Dr. Paine is a fricken idot!

[Seal]

Reading the meet the family section, Dr. Paine says that he is practicing as a Correction Facility Physician. Granted his little section looks to be written in 2009, but I don't think he completely quit medicine for ATI.

edited: looks like they made another move within OK in 2012? not sure if Dr. Paine practices or not, I'm kind of confused ha.

[Buzzard]

Reading the meet the family section, Dr. Paine says that he is practicing as a Correction Facility Physician. Granted his little section looks to be written in 2009, but I don't think he completely quit medicine for ATI.

Thats probably about the only place where you are guaranteed to NEVER have to discuss birth control. I wonder if they let him preach while he sews...

[Marilla-Cuthbert2013]

Thats probably about the only place where you are guaranteed to NEVER have to discuss birth control. I wonder if they let him preach while he sews...

It is Oklahoma... I am sure they encourage him to preach while treating his patients.

[sunshine]

(from the Bates show) 12paines.com

At age 40, he quit his practice as a Family Physician to get a "job" stuffing letters or whatever for The Institute in Basic Life Principles. He honestly felt he could serve God "better".

How about using his talent and trainning to actually HELP people. There are so many hardworking folks (not just fundies) who can't afford medical care. If he didn't want to help poor Americans, he could have traveled to Haiti, Central America, or another poor country.

What the heck is The Institute in Basic Life Principles anyway? It's got to be something Gothard....

So, this is the PG version. From what I understand, Gothard came to him and said something like God want him to work at the IBLP. So, he sold his practice and move his family. When he arrived, they didn't know he was coming and the work available was volunteer work like sewing and stuffing envelopes. He later moved and starting doing whatever he is doing now. The job God gave, he could have use to offer free services on the weekend or volunteer overseas. disclaimer: I think it was the Paines but it could have been another doctor who have done this.

[mockingbird]

I would never quit medicine to "serve the Lord" ...but I am thinking of retiring from medicine early so I can devote my time to art. Is this any better or worse than Dr. Paine? I don't think that doctors are any different from anyone else - sometimes life takes you on a different path from the one you started on. Although I do not believe in his fundamentalist ideas - I do think he has a right to live his life as he sees fit. If he finds it more fulfilling to "stuff letters" or whatever - and he manages to take care of his expenses - I don't feel right criticizing this.

Perhaps I am missing the point. Maybe people are criticizing his choice of new career and not his right to make that change. If so , I am sorry.

I have to agree with this. I know some doctors who are not happy with their career, for some it is politics or the changing environment but one of my doctors admitted to me her parents made her go to med school and she doesn't hate her job, but she was miserable in med school and would have picked something less intense. The field I want to go into has a high rate of burnout. All of the doctors I know in that specialty have either retired early or switched to administration or full-time research positions. It's not like I plan to burn out but I know the possibility is there and I think there are other ways I could use my talents if it came to that. Maybe not even medicine-related. I also like writing and retiring early to focus on that might be nice!

I see the others' point, I think it is frustrating that an obviously smart (if he was able to get his MD) and presumably helpful person is choosing to stuff envelopes for a cult when he could apply his talents in a more useful way and could choose something that *actually* helps people. Overall though I can't really snark, I feel like he has the right to make his own choices about his career, as long as he is able to support his family (although it seems like he could have been brainwashed into choosing the Gothard job). Maybe he was dissatisfied with his job/lifestyle and that is part of what led him to ATI in the first place.

[crankypants]

Reminds me of a non-profit that skimped on admin staff so that the directors were the ones answering the phones and doing the mailouts. Sure, totally makes sense to not hire a $15/hr office junior and instead force the head of the organisation to pitch in on their $45/hr salary. Totally inefficient. As I understand it, rural areas suffer from a lack of specialists and GPs. Why couldn't he have uprooted himself to somewhere remote to serve god by providing medical care to a population who'd otherwise have to travel hours just to get a script refilled? He could have tithed the cost of an admin worker to stuff envelopes and so provided Jesus with two workers for his crusade here on earth or something.

Stuff like that usually happens because donors do not like to fund administrative costs so even if a non-profit wants to hire admin staff they can't because of the way funders structure their grants.

[RosyDaisy]

I would never quit medicine to "serve the Lord"

IMO, practicing medicine is serving the Lord. Stuffing envelopes...no so much.

[feministing]

IMO, practicing medicine is serving the Lord. Stuffing envelopes...no so much.

lol. "I'm gonna be more christlike so I'll just stop healing the sick," said no real Christian ever.