"It is high time we broke with our theologically based restraint toward the government's actions - which after all is only fear. 'Speak out for those who cannot speak' - who in the church today realizes that this is the very least that the Bible requires of us?"
Who spoke these words? A right wing crazy? A Pro-life zealot?
Obviously, it was someone who took God's Word seriously. Isaiah 1:17b reads - Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow.
We are commanded to do this because it is part of God's very nature. We are called to imitate our Father. Deuteronomy 10:17-18a reads - For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes. He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow . . .
For the last 40 years the church has been leading the way in speaking out for those who cannot speak - the unborn. In spite of this, over 52 million babies have been aborted legally in the United States since the Roe v. Wade decision in 1973.
Soon there will be a new class to speak out for.
Dr. Donald Berwick was recently appointed the head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). He is also a strong advocate for transforming our healthcare system into one that imitates NHS in Great Britain. A quick glance at the NHS website reveals a chilling reality - the government there uses a formula to assign values to human lives.
A portion of the official website reads: The enormous costs involved mean that choices have to be made . . . To ensure our judgments are fair, we use a standard and internationally recognized method . . . the quality-adjusted life years measurement (the ‘QALY’).
The QALY is determined by multiplying your life expectancy by a number that corresponds to your "quality of life". Your quality of life is determined by an agent of the government. Then, using the QALY, they calculate how much your life is worth. If you are young or have a higher quality of life, then you have great worth. If you are aged or have a lower quality of life, then you are worth less.
How can we reconcile this concept with the fact that our Savior gave His life for ours? Are some lives worth more than others? Are other lives worth-less? There have been times in world history where large groups of people believed this lie, and the consequences were unspeakable.
In those dark times in history, few spoke up for the worth-less. Why should they speak out? After all they were proud, patriotic citizens and these decisions were being made for the good of the country.
Scripture clearly teaches that all life is precious; there are no worth-less lives. Scripture clearly commands us to speak out for those who cannot speak; there are no worth-less lives.
The church has a decision to make. Will we speak out? If this national effort to calculate the value of a human life cannot be prevented, the church will have additional decisions to make. Will we care for those whose lives have been determined to be worth-less? Will we agree by our silence that some lives are worth more than others? Will we allow this cancer to grow unchecked in our culture?
The choice is ours. The worth-less are depending on the church to find and use its voice.
By the way, the words that began this article were penned on September 11th . . . 1934. They were written by a German pastor named Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Eleven years and more than 6 million "worth-less" Jewish lives later, the world was concluding the Second World War; a war that claimed an additional 60 million lives during the conflict. Were all of those lives worth-less? Were ANY of those lives worth-less? How would history have changed if the church had found its voice?
Questions or comments? Write curt@smdcog.org
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3 comments:
Curt, you neglected to mention that Dietrich Bonhoeffer also died on the wrong end of a hangman's noose at the age of 39 years, although General Patton's guns were within hearing range. History has already judged Bonhoeffer and his political adversary, Adolph Hitler. Interestingly enough, we revere Bonhoeffer and dispise Hitler and still await the eternal evaluation of each.
Wayne,
Not sure what you're driving at here. I neglected to mention ALOT about Bonhoeffer. (By the way, the new biography on Bonhoeffer is GREAT!)
The question still remains . . . how would the world have changed if the church had found its voice? How would the world change today, if the church spoke biblical truth into our culture, even when it is not politically correct. What if we "dared" to speak about political issues rather than surrendering them to the whims of secular society?
It is New Year's Sunday Curt, and I just found your response to my earlier comment. Your question bothers me greatly; I think the church is speaking via individuals but candidly I wonder at what we are saying! I, among others, have tried to speak out politically but find that people wonder whence this political interest.What I observe is that many of my peers speak out on selected issues that are more culture-driven than bible-driven. IF we were more biblically driven, we would be more in tune with the words of Jesus (eg Sermon on the Mt) and broader based socially. As it is we line up left and right and someone like Jim Wallis gets called a socialist. I know of pastors that do not dare publicize their political views with jeopardizing their relationships with quite-"right" congregational members.I'd like to hear more from your perspective.
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