"Knowing and doing are so intimately related that if you do not act in the light of what you claim to know, you do not really know it." - James W. Sire
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Friday, March 13, 2009
A Human Parts Industry
Zygotes and Stem Cells
Developing Humans NOT Bio-Mechanical Parts
I find it fascinating the many of the arguments and parallels used to justify Abortion and Stem Cell Research were also used to justify slavery in the 19th Century and the Holocaust in the 20th Century.
Slavery in the Mid 19th Century:
The Argument: They are NOT really "human" and as such they are really "useful" and indispensable to us for our health and well-being. This was the kind of argument that Slave Owners and Southern Politicians used to maintain their material wealth and thus in a related manner "well-being." In like manner, Great Britain's Pro-Slavery politicians of the 18th and 19th centuries, used this argument tirelessly against the great emancipator, William Wilberforce, for over 30 years – declaring that the entire British Empire - an empire that was so vast that "the sun never set on it," would have its entire economic system collapse through the outlawing of slavery.
Some sources are estimating that the Abortion Industry makes almost a Billion Dollars a year. Just Planned Parenthood alone claims 4,000,000 activists, supporters and donors
In terms of Stem Cells that come from embryos or an aborted fetus, they are now being used to research how to manufacture new parts for the living - who in turn are suffering from disease, birth defects and old age. Imagine, if you would, people intentionally participating in and producing embryos simply to manufacture parts and harvest them for someone else. It is that cold and that crass – that evil. In principle, this is no different than that dark subversive human parts harvesting industry – that exists throughout the world - designed to kidnap selected people for the sole purpose of removing their organs, so that some other more privileged person can have harvest those same organs, to replace their damaged or diseased one(s) – stolen - without their permission - ripped from their bodies because those in power have not come to terms with their mortality, their physical reality and their arrogance.
The Holocaust
The Argument: They are NOT (the Jews) really "human;" and in addition look how they rob us from having those things that are "useful" and indispensable to us for our health and well-being. The Nazi's believed: "If we allow them to continue to exist among us, then they might threaten the Aryan - Ubermensch existence beyond us" - as if that were logically possible...
Unforeseen pregnancies can interrupt our current manner and standard of living. A child in the uterus can and eventually does affect one's resources – in many cases they can appear to threaten one's quality of life economically as well as the inconvenience associated with its existence. The overwhelming and vast majority of abortions and the fetus' that come from them are performed because of "convenience" not because of necessity. The horrifically detailed accounts of the Nazi's experimentations on pregnant women, children and adults are legion and legend.
Abortions aside… producing zygotes and embryo's simply for their human parts making capacity transcends most of what can be called evil in this world.
When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.
When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.
When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.
When they came for the Jews,
I remained silent;
I wasn't a Jew.
When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.
Martin Niemoller
It may not be popular, it may offend and it may even cause me to lose some valued relationships… I still choose to speak up.
Rich Grassel
A Letter to Instructor Paula Anderson and Central Connecticut State University
Who Is Protecting Whom?
As a faculty person in an institution of Higher Education for eleven years, it has recently come to my attention the deplorable treatment of a student of yours named John Wahlberg. What a horrible example of academic freedom, intellectual honesty, and a clear violation of the First Amendment. So what if some students felt "scared and uncomfortable?" These students are ADULTS are they not? Would anyone on your campus, not believe for second, that many of those same (alleged) students in Ms. Anderson class, on any given Friday night, observe if not participate in all kinds of risky behaviors- that should make them "scared and uncomfortable"? In addition, are there not other presentations given by other students throughout the course of the year, on other subjects, that make other students "scared and uncomfortable?" In the spirit of consistency, are they in like manner censured and reported to the Campus Police? When a student asks for directions to the Campus Police Headquarters, could they use the word "Gulag" as a synonym instead? Thankfully it appears as if at least your Campus Police (professional skilled labor - right?) maintained their reason - noting that Mr. Wahlberg owned Firearms legally.
