Last Supper, “This is my blood of the New Covenant, which is given for many for the forgiveness of sins” (Matt 26:28). In fact the only blood disorder condemned in the Bible is someone who has treated, “the blood of the Son of God (which washed the person clean) as an unholy thing” Heb 10:29). For the Church the awareness campaign about this blood disorder is every day, not just in March.
