I Left, They Stayed: A Christian Doctor’s Reflection on the Ethiopian Medical Strike

By Naol Befkadu Kebede

“Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute.”
— Proverbs 31:8

Six years ago, I wrote a piece titled “The Cross of the Ethiopian M.D.” It was born from the ache of watching my fellow doctors strike against a system that had neglected and devalued them. At the time, I asked, with trembling, what it meant for a Christian doctor to protest in a nation where almost every patient is poor and forgotten.

Today, that same question returns. But this time, it bears more weight more urgency, more sorrow.

Because this time, I’m not in Ethiopia. I left. They stayed.

A Life-Changing Contrast

I now write from abroad, in a country where physicians are respected, where hospitals are stocked, and where a doctor’s voice matters. Here, I’ve seen what it looks like when governments protect not punish the hands that heal. When physicians are compensated fairly. When they are given insurance, security, and basic dignity.

The contrast is jarring. And it makes the pain of watching my colleagues in Ethiopia all the more unbearable.

They are still there. Still giving. Still breaking.

And now, they are being pushed to the edge again.

A Nation on the Brink, Again

Across Ethiopia, doctors are preparing for yet another nationwide strike. The reasons are familiar: starvation-level pay, inhumane working hours, no health insurance, and a government that not only neglects them but now meets their voices with arrests, transfers, and threats.

This is no longer a professional dispute. It is a moral crisis.

And once more, the Christian doctor faces a haunting dilemma: How do we hold the line of justice without abandoning the bedside of the suffering?

The Dilemma: Duty vs. Justice

To strike as a physician is not like any other profession. Our tools are human lives. When we walk away, the loss is not revenue it is relationship, it is trust, it is life.

And yet… how long can we remain silent in a system that kills us slowly while we try to save others?

This is the impossible tension: that to stay silent may preserve life in the short term but destroy the soul of medicine in the long run.

Can a Christian doctor strike? Maybe the better question is: Can a Christian doctor refuse to speak, even as their colleagues collapse and their patients bleed in overcrowded corridors?

Three Anchors for Christian Physicians in Crisis

In the midst of this storm, I offer three biblical anchors that have steadied me through the years and that may offer clarity to fellow believers facing this moment in Ethiopia.

1. Protest Can Be Prophetic

We must dismantle the false belief that protest is inherently ungodly. The Bible is filled with holy resistance.

Moses confronted Pharaoh. Elijah rebuked Ahab. Jesus drove out the money changers. The prophets didn’t stay silent—they spoke truth to power with love and fire.

To carry the cross doesn’t mean quietly bearing corruption. It means sacrificial love—and sometimes that love must roar.

A prayerful, patient-centered strike can be a prophetic act. Not a rebellion against patients, but a plea for a system that can actually serve them.

2. Our Patients Are Poor—But That’s Exactly Why We Must Speak

It is precisely because our patients are poor that this matters so deeply.

When doctors flee the country due to unbearable conditions, it’s the poor who are left behind. When burnout leads to errors and emotional detachment, it’s the vulnerable who suffer.

A broken health system doesn’t just destroy doctors—it devastates patients.

If we truly care for the sick, we must fight for the survival of those called to heal them.

3. A Dual Calling: Physician and Prophet

We are not just healers of the body. We are witnesses to the Kingdom of God in a broken world.

Our calling includes both compassion and confrontation.

Jesus was the Great Physician—but also the Prophet who exposed injustice. He wept over Jerusalem, but He also stood in its courts and denounced its corruption.

Christian doctors in Ethiopia must walk this tension. Not as bitter cynics. Not as passive martyrs. But as prophetic servants who say:

“We will not abandon our patients—but we will not die silently in a system that refuses to see us.”

---

What Does a Faithful Strike Look Like?

Maybe the question isn’t Should we strike? but How do we strike in the Spirit of Christ?

• With a clear message: that this is about dignity, not greed.
• With integrity: keeping emergency services open for the most vulnerable.
• With prayer: seeking God’s justice as we organize, not just the world’s approval.
• With character: even when insulted, we respond with humility.

Christian physicians must not abandon the cross—but neither must they confuse silence with righteousness.

A Final Word: To Those Still There

To the intern weeping during call…
To the resident skipping meals to support a family…
To the specialist threatened for raising a voice…

You are not forgotten.

I left but my heart remains tethered to the soil of Ethiopia and the souls of my colleagues.

I see you. God sees you. Your patients see you.

Do not give up. Whether you strike or serve, speak or stay, do so in faith.

Carry your cross but never carry it alone.

May the day come when Ethiopian doctors no longer choose between conscience and survival.

May justice roll on like a river and healing flow like never before.

“But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!”
— Amos 5:24