Question: Does Ms. Anderson participate in an academic enterprise, or provide nanny services? If students felt "scared and uncomfortable" then it would be HER responsibility to help those students in class process the information in a redemptive manner. Pedagogically: It would seem prudent, if not scholastically respectable to not ask students to discuss controversial subjects in class, and then NOT BE PREPARED to process that subject in a helpful and informative manner - in a kind of let say Renaissance Spirit. A fair, cursory survey of the role of Firearms in the History and current Culture of the United States could have done much to inform those students in her class.
I wonder.... Just how safe do you think many of your students now feel when it comes to the pursuit of study and discussion of those subjects that Ms. Anderson (and by extension YOUR university) deems to be dangerous, risky and politically incorrect? I am quite sure that many of them now feel much more cautious (read "scared") and inhibited (read "uncomfortable") to engage in the free world of ideas. I had heard, although I cannot confirm this, that Mr. Wahlberg was required to be psychologically evaluated before he could return to class. IF this is true, I could conclude nothing other than your institution as being ideologically totalitarian (now I am "scared" and "uncomfortable"). Imagine what some students and observers could only conclude: "Because you don't value, behave and THINK like we do... we are concerned that you might be mentally ill." Have the life and writings of Soviet dissident Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn not taught us anything? How about the little book written by George Orwell - Animal Farm? Ms. Anderson might want to read that again (if she has) - particularly the very last chapter about how (strictly and metaphorically speaking) really ended up looking like who! Is Ms. Anderson from the former Soviet Union?
The incredible irony is that Mr. Wahlberg was discussing, in the spirit of academic freedom, ideas that some people can use to protect themselves in the face of unforeseen violence. Were you there to protect him when academia threatened to do violence to his intellectual freedom and his first amendment rights? I genuinely hope that Ms. Anderson has been educated by your administration thoroughly on these matters and that the rest of your faculty have had opportunity to discuss and process this tragic event in the kind of informed manner that everyone is served and edified by it. If not, I am afraid it would be the height of scholastic hypocrisy.
Sincerely
Rich Grassel
Friday, February 27, 2009
Part V – Spiritual Formation of Higher Education Students
A Paradigm: Revisiting Transformed, Transcend and Transformational
My essay so far has been an attempt at arguing the necessity of getting at the real Spiritual Formation issues in the life of Christian Higher Education Students; and the wonderful possibilities that can come from unleashing young men and women who are spiritually in the process of vigorously becoming inwardly whole and complete; so that they might be outwardly competent by authentically demonstrating the life of Christ. The essential point being that what the world needs most are men and women who go at life as a genuine as Christ Himself would, in wherever circumstances they are called and find themselves in. This is the only way that they can become the dynamic transformational force in all of society and culture.
A Hero of Mine: William Wilberforce
In fact and actuality, this is not without significant precedent. One of the most inspiring examples that I can think of is the life and work of William Wilberforce -- one of the primary leaders of the Clapham Sect in the late 18th and early 19th century England. Clearly, England as a nation and culture at the time had much in the way of our problems, and perhaps even more. It has been argued by some historians for example, that Great Britan managed to dodge the phenomena of the "French Revolution" that swept across Europe at the time; largely because of the exhausting and dedicated work of men and women like William Wilberforce, Charles Simeon and John Thorton. It is truly astounding that a few people could affect that much change within a culture that was incredible in its moral decadence, corrupt political system, and an elitist snobby aristocracy still living out the last vestiges of the Divine Right of Kings.
Shortly after his conversion experience, the very wealthy and socially popular Wilberforce thought of resigning from his position in the House of Commons and going into the professional ministry. Seeking council from a pastor friend John Newton and author of the hymn: Amazing Grace; as well as a career as a former slave trader; Newton encouraged Wilberforce to remain in the House of Commons and affect change for the Kingdom through his political office. Over the course of his life time, Wilberforce was able to achieve the following: 1. The abolishment of slavery in England (a monumental battle!). 2. Later the complete abolishment of slavery throughout her colonies (The Empire upon which the sun never set!) 3. The invention of Sunday School – to provide educational opportunities for the poor and homeless children. 4. The radical development of Missionary Societies – a hugely successful work, that recruited, trained and supported professional missionaries – they not only shared Christ, but also penetrated some of the most remote regions of the world – taking with them many things like medication and scientific advancements. 5. They created and lobbied for the first ever child-labor laws to protect the abuse of children from cruel employers. Those same employers who worked children as young as eight years old, 12 hours a day in Coal Mines and as Chimney Sweeps . Undeniably, Wilberforce and the rest of the Clapham Sect were able to put things into motion that not only changed their culture, but the entire world around them.
