During June I was again a student for a week-long conference
on medical ethics. Close to one hundred professionals from twenty-four states,
Canada and Holland assembled under a national faculty to explore some of the
moral dilemmas in modern medicine. Philosophers, theologians, physicians,
lawyers and others, together inquired into such topics as psychosurgery (brain
surgery that can modify behavior), the current D.N.A, controversy, euthanasia,
confidentiality, truth-telling to patients and families, and related issues.
So many moral dilemmas are surfacing, because of new
technologies and new understandings of what it means to be human. Consequently,
new moral insights unknown to previous generations and to most persons living
today are emerging. There could develop an appalling gap between those who have
had the opportunities for such considerations and the general citizenry.
Occasionally here and there we are confronted by testimonies which show clearly
an already present gulf, even from sources supposedly competent in moral
leadership.
As you and I, the Church, face new problems posed by medical
advances and insights developed by the social and other sciences, we are
challenged to develop brand new attitudes and solutions to the moral dimension.
However, as we Christians look back to unfortunate chapters
of our history, we are rightly horrified by the frequency with which so many
churchmen have opposed changes based upon new understandings, changes for the
better - opposed always in the Name of God and his Christ! Some Christians have
crushed frontiers and have persecuted both those involved in and affected by
research, as well as those judged different or inferior. In his Name, Jews and
Muslims were unnecessarily slaughtered during the Crusades; their beliefs were
different. Some Christians enslaved Black persons; they looked different, Some
Christians murdered original inhabitants of this land our European ancestors
invaded; “Indians” had different customs. Most Christians have
subordinated women to a less than human status; the Bible was often used to
justify this practice. Copernicus, Galileo and Darwin were persecuted by the
Church. Those believed to be different in their beliefs and customs, those
proposing new ideas requiring changes in perspective have a common history of
persecution supported by Christians.
How could this have happened? Why is it that emerging
insights (scientific, cultural, and moral) have so often been crushed without
an adequate hearing? How could Christians be so ready to persecute other human
beings?
One reason is that each era assumes that it has reached full
maturity. Whether we look at 500 B.C., 500 A.D. or 1977, we find a naive
consensus that all the “basics” about human behavior, the universe
and morality have been adequately developed. Each age fails to realize that
humanity is on a journey toward basic completion; this failure of perspective
sets the stage for our resistance to ideas and persons we do not understand or
have been taught to abhor.
The frightening aspect of much of this is that we are unaware
of the techniques so well developed that nurture our resistance, harden our
hearts, and control our minds. I submit to you that most-effective techniques
are in continued use to this day,
(1) The first way we are victimized is by spokesmen appearing
absolutely sincere and dedicated. You and I tend to yield to sincerity from
almost any source. We are too likely to respond to the words of any committed
person, as if a principled human being were automatically correct. Need we be
reminded that sincerity, commitment, dedication and principles marked the
styles of Hitler, Stalin, and McArthy? These ingredients by themselves are
insufficient evidence for Christian endorsement of a set of beliefs, moral or
other.
(2) The second phase or technique is to convince hearers that
there is a need to protect the innocent, the handicapped, the elderly, or
children. Clearly no Christian would disagree with the need to protect the
innocent, when the need is real. Too often the need is imagined, contrived and
even fraudulent.
(3) The third technique is to quote the Bible. Clearly
Scripture is the Word of God, the sacred story of God’s search for man and
of man’s unsteady response. Understood in its historical and literary
contexts, its verses teach, inspire and enable us. Quoted otherwise to suit
one’s immediate purposes, it can be destructive of God’s revelation.
Let me quote a passage to you - Deuteronomy, Chapter 21,
verses 18 and following: “If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who
will not listen to the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and even
when they punish him still will not pay attention to them, his father and
mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of the town at
the gate of that place. And they shall say to the elders of his town,
‘This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious and will not listen to us; he
is a wastrel and a drunkard.’ Then all his fellow citizens shall stone him
to death. You must banish this evil from your midst.”
This passage catapulted word for word to the 20th
Century as an eternal moral principle might at times have a certain appeal to
parents! Most of us, however, would seek to understand its historical and
literary origins and applications. In terms of current understandings of human
nature, would any one here this morning seize this passage, and others like it,
and apply it as “God’s will” for us now?
Misused, the Bible can be dangerous. A skillful and sincere
persuader attempting to protect the innocent can find in Scripture a verse or
passage that will seemingly justify almost any conviction -for peace or war,
for fidelity or infidelity, for marriage or for celibacy, for diets, for the
world coming to an end next week, or anything else.
(4) The fourth technique for swaying hearts and controlling
minds is to attack the character of persons whose convictions are opposed.
“All Jews are greedy.” “All Blacks are lazy.” “All
Indians are thieves.” Or, as St. Thomas Aquinas put it “The female
requires the male, not only for procreation, as in other animals, but also for
governance, for the male excels both intelligence and in strength.” Or,
decrees that declare the Galileos of this world to be heretics are issued by
bishops who stopped learning when they were ordained deacons! The Church and
the public have sad stories to tell of using this cheap and ignorant technique.
(5) Finally, as a clincher, one’s nation or one’s
religion is appealed to, as if either were perfect. We hear shouted,
“Preserve our American values,” as if they were all righteous in the
sight of God. Or, others cling in fear to their religious traditions, as if
they were complete and infallible in the sight of God.
These five techniques combined - sincerity, need to protect
the innocent, quoting the Bible, character assassination, and the appeal to
nation and religion - can unfortunately control public and Church opinion.
Anyone who has a public forum (politicians, the clergy, or others) can and do
produce mindless and heartless robots of us all now and then. Building on good
intentions, fears, ignorance, and traditions, anyone as wise as a serpent can
victimize a large portion of humanity for virtually any cause.
One speaker at the medical ethics conference spoke with
unusual credentials and candor. A physician and psychiatrist, this Jesuit
priest said, “Religion makes bigots out of us all. It’s one of the
great paradoxes of organized religion: instead of making people be unified, it
causes them to fight with each other and finds ways to exclude other groups
from eternal life.” He went on to remark, “Even the religious
don’t want to hear about other persons’ faiths, especially if it
differs from their own. A lot of advice they want to give, but what they fail
to do is to ask questions about the other.”
My friends, I propose to you that we ponder the full
implications of verse six of today’s Psalm 138 -“From far above,
Yahweh sees the humble, from far away he marks down the arrogant.” As we
are confronted by new insights about humanity, the universe, and morality, let
us use our minds as well as our hearts; let us seek God’s Word for us in
Scripture; let us ask questions of those who differ and listen with care to
their answers; and let us appeal to the “Summary of the Law” for
moral persuasions “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart,
and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great
commandment. And the second is like unto it; Thou shalt love thy neighbor as
thyself.”
As you and I, the Church, are called upon to re-examine our
understandings of humanity and the universe, as we must make moral decisions
new and old, let us avoid being victimized by effective mind-controlling
techniques; let us burn no more witches at new Salems; let us instead inform
our consciences, make our individual and corporate choices of beliefs and
morality, and agree to exist and co-exist under that One Great Commandment that
ought to bind us together as a Church and a Nation.