A doctor's life: Terminated

In the 14th year of my stint at Strahle Memorial Clinic and Hospital I had a mind-opening experience, which started with a missionary friend to Africa who was back on furlough telling another friend that I was "once saved, always saved." We laughed about the joke, but later that night I was determined to look for this doctrine in the bible just to see were I stood with regards to what the Bible said about salvation. The SDA church treats this particular doctrine as heresy, but I wasn't sure about it myself. So I got hold of my Bible and in that instance I found my salvation and got baptized by the Holy Spirit.

It took about three years of constant dialogue with the pastors of MVC coupled with threats and insults by some of the leaders and the rank and file, which was tantamount to religious persecution. In one occasion a lady administrator met me at the hallway of the administration building and without hesitation lambasted me about my beliefs and finished off by say, "get out of MVC if you do not believe in the church's doctrines anymore." This was done without toning down her voice and many students were witness to it. This incident only showed that there is no boundary between work and beliefs in MVC or in any SDA institution.

If I thought that my persecution or ridicule would be limited to the officials of MVC, I was wrong. On one occasion I happened to pass by a group of faculty kids in the primary grades who were playing on the lawn near the tennis courts. One kid saw me approach them and they stopped their play and looked at each other and then one girl turned to my direction and said, "you are Satan!" I tried to engage her in a conversation, but they all ran away. I didn't want to take her declaration as something connected to my stand in faith and the trouble that it was getting me into, but how would such an adorable girl and her friends who fondly called me uncle suddenly treat me that way?

On another night there were some students who came to my place to worship after dinner. We sang and read the bible, and about 9:00 PM I opened the door so they can go home to their dormitories when we were accosted by nine security guards who had surrounded the front yard and were pointing there long firearms (shotguns) at me. Their leader - Martin, went into a tirade about my being a heretic and an unbeliever. He was shouting all the while and he threatened me, telling me to leave the campus because I was unwanted here. He further warned the students that they will be blacklisted if they were seen in my place again. With this incident it dawned on me that religious freedom shockingly was non-existent in SDA campuses in the 21st century, and that if a group met for worship it had to be in the name of the SDA church. 

Two months after that fateful night the church board of MVC voted to disfellowship/excommunicate me and a month later I was handed my walking papers - a termination from work document that was approved by the Department of Labor stating my severance from work and the closure of the hospital due to long standing loses resulting in bankruptcy. The same guys who sought my help when they were sick were now driving me away because I didn't uphold their beliefs regarding salvation. (a little over a year later, when I was in another country they re-opened the hospital and hired another doctor). 

It was "goodbye" versus "good-riddance" when comparing my jobs in Landasan and MVC, and at best it was all "good" for my life's story. 

The church board and school board of trustees' actions were the final sentences to another fulfilling chapter in my life, and I was sure that when God closes a door he opens another. At this point though, I was not aware with what God had in store for me. 

That will come next.

[a detailed account of my excommunication can be read here: http://sunnimoreno.blogspot.com/2010/06/my-blessed-testimony.html]