Wilberforce's efforts were possible because to him, it was crucial that his heart life reflect Christ… His capacity to be inwardly transformed enabled him to transcend the pervasive and alluring cultural temptations of social popularity and a stultified and corrupt political tradition that resisted any manner of change – the result of which enabled him to become one of the great, world transformational figures in the history of the world – for Christ and His Kingdom! For Wilberforce, there was no "compartmentalization" and/or a life in Christ as a form of "individualism."
When We Are Not Inwardly Transformed, Outwardly Transcendent and Capable of Being Transformational Agents
By way of providing a dramatic opposite example, the lack of inner transformation, transcendence and transformational ability always bodes ill, particularly in the Church and her leaders. In my studies on genocide for example, I was initially startled to discover that within virtually every genocidal context, uniformly the Church as well as individual Christians tend to respond very poorly. Why is this?
Genocide, which is a political and cultural attitude of virulent anti-relationship, aimed at a people group that have been deemed no longer worthy of life, is antithetically and diametrically opposite of the Jesus' teaching on the Kingdom. If anybody ought to know about relationships, forgiveness, grace and healing, it ought to be the Church and her followers. But this was not the case, in the most recent example of mass genocide practiced in Rwanda. Within 100 days 800,000 to 1,000,000 members of the Tutsi tribe were either largely bludgeoned death with clubs and/or hacked to pieces by machetes, by members of the Huitu tribe.
Statistically, I was startled to find that there was virtually no difference in the behavior from the churched and self-proclaimed Christians and the non-Churched and non-Christians – across denominational lines and faith traditions. Hutu Christians simply didn't have the ability to overcome their cultural prejudices and systematically murdered their national and Christian brothers and sisters.
In a more recent example of genocide pertaining to Rwanda, an Editor's article from Commonweal Magazine notes the following of individual Christian and Church behavior:
(In June of 2002) "two Benedictine nuns were convicted in a Belgian court of collaborating in the murder of thousands during the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. Sister Gertrude Mukangango and Sister Maria Kisito were sentenced to fifteen and twelve years' imprisonment, respectively for their roles in turning over to their Hutu killers seven thousand Tutsi who had sought asylum in the nun's monastery, the sisters willingly provided the gasoline used by Hutu militiamen to burn down a garage in which five hundred Tutsi men, women, and children were hiding… There appears to be little doubt about the women's guilt. Crucial to the prosecution was the willingness of other Benedictine
sisters to testify against them."
sisters to testify against them."
…Catholic bishops, priests, and sisters suffered martyrdom at the hands of the militias, and ordinary Hutu Catholics were killed trying to protect Tutsi neighbors. It is equally true, however, that other clerics and nuns supported the Hutu genocide or stood by silently as it unfolded. Catholics were found on both sides of this enormous crime, and it is sobering that the pervasive Catholic institutional and cultural presence in Rwanda proved little impediment to such mind-numbing savagery."
Andre Sibomana, a Rwandan Catholic priest, journalist, and human-rights activist records in his book: Hope for Rwanda, details the following in his conversations with Two French journalists Laure Guibert and Herve Deguine, about the role of the Catholic Church during the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.The church did nothing to prevent tragedies which could have been prevented. When
the bishops were informed that a genocide was about to happen, when they saw the
increase in killings in the period leading up to the genocide-on average five every
night- their attitude didn't change. The leaders of the church stood by the
government, particularly the bishops of Kigali and Byumba. They failed to react in an
appropriate way toward the role of the government in the preparation of the
genocide. They should have broken away[….] […]The fact that society was unable to
prevent the catastrophe shows that there was a fundamental breakdown. Christians
shouldn't suffer a situation; they have a responsibility to take control."
Later in his book Sibomana offers this brief exchange of one of his church member's behavior:
Some believers were weak and irresponsible: They did not weigh the consequences of
their actions. I asked one of my parishioners who carried a grenade, 'What are you
doing?' He replied, 'Don't you understand the situation we're in? We'll think about
religion later."
