By Brad Dupray
David Satcher (MD, PhD) served as the 16th surgeon general of the United States from 1998 to 2002, and prior to that appointment, was director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Dr. Satcher currently serves as the interim president of Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia. He served as president of Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee, from 1982 to 1993. He is the recipient of more than 40 honorary degrees and numerous distinguished honors, including last year’s American Cancer Society Humanitarian Award. Dr. Satcher and his wife, Nola, are members of First Christian Church in Jonesboro, Georgia.
You have had an extremely distinguished career, from medical practice and teaching medicine in California to surgeon general of the United States. What has been your most fulfilling role?
I would say all of them have been quite fulfilling. I have tried to take advantage of every opportunity to make a difference. In my work with the CDC we dealt with things like Ebola in Africa and the plague in India. CDC people were willing to go fight disease. We raised childhood immunizations from 55 percent to 80 percent. It was a good experience, very fulfilling.
Your most visible roles have been in the political realm. Would you consider yourself a “political” person?
The surgeon general is not considered a political position. They’re looking for the best available public health science. You’re nominated by the president and then confirmed by the Senate. It’s one of the rare positions in government that relates directly to the American people. I wasn’t elected and didn’t have constituents. My constituent was public health.
How do you see Christians called to public service?
I think we’re all called. Some answer. Others don’t. When you are called to be a leader you are called to be a servant. There’s a lot of honor, but you are really a servant. With the amount of time you put in, there is no question that you are a servant (laughs)! If you do a good job, you are a servant. If you care about the mission of the institution, you are a servant.
What do you see as the premier public health issue of our day?
We live in a very diverse country and world. We have a lot of resources the problem is the unequal distribution of those resources. There is such a wide variation in health and health care. We spend nearly $2 trillion on health care in the United States alone, and there are 46 million uninsured Americans.
Has the church responded?
How can the church respond? The church is very diverse, so I can answer yes and no. I would never have been successful with the childhood immunization efforts when I was director of the CDC if it had not been for the church. Yet some local congregations pay no attention to that. At First Christian Church we do a lot of things, but a large amount of our budget goes to missions.
Are these medical missions, social justice missions, evangelistic missions?
All of the above. We have worked with an AIDS program in Kenya. We have sent medical supplies there; we have sent people. People go build homes in Mexico. We’re very supportive of Jesus’ Place in downtown Atlanta.
What’s at the heart of an effective approach to missions?
We should never underestimate the power of sharing our faith with other people. It’s amazing, the power of faith to help people and their surroundings. Regardless of your socioeconomic status, faith in your life makes a difference. It can see people through very difficult situations. When I talk to people about my life we were poor, we were discriminated against I don’t ever remember a time when I didn’t have hope.
What do you see as the church’s responsibility in addressing social issues?
The church has a very big responsibility, and that was modeled by Christ himself. The Christian church has responsibility that derives from the work of Christ. He healed the sick, he was partial to the poor, he reached out to people that society had ostracized. He took on some of society’s most sensitive and difficult issues, including prostitution and gender bias. My model comes from there, not from whether someone is conservative or liberal. He cared about people.
Brad Dupray is director of public relations and advertising with Provision Ministry Group, Irvine, California.
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