Local doctor offers advice on being neighborly

Religion Editor chinton@oklahoman.com

“We need to return to an attitude of community, which is the basic tenet of the Bible. Love your neighbor as yourself, realizing your neighbor is not only the ethnically, racially or politically similar person living next door, but even the despised Samaritan.”

— Dr. Mark Mellow, in “The Good Neighbor”

An Oklahoma City doctor looked to Scripture for advice on how to be a good neighbor in the current troublesome state of American society.

Dr. Mark Mellow, of Edmond, put those biblical principles that he learned into a new book called “The Good Neighbor: Stories That Teach Families How to Live and Love Well (McKinley Browne Publishing).”

Mellow will sign copies of the book on Sunday at St. Luke’s United Methodist Church, 222 NW 15. The Rev. Bob Long, St. Luke’s senior pastor, encouraged Mellow and the entire church congregation to read the entire Bible, an act that led the doctor to write his book. Long also is mentioned several times in “The Good Neighbor.”

Mellow, a retired physician who specialized in gastroneurology, said he was compelled to write the book because of the turbulent state of affairs in the nation.

“Over the years, it became obvious to me that we were becoming more polarized as a country,” he said during an interview.

He said the biblical principles offered in his book are aimed at connecting people and breaking down barriers that keep them apart from their neighbor.

Mellow said he was struck by about 150 passages of Scripture that dealt with how to live peacefully with others, including the parable of the good Samaritan. He said he thinks they will resonate with those who read his book and follow the context that he provides.