Stephen R. Haynes, associate professor of Religious Studies at Rhodes College and a member of the Church Relations Committee of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council shares his thoughts on a slightly different take than Sibomana, but similar non-the-less (I quote at length):
Like Nazi Germany, genocidal Rwanda is an exceedingly unattractive venue for Christian self-examination. Much of the evidence indicates that "blood" proved thicker than baptismal water, that faith was powerless to overcome the interests of class or ethnicity. And Rwanda has provided few stories designed to restore our trust in humankind or the role of faith in confronting evil. So far, we know of no Rwandan Bonhoeffers with whom mainline Protestants can identify; no Hutu Corrie ten Booms to sustain evangelical's belief that God protects the righteous; no Catholic bishops who risked their lives to speak out against the violence; no Le Chambon-sur-Lignons where the persecuted were sheltered by simple Christians in a "conspiracy of goodness."
YET PRECISELY BECAUSE so little good news can be gleaned from the Rwandan genocide, Christians must not ignore it. One pressing issue raised by Rwanda is human nature, what theologians have traditionally called anthropology. Although scholars of the genocide assiduously avoid theological questions, Christians must ask what this and other episodes of mass killing reveal about the essence and extent of our falleness. Reinhold Neibuhr reportedly said that the doctrine of original sin is the only doctrine for which Christians have any empirical evidence...
These are disturbing words of indictment and at the heart of it, many people died horrible, senseless and tragic deaths in Rwanda, by the hands of their fellow Christians and Church members, because as participators in genocide, they lacked the inward transformation of Christ and were not capable of transcending their cultural conditioning and circumstances, this left them as non entities as transformational agents. In short, they simply not able to do the things that Jesus would do, if He were they, in the here and now…. Kierkegaard is problematic for many of us:
But genuine religion has an inverse relationship to the finite. Its aim is to raise human beings up so as to transcend what is earthly. It is a matter of either/or. Either prime quality, or no quality at all; either with all your heart, all your mind, and all your strength, or not at all. Either all God and all you, or nothing at all."
Spiritually Formed = Leadership
In our Principles of Leadership class we provide for the class a definition of what we consider genuine leadership to be:
Leadership is the passionate, faithful commitment to one's
giftedness and calling.
(rsg)
One of the significant outcomes hoped for those who participate in Christian Liberal Arts Higher Education, is that in their faith and vocational integration, that they might exert Christian Leadership within the culture and change the world for Christ around them. I believe this Christian leadership is truly impossible in a pervasive sort of way, unless their leadership is a result of a determined response to imitate Christ, know what He desires of their life and are able to employ their giftedness to that particular end. In other words, we are obligated to imitate the ultimate leader, Jesus Christ, by being made over in His image and having Him ignite all of our potential for His cause.
Conclusion:
The thing is to understand myself, to see what God really wants me to do; the thing is to find a truth which is true for me, to find the idea for which I can live and die."
Kierkegaard from his: Journal
Killologist, David Grossman tells of the following story, observed and recorded by a Reporter who observed the following events. Immediately after the battle of Normandy, and the Allies steady advance over German territory, Hitler desperate to regain momentum responded with a full-scale and vicious counterattack. Throwing all of his reserves and material that he could muster at the Allied advance, it consequentially stalled; and then began to slowly fall back. Allied command responded in part by flying and dropping the infamous 101st Airborned Division to blunt the counter attack by the Germans. We know this as the Battle of the Bulge.
One reporter, who was walking down the dirt and gravel road, noted with interest a soldier from the 101st emerge silently from the hedgerows and walk down onto the road. Several days of beard growth covered his face and he was dirty and worn from days of fighting. Over his back he carried a rifle. In his hands, he held a bazooka. He started walking towards the Northwest – towards Germany – towards the fighting. Up the road, in the direction to which he was heading, they could both hear the roar of a Tank engine, moving towards them at a high speed, retreating before the German advance. The soldier stopped… Soon the Tank, an American Sherman tank, came into view and continued its advance towards them. The soldier now stood in the middle of the road and did not move. The Sherman tank stopped in front of him, its engine idling. The hatch on the front of the tank popped open and a man peered out, his face clearly masked with fear… "Are you looking for a safe place" said the 101st Airborne Soldier? "Yes," said the tank soldier… "Then stand behind me." Said the soldier from the 101st.
