See the original article here.
I find myself in sympathy with our most esteemed Reverend Vander Weit.
It is indeed a great crisis if members of our church do not feel comfortable bringing this illustrious denomination’s position to our federal governments. It is obvious that none of us would have any problems with a more understanding and generous position. As Reverend Vander Weit himself states, the killing of infants conceived at an importune time, or under undesirable circumstances, is an attitude that would allow “all of us… [to] have no difficulty bringing our official position to the attention of our governments.” Some might think our support unnecessary, as the governments already hold such a position, but encouragement is always beneficial.
I believe that such a stance would encourage the CRC to continue in this path to tolerance, and eventually lead the church to a full understanding of God’s grace. The end of a person’s life is only the beginning of their eternal life in the presence of God, and we should have no fear of it. This goes beyond infants, of course. Consider persons forced to live on in a coma, as a vegetable, or severely disabled (whether mentally or physically). If every second of every day is a battle against pain and humiliation, would it not be kinder to speed such a person towards a time of new life – towards Heaven? Life on this poisoned earth is a thing only the sturdiest of us should have to suffer through.
In the words of Reverend Vander Weit, “it’s past time for us to demonstrate pastoral sensitivity to fellow members who wrestle with the hard cases.”
Ah, yes. Man's wisdom makes so much sense! It is of great comfort to me that I no longer need feel compelled to struggle with life here on Earth. Putting up with pain, fatigue, depression is not necessary for ME. I find myself feeling terribly sorry for the apostle Paul and his many friends in the Early Church. So much better it would have been for them if they'd had the means then to end their lives sooner. Such horrendous suffering could have been compassionately averted! Wow - I am so grateful I don't have to face tomorrow.
ReplyDeletePass the Kool-Aid, Jim.
Mr. Swift needs to read Real Death, Real Dignity by David Mills in the March 2011 issue of First Things and then reconsider his parroting of the "kill them rather than let them suffer" argument.
ReplyDelete"...continue in this path to tolerance, and eventually lead..." is worrysome on two counts. Tolerance is a word that has been co-opted from the english language and the meaning has changed (like "gay" - no correlation necessarily intended). If you really think about it, we tolerate wrong (e.g., a little speeding, fudging on taxes, white lies). We don't tolerate love, fidelity, honesty, sportsmanship - things self-evidently good.
Secondly, the quote above has been asserted many times over the years in various contexts. You might recognize it in its more common form: slippey slope.
Um, Mick. You do realize that Jonathan Swift is a famous English satirist of the early 18th century, don't you?
ReplyDeleteThe esteemed author here is not seriously arguing that we should all kill ourselves so we can get to Heaven more quickly and with less pain.