The Sanctity of Human Life
There is a verse in the Holy Scripture that reads: “You know what right, O Man!” The Holy Scriptures also says we are BORN in the image of God! Among the many meanings of this statement is that we are born with an innate sense of what is right and what is wrong. We have a consciousness and an appreciation for what is good and pure and honorable and true. “Always do right, it will gratify some people and astonish everyone else,” Mark Twain.
“Born in the Image of God, full of His love and concern, this I believe. Well, how do I know this? Not long ago I fell and scraped both my knees. My dear wife, Rosemarie, and I stopped the bleeding, sprayed the wounds with an antiseptic and waited. Viola, the healing powers that my beloved Creator gave me in my creation took over and did the rest. The wonderful healing powers within ourselves, think about this!
We often ask the question; “What is the meaning of our lives?” Albert Schweitzer, A Dr. of Theology, Medicine, and Music, traveled to the interior of Africa as medical missionary and faithfully ministered to the needy people there. “What waste of life,“ we might think in our modern, fast moving, striving world. Dr Schweitzer did not think so. “If you want to find true happiness search and find how to serve,” he said.
We are in the midst of a Presidential election and one of the candidates running for the office is Scott Walker, governor of Wisconsin. John Dean, once White House legal advisor for former President Nixon, was asked: “Is Mr. Walker a Republican or a Conservative?” “His policy is Walkerism, and is greater than Nixonism,” said Mr. dean. He then went on to explain Nixonism as: “The use of power to further one’s own political goals.” The use of power to further one’s political goals, I suspect the there is a lot of that going on not just in the world of politics, but in all aspects of life. Add to that, the power of the Presidency. Maybe one of the questions we should ask our aspiring candidates is: “Do you plan to use this power to further your own goals, or to serve the people and if so how?” When you come right down to it, Republicanism, Conservatism, socialism, whatever, the only one
that matters is humanism!
There is a line in an old Christian Hymn that reads: “Save us from weak resignation to the evils we deplore.” Save us from ignoring the evils going on about us. Be aware of what is happening to our world. Let our sense of rightness kick in. The sense of rightness can arise in us as the agony of righteous Indignation. The past many years I have all but exploded with what I believe to be righteous anger over what has been taking place in our beloved nation. The Grand Canyon exists between the poor and politically weak and the wealthy and politically powerful. Ladies of the wealthy living in their luxurious mansions have closets with more square feet than the average apartment which so many families are crowded into. CEO’S make 800 TIMES more income the average worker. The Banks add to their billions in profit with their exorbitant educational loans to our wonderful young people who are struggling to get an education, a loan that will take them 20 or 30 years to pay off. The richest nation in the World has more families living in poverty, more children going hungry than during the great Depression. In fact our economists say we are not in a depression, but a recession. When you average out the wealth of the rich and wealth of the poor it is a recession. But, for most of the poor it s the Depression. And when the economy stumbles our illustrious leaders say we need we an austerity program. This usually means we must cut welfare, social security, schools, health clinics, food programs, Veterans Hospitals, rehabilitation programs, transportation for the elderly and any other that the people may need.
In this Presidential election year our aspiring candidates are debating merits of what they will do to lead our nation. Mostly what I have heard is despicable. They have not begun to address the blaring problems that face our nation. I suspect the use of power to forward their own goals is primary in their ambitions. Why, some of our leaders are discussing the possibility of taking away the citizenship of some of MY fellow Americans because they were born to poor immigrant parents. If they get away with this SHAME on every one of us! And SHAME on us if we allow any government official or other stop an American Citizen from casting his/her vote. The things our leaders will do to perpetuate their powers.
Righteous Indignation can be an agonizing emotion in the midst of all that is happening in our nation. However be comforted that we are not alone. It has existed in the past. It is very alive today. And it is a powerful FORCE at work in our world. A tall lanky young man from Kentucky walks through a market place in a Southern town. In the midst of bustling marketing activity. He encounters a raised platform. A crowd is gathered around. A huckster bellows out his wares, HUMANS. They are displayed in all their nakedness, like a piece of furniture or a wheel barrow. The potential customers shout their bids. The onlookers lustfully, excitedly observe. The young man is astounded by what is happening. Righteous Indignation rises up in his own soul, an indignation that will dwell in him for the rest of is life. Many years later he will sit at his desk in his office at the White House and put his signature to a document, he has written, THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION! Atticus Fitch is alive and well (“To Kill a Mocking Bird”) in the person of Attorney Morris Dees, founder of the Southern Poverty Law Center in the heart of the South defending the rights of the poor and victims of racial bigotry.
Lawyers spend their time and skills defending the rights and dignity of the poor and otherwise legally helpless against injustice and exploitation. They work at a place called “THE ACLU!” Poor and politically weak women living in a Patriarchal world where so many lusty males see them as nothing but instruments for their pleasure suffer the pain and agony of abuse, often the humility and endurance of unwanted pregnancies, or maybe just the unique discomforts most all women go through in life. “The Planned Parenthood” organization is there to comfort, medically minister to, and help in any way they can. The “Salvation Army” a Christian organization have for years traveled to where so many us do not care to go bringing food, shelter, love and comfort to women, children, men living in unspeakable poverty. There so many beautiful people who are, in their own way loving, helping, fighting for, bringing peace, comfort, to those who are in need.
Abe Lincoln, in the final words of his eulogy on the battlefield of Gettysburg said: “…that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion-that we here highly resolve that these dead shall have not died in vain, that this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall never perish from the earth.”. . . Think about these precious words. . . Senator Baucus said from the U. S. Senate floor: “ The government is here to serve the bankers.” (I heard him say it, and I remember being shocked at what I heard!”) The Supreme Court ruled that a corporation has the same rights as a Person. Does that make us a government for the corporation? The government exists for the lion and the lamb.
“The only counterweight to Capitalism is the government,” said Franklin
Delano Roosevelt. “The problem is that the government IS the problem,” said Ronald Reagan. Someone should have asked for whom. In a way the Supreme Court has ruled that the lion has the right to graze in the same pasture as the lamb. I wonder what will happen to the lamb?
We have already seen the Divine Rights of Kings casting its shadow over our nation. Powerful bankers can do as they please and not held accountable. When Senator Elisabeth Warren asked the SEC about the horrible subprime loans the Banks offered the desperate poor: “Why didn’t any of these bankers go to jail?” Oh we can’t do that the SEC said in so many words. Any attempt to put restraints on our illustrious entrepreneurs, like the Glass-Steagall Act, is put down by the too many corporate puppets walking the halls of Congress.
Oh, where are we going, America. I am so frightened over what is happening to my beloved U.S.A. Thanks to the Supreme Court the powerful can open all the gun ports of their weapons to get their goals. The only weapon we have is the ever precious right to vote.
Here are my suggested guidelines. “I never met a man I didn’t like,” said Will Rogers. Love one another and respect the sanctity of every human being. “I think that I shall never see anything as beautiful as a tree,” said the poet Joyce Kilmer. Appreciate, discover, take care of this magnificent world God has given us.
Respectfully,
Rev. Robert A. Jones
Irvington, New York