I love that story, because I think that it parallels so much of our current circumstances within the Church and in the world… We have many of our Christian brothers and sisters who are quickly retreating before the advancing evil of our day. And we desperately need Christian soldiers who are clear about their mission and determined to make it happen. We must be "soldiers" who are willing to engage the enemy on his turf, at great cost.
German Scholar and Nazi Resister, Dietich Boneffer is noted for saying: When Christ calls a man He bids him to come and to die." Jesus' admonition to us is that in order to truly follow Him, we must "die to ourselves." This is God's expectation of all who claim to know Him as Savior and Lord. But we can't give our life to Him and in service to this world ultimately, unless we are willing to have Christ in us, in the world, with His marching orders in hand. Perhaps more than anything it takes determined obedience. In light of this I am reminded of Thomas R. Kelley's comments in his A Testament of Devotion:
We are torn loose from earthy attachments and ambitions – contemptus mundi. And we are quickened to a divine but painful concern for this world – amor mundi. He plucks the world out of our hearts, loosening the chains of attachment. And He hurls the world into our hearts, where we and He together carry it in infinitely tender love.
For every Student that finds a way to become inwardly transformed, so that they might transcend personal and cultural inhibitors, in order that they might like Christ "amor mundi" and transform the world… They become like that soldier from the 101st Airborne Division… Trained, skilled, Obedient, Focused on the Mission at hand and ultimately successful against the enemy. They provide the "safe place" for others through their calling, giftedness and vocation. They are in fact the kind of young men and women who know authentically how to be Inwardly Transformed, so that they can Outwardly Transcend; in order that they become overtly Transformational Agents in obedience and love for Christ and the Kingdom of God!
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Part IV Spiritual Formation and The Integration of Faith and Vocation
An Example: "Respectable Businesses"
Without A Redemptive Christian Approach
I am mindful of C.S. Lewis' book: The Screwtape Letters, in which he is often noted for his comments on evil with the following statement:
"The greatest evil is not done those sordid 'dens of crime' that Dickens loved to paint. It is not done even in concentration camps and labour camps. In those we see its final result. But it is conceived and ordered (moved, seconded, carried, and minuted) in clean, carpeted, warmed, and well-lighted offices, by quiet men with white collars and cut fingernails and smooth-shaven cheeks who do not need to raise their voice."
Lewis' point is well taken if we were to examine the origin and promotion of Pornography in our culture. For example, in a fascinating article in the Sunday, October 29, 2000 Pittsburgh Post-Gazzette an article in its Commentary section featuring the following:
General Motor Corp., the world's largest company, now sells more graphic sex films every year than does Larry Flint owner of the Hustler Empire. The 8.7 million Americans who subscribe to DirecTV, A GM subsidiary, buy nearly $200 million a year in pay-per-view sex films from satilite…"
EchoStar Communications Corp., the number 2 satellite provider, whose chief financial backers include Murdoch (chairman of News Corp.,), makes more money selling graphic adult films through its satellite subsidiary than Playboy…"
AT&T Corp., the nations biggest communications company… also owns a company that sells sex videos to nearly a million hotel rooms
The article goes on to say: " For all the money being made on sex – legally – by mainstream corporations, the topic remains taboo outside the boardroom. The major satellite and cable companies do very little marketing of the X-rated products, and they are not mentioned in annual reports except in the vaguest of euphemisms… None of the corporate leaders of AT&T, Time Warner, General Motors, EchoStar, Liberty Media, Marriott International, the Hilton, On Command, LodgeNet Entertainment or News Corp. – all companies that have a big financial stake in adult films and are held by millions of shareholders – were willing to speak publicly about the sex side of their businesses."
To the astonishment of Flynt… his competitors in the 10 billion annual adult market are mainstream corporations whose board members are among the American elite."
