An Obadiah Slope column
From the White House Correspondents’ Dinner shooter’s manifesto: “Objection 1: As a Christian, you should turn the other cheek.
“Rebuttal: Turning the other cheek is for when you yourself are oppressed. I’m not the person raped in a detention camp. I’m not the fisherman executed without trial. I’m not a schoolkid blown up or a child starved or a teenage girl abused by the many criminals in this administration.
“Turning the other cheek when *someone else* is oppressed is not Christian behavior; it is complicity in the oppressor’s crimes.“
First note that the shooter claims to be a Christian. But he denies that the teaching of Jesus applies to him.
Despite the name of this blog, this writer can’t claim to be an expert turner of the other cheek. Nothing Jesus said supports this vigilantism. In extreme cases, Christians might rebel, with Bonhoeffer’s participation in the plot against Hitler an example that springs to mind. Bonhoeffer worked out his position carefully over many years. He wrote of Nazism, having voluntarily returned to Germany from the US, “the ultimate question for a responsible man to ask is not how he is to extricate himself from this whole affair, but how the coming generation shall continue to survive and live for Truth.”
Applying something like a just war theory, Hitler’s death might have saved many lives. There is no evidence that killing Trump would save lives. It could lead to a worse situation.
And turning the other cheek can be a mutual response of Christiansas we bless those who curse us.
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It happened just the other day. A much-loved public figure died while suffering from a horrible medical condition. In saying goodbye, he let it be known he was using voluntary assisted dying.
On the same day, a Christian Facebooker posted “A loveable guy committed suicide.”
Christians who strongly oppose euthanasia or voluntary assisted dying will have accompanying strong emotions, but public commentary about an individual’s death might be tempered.
But to be blunt in response to bluntness, not every condition can be ameliorated by palliative care. There are advances to be had in palliative care, and a key danger of VAD is that palliative care funding and research could be less favoured than they should be.
But we are left with the prospect that some people have to live and die with incredible pain.
If you have spent time in an ICU with a dying person, you will likely have seen a large amount of morphine or similar medicine being administered. This has a double effect; it means a less painful death, but that death may well be hastened at least somewhat.
This happens so often, it goes virtually unnoticed.
Yet these are actually assisted deaths, voluntary assisted deaths.
It seems to this writer that someone with overwhelming physical pain should be treated with compassion and VAD, which then presents itself as an act of mercy.
The Bible urges the killing of many people – in the Old Testament, the Amalekites were to be blotted out, along with rebellious children, adulterers, and rapists. ‘Thou shalt not kill’ was a commandment with footnotes.
It might seem that so far I have leaned towards VAD so much that it seems there is no dilemma for me.
Yet here it is. Vulnerable people may be persuaded to go the VAD route, feeling they are saving the community trouble, or out of a feeling that they have little to contribute. I know many people who might be pressured, who might feel less than others, or who are easily suggestible.
In this way, once more, we creep closer to last-century Germany, where, along with Jews, Roma, and sexual minorities, people living with an intellectual disability were slaughtered. Christian love of neighbour forbids us to go there.
Moses, using the words God gave him, told the Israelites to “choose life.” That remains the ideal that should apply as widely as possible. But not to those absolutely tortured by pain, surely. Let’s consider the implications of God being compassionate toward us, and our need to do likewise.
Hi John,
sadly, I had to see VAD up close and personal with my sister in law taking that road late last year. Indeed, it was my first opportunity to meet the aforementioned facebooker face-to-face after many discussions in various media and phone conversations over several years at the ‘wake’ / memorial service.
I will admit, I am still bitter about her death. specifically, her lack of action in the years (at least eight!) leading up to her final demise. She ignored symptoms (and doctor’s advice) over those years that would have led to treatment that would possibly meant she would still be alive today.
The situation is complicated by the fact that she has left my wife in a quite untenable position dealing with the fall out from what was basically my SiL’s “elder abuse” of their mother.
VAD is as evil as abortion – and neither is “medical care”.
.h
I loved what you said about VAD John, well done. I’ve had family experience and professional experience of VAD. I’ve done lots of palliative care and hospice work in extremely well resourced environments over decades. IMO there is definitely a place for VAD. And I too think I have the Spirit of God.