There comes a time when you can no longer escape from the things you've done. And sometimes, often, what you do can never be undone. Until another heaven and earth comes to pass, that wrong can never be corrected. And we, human beings, are carrying forward such a burden of wrongs that it seems impossible that they will ever be righted. And they may never be in this world. The world grows dimmer, its burden of sin grows greater, as we shuffle towards some ignoble denouement. Enlightenment grows harder; ignorance easier. Truth and goodness are seen as weakness; lies and evil are considered strength.
What sparked today's post was a story I heard from someone I did not know, and I apologize if he ever sees this, but considering these issues are important to all of us. Important for the whole human race to consider. His teenage daughter put a pistol in her mouth and shot herself. He, the father, was apparently on the scene quickly and saw that the girl was choking on her own blood, so he tried to siphon the blood out of her airway with a rubber tube and his own mouth, spitting out blood and tissue, while waiting for the paramedics to arrive. She died sometime later, they took her off the respirator. Can you imagine, if you had been that father?
This story disturbed me so much, I felt I had to get to the bottom of why it disturbed me so much. I mean, sure, the story is disturbing in its own right, but it is not like I don't know that people get killed or kill themselves every day. I guess what disturbed me most, was the great ease and speed with which it was possible to end life. Filling out your taxes, drinking a cup of coffee, brushing your teeth, driving to work, most everything takes time. Handgun-initiated death, however, is instantaneous. As is bomb-induced death, machinegun-induced death, and all the other forms of death which are so prevalent and convenient. It is not necessarily so that the death itself is immediate, maybe it would take days, but the action of killing is instant.
And the worldwide culture of convenient murder, of a 7-11 store of instant mayhem, is an equal opportunity employer. Even those who invented the terms "culture of death" and "culture of life" are very selective in their use of those terms. The American Evangelicals who are so keen to save the unborn, and I think rightly so, are not quite as keen to limit firearms. In fact, they are dead set against it. Firearms in the home are much more likely to be used against a family member, than against anyone else. The father of the unfortunate girl I alluded to above, quite likely bought the pistol for "home defense" that his daughter used to end her life. These evangelicals are not so keen to protect the lives of those subject to the death penalty. A really "pro-life" philosophy would seek to protect all life, not simply the lives of a favored group. Anything less is merely politics, not ethics.
Those of a more liberal bent are quite ready to play God and end the life of the unborn, as long as the lives of the born are made supposedly more secure by gun control and abolishing the death penalty. Everyone looks to their own interests and not at what is right. And everyone doing this, for thousands of years, brings this world to its current state. A state of constant warfare, especially of more powerful nations against less powerful ones. A state where our abuse of the natural world threatens to disrupt millions of lives, with global warming and environmental degradation, massive oil spills and melting reactors. A Darwinian social condition where the ties that bind people together in brotherhood are overwhelmed by the economic war of man against man, leaving everyone isolated, leaving the least fortunate abandoned. A culture of artificiality, where important values are disregarded and artificial values revered. A condition where money and power are our true gods; pain, dehumanization and death their appointed sacrifices; and truth and goodness are either unknown or derided.
What had disturbed me so greatly is the stark dominance of evil, the enormity of it. The monumentality of evil, the degree to which the world has already been lost. There is no white-hatted cavalry coming over the hill at the last minute to save us from ourselves. How quick is judgement and murder, and how slow is healing and forgiveness.
And I knew this all along, and yet it still surprised me.
What sparked today's post was a story I heard from someone I did not know, and I apologize if he ever sees this, but considering these issues are important to all of us. Important for the whole human race to consider. His teenage daughter put a pistol in her mouth and shot herself. He, the father, was apparently on the scene quickly and saw that the girl was choking on her own blood, so he tried to siphon the blood out of her airway with a rubber tube and his own mouth, spitting out blood and tissue, while waiting for the paramedics to arrive. She died sometime later, they took her off the respirator. Can you imagine, if you had been that father?
This story disturbed me so much, I felt I had to get to the bottom of why it disturbed me so much. I mean, sure, the story is disturbing in its own right, but it is not like I don't know that people get killed or kill themselves every day. I guess what disturbed me most, was the great ease and speed with which it was possible to end life. Filling out your taxes, drinking a cup of coffee, brushing your teeth, driving to work, most everything takes time. Handgun-initiated death, however, is instantaneous. As is bomb-induced death, machinegun-induced death, and all the other forms of death which are so prevalent and convenient. It is not necessarily so that the death itself is immediate, maybe it would take days, but the action of killing is instant.
And the worldwide culture of convenient murder, of a 7-11 store of instant mayhem, is an equal opportunity employer. Even those who invented the terms "culture of death" and "culture of life" are very selective in their use of those terms. The American Evangelicals who are so keen to save the unborn, and I think rightly so, are not quite as keen to limit firearms. In fact, they are dead set against it. Firearms in the home are much more likely to be used against a family member, than against anyone else. The father of the unfortunate girl I alluded to above, quite likely bought the pistol for "home defense" that his daughter used to end her life. These evangelicals are not so keen to protect the lives of those subject to the death penalty. A really "pro-life" philosophy would seek to protect all life, not simply the lives of a favored group. Anything less is merely politics, not ethics.
Those of a more liberal bent are quite ready to play God and end the life of the unborn, as long as the lives of the born are made supposedly more secure by gun control and abolishing the death penalty. Everyone looks to their own interests and not at what is right. And everyone doing this, for thousands of years, brings this world to its current state. A state of constant warfare, especially of more powerful nations against less powerful ones. A state where our abuse of the natural world threatens to disrupt millions of lives, with global warming and environmental degradation, massive oil spills and melting reactors. A Darwinian social condition where the ties that bind people together in brotherhood are overwhelmed by the economic war of man against man, leaving everyone isolated, leaving the least fortunate abandoned. A culture of artificiality, where important values are disregarded and artificial values revered. A condition where money and power are our true gods; pain, dehumanization and death their appointed sacrifices; and truth and goodness are either unknown or derided.
What had disturbed me so greatly is the stark dominance of evil, the enormity of it. The monumentality of evil, the degree to which the world has already been lost. There is no white-hatted cavalry coming over the hill at the last minute to save us from ourselves. How quick is judgement and murder, and how slow is healing and forgiveness.
And I knew this all along, and yet it still surprised me.