Clearly these large "respectable" corporations described above have great need of a redemptive Christian influence. But, where was it? At the risk of appearing to moralize, are there not Christians associated with those corporations who have voting and policy power? Were there no influential Christians in management or on the Board of Directors, who would govern with the mind of Christ? If so, did any of those Christians have a faith and vocation integration perspective and commitment, or is their worldview compartmentalized? Or perhaps there simply are not enough of them and they are simply too outnumbered to make that much of a substantive difference… Of those who might be there, did any of them come from a strong Christian background and/or Christian Liberal Arts Colleges like Geneva College? If so, what was their approach to procuring their various positions? More specifically, did they get their position with the idea that they would keep the toxic parts of the job from infecting them; or did they take the job with the idea of infecting it for Christ?
Could it be possible that there were no Christians there, who intentionally chose that kind of work, that career path because they felt called by God to penetrate it as a Mission Field and use their calling and gifts to create a "good infection" that C.S. Lewis discusses in yet another book Mere Christianity? And because they did so, what they have, is not really a job but rather, a "vocation" that they are committed to? A powerful sense of God's design and purpose for them; a passionate calling, desire and commitment to transform this part of society for Christ, that the Apostle Paul encourages us with from Ephesians 2:10 For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."
Higher Education Students and the Practice of "Individualism" by Default…
Recalling that many young Christians choose their perspective majors for: First, not out of a sense of "calling," but because it will meet their lifestyle wants and "needs;" and secondly because those same students often engage in the subtle interplay of vacillating between "vocation" and "livelihood." In other words, they choose their livelihood predicated on wants and needs and then declare it their vocation!
Third, perhaps, even before Christian students come to Colleges and/or Universities, they really haven't been given the necessary experiences or diagnostic tools to be able to ascertain their vocational calling. Therefore the "individualism" practiced here is the kind that comes by default. They default and do, and act, on only what they know and have experienced.
As a Youth Minister involved in numerous churches and communities, it was no secret that most students spend the lion's share of their time and energy doing those activities that reap the most rewards socially; and through which their parents cold live vicariously. Over time this often resulted in emphasizing the development of secondary gifts and talents and not so much their innate and primary ones… In High School, a student can function reasonably well with this approach. But when they go to College or University, they discover that their secondary gifts are not weighty enough to allow them to perform at the next level. Conversely, their primary gifts, the ones that are directly related to their vocation and calling, withered, became truncated and are often grossly underdeveloped. This condition as well, will not permit them to perform at the next level… As a result they are often lost and confused about how their faith can work with their vocation - whatever that may be… The resulting primary objective becomes social and financial "survival."
This situation is exacerbated all the more, when they receive pressure from family members about choosing a particular major that will enable them to pursue a specific and narrow career path for the rest of their lives! I recall reading a number of years ago, that of those students who graduate from a college or university, only half go into a field of their particular major; and of that half, another half of them move out of that field altogether within five years. In addition, the average person changes, not their job, but their career 3-5 times in their life-time.
My thought is that those of us who do Youth Ministry, as well as those of us who are involved in Christian Higher Education, have a significant if not vital role to play in guiding students in this thought process. Clearly, what we have been doing so far is not working. As of today, there is not one major institution in our culture in which the Christian community has any significant influence. We are indeed in a Post-Christian Culture. This despite the fact that Christianity and those who embraced it are either responsible for and/or shaped significantly things like: Hospitals, Schools and Universities, Democracy/Politics, Business, Non-Profits etc. etc. We have lost our way from the faith and vocational integration principle - because over time, like the proverbial frog in the kettle, we were wooed into a highly privatized, intellectualized and compartmentalized expression of our faith. How odd it is that what we fail to recognize that what we build in life, is actually what we live in. Soren Kierkegaard once said:
"Most systematizers stand in the same relation to their systems as the man who builds
a great castle and lives in an adjoining shack; they do not live in their great systematic
structure. Metaphorically speaking, a person's ideas must be the building he lives in ---
otherwise there is something terribly wrong
a great castle and lives in an adjoining shack; they do not live in their great systematic
structure. Metaphorically speaking, a person's ideas must be the building he lives in ---
otherwise there is something terribly wrong
We always do what we always are, because we can only do what we only are….
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
