Isaac, while I understand your concerns and realize that the legalism you decry is a real problem, I’m not sure that in a participatory state it is possible to make the kind of demarkation you suggest–one of the problems inherent in what we euphemistically (and incorrectly) call democracy.
]]>What I am suggesting is a very clear line of demarcation between a person in the Church and one without. Those without should be left to their own convictions and to do as they will, rather than feeling forced to behave as Christians ought to behave (and rarely do) by the force of the law because Christians happen to make up a large voting bloc. It would be far better if Christians were known as the only group of people in the culture who refuse to have abortions vs. the group in the culture that tries to use the force of law to keep non-Christians from having abortions while having just as many themselves. We are nearly the complete opposite of the early Christians and that is why we nearly have none of their power.
]]>Western society is rather craptacular in its hedonism at present. Still, it can’t change, it won’t change, if there is no church making the case for change. How many people listened to the prophets? To Jesus? Not many I venture. Should they have stopped preaching because the right conditions didn’t obtain at that time?
]]>This was all unimaginable only a few decades ago. When society rejects love, anything is possible. When it turns its back on faith, utilitarianism becomes the default setting.
When society rejects God, it rejects love and life.
Suicide is the taking of a life, clearly spoken of in the Bible. Suicide is a wrongful act consisting of the acknowledgment of the ultimate helplessness of human nature AND the ultimate rejection of God. As long as the breath of life is still within us we have a choice to make: turn to God or reject Him and pass into a lost eternity.
Initially, those promoting assisted suicide tell the public that it is only for the “terminally ill”
– a vaguely defined term. We are all terminally ill; we know that the only inevitable thing in life is death. They assert that a person in possession of full information and sound judgment can decide if his/her life has no value and that decision should be respected. Can a person ever be confident that that he in possession of full information?
Assisted suicide for “extreme cases” is a slippery slope to the killing of the elderly, the depressed and disabled. We are facing a new and “unimaginable only a few decades ago” danger. Actually, it is not new nor “unimaginable” danger. Hitler himself was the forerunner of the systematic killing of the mentally ill and the handicapped.
The present propaganda put out in favour of ‘assisted suicide’ is logical for those who have never heard the Gospel [Good News] and for those who embraced the “death of God” declared by Nietzsche. As a result, the twentieth century was distinguished by its world wars, Nazi Holocaust and the Communist Holocaust. A hard lesson that some have yet to learn: “Without God, there is no humanity.”
]]>Issac, you are both right and wrong. Right in that we should practice what we preach; right in that we should probably eschew a political solution to the degradation around us, but wrong in the sense that the Church must always be prophetic in her teaching even when we don’t live up to it very well. In that way she is constantly calling all of us to repentance and to the kingdom.
The early Christians fought solely by their actions. However, to publically refuse to give homage to Caesar as a god (which got many killed) was a political act affirming a law that was above both Caesar and Rome. Do you not think we need to do the same?
]]>A society that believes in nothing, can offer no argument, even against death. A culture that has lost its faith in life cannot comprehend why it should be endured
Hence, in the UK “suicide tourism,” in which people fly to Switzerland to have assisted suicide, has not been rejected but become a rallying cry for legalization in England. Instead of asking, “How can we help people stay alive?” the question has become, “Why should people have to fly to Switzerland to kill themselves? Why not let them do it at home with family present?”
We in the USA can’t look down our noses. Jack Kevorkian’s stated purpose for his assisted suicide campaign was winning a license to conduct experiments on people he was euthanizing. He so wrote in his book, calling the proposal “obitaitry.” But that core obsession for all his efforts has been given the Trotsky airbrushed out of history treatment, and he has been remade by media as an eccentric Muppet, even played by Al Pacino in a hagiographic biopic. Kevorkian even took the kidneys from one of his assisted suicide victims, a disabled ex cop named Joseph Tushkowski, and offered them for transplant–“first, come first served”–at a press conference. Not. A. Dent.
Belgium is already coupling legal euthanasia with organ harvesting, particularly targeting people with muscular/neurological diseases because they have such good organs.
This was all unimaginable only a few decades ago. When society rejects love, anything is possible. When it turns its back on faith, utilitarianism becomes the default setting.
]]>It is true that constantly preaching to people or handing out Gospels does create any spiritual fruit. Only when a person is truly converted, he will “bring forth fruit” (Mark 4:20). Christ said “To the one who asks, give” because the one who asks is ready to accept and understand. Hopefully people will start to understand that it is not possible to go on living this way and the voice of God will be heard.
Do not, therefore, grow despondent, sinners like unto me, but only believe in the Son of God. Sinners, esteem one another, and do not despise any sinner, for we are all sinners, and the Son of God came to save, to cleanse, and to raise all up to heaven.
+ St. John of Kronstadt +
The orthodox revival of Russia prophesized by St Seraphim Of Vyritsa (1866-1949) reveals God’s wondrous ways:
]]>The Elder said that a time will come (it is already coming!) when the debauchery and moral decline of the young will reach their ultimate point. Virtually no-one will remain uncorrupted. Seeing their impunity, the young will consider that everything is permitted them for the satisfaction of their whims and lusts. They will begin to gather in groups and gangs, stealing and debauching themselves. But a time will come when the voice of God will be heard, when the young will understand that it is not possible to go on living in that way. They will come to the faith in various ways, drawn ever more strongly to the ascetic life. Those who before were sinners and drunkards will fill the churches and greatly thirst for spiritual life. Many of them will become monks. Monasteries will open, churches will be filled with the faithful. Then young people will go on pilgrimages. It will be a glorious time! The repentance of those that sin now will be all the more ardent…