Tag Archives: death

The value of human life

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cemeteryScenario 1: “Q: What’s sandy all over and glows in the dark? A: Iran, if they harm even one of the hostages.” It was 1980. Iran was holding American citizens hostage. Americans! We were high school seniors. Tough guys. If there were a war, we’d be the ones drafted. We made jokes about the possibility of dropping nuclear weapons on Iran and killing millions of people.

Scenario 2: It was ACU basketball’s finest hour. Norman Archibald announced the games in the style of a big-time college announcer. Moody Coliseum would be rocking, especially Section F. The fans in Section F were there to see basketball, but they were especially there to have a good time. They had a wide repertoire of antics: pulling out newspapers to read while opposing players shot free throws, jingling their keys and chanting “Go start the bus!” when ACU was about to win, taunting opposing players when they committed fouls. One favorite was the ceremonial hanging of the referee: raising a doll dressed like an official with a noose around his neck. I found it great fun, until the day my friend Joel Solliday shared his concern: “They’re representing the taking of a human life!”

Scenario 3: Pew Research Report on their Values Survey (2007):

Nearly a quarter of American adults (23%) say they mostly (14%) or completely (9%) agree that American lives are worth more than the lives of people in other countries according to the most recent Pew Social Values Survey; those most likely to take this view include white men (30%), persons ages 18-29 (29%) and self-identified conservative Republicans (28%).

Scenario 4: Mary Elizabeth Williams writes about abortion:

All life is not equal. That’s a difficult thing for liberals like me to talk about, lest we wind up looking like death-panel-loving, kill-your-grandma-and-your-precious-baby storm troopers. Yet a fetus can be a human life without having the same rights as the woman in whose body it resides. She’s the boss. Her life and what is right for her circumstances and her health should automatically trump the rights of the non-autonomous entity inside of her. Always.

The basic problem behind many of today’s hot-button issues is that we don’t value human life.

Scenario 5:

“For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.” (Romans 5:6–10)

photo from Morguefile.com

Death

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Just as different nations have different holidays and memorial days, different families have seasons that are special to us. For our family, the end of May has become one of those times.

It began when my father-in-law, Luis Tolosa, passed away one May 27 at the age of 64. A few years went by, then it was Carolina’s grandmother, who passed away on May 26. Another aunt died May 29 two years ago, then last year it was my dad, who left us on May 25. Four death anniversaries in five days; it’s a time to remember those who have gone on.

I hate death. I worship the God who is life, and death is his natural enemy, the final enemy to be conquered. (1 Cor 15:26) In a wonderful twist of irony, Revelation pictures death itself being thrown into the fiery lake that is itself known as the second death. (Revelation 20:14)

Jesus came to free mankind from the fear of death, or at least from slavery to that fear. (Hebrews 2:15) Our innate survival instinct will always leave us with some fear, but we need not live as slaves to that fear. We know someone who has been there and back, and he has promised that we can overcome death. In Revelation 1, Jesus says, “Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades.” (Revelation 1:17–18)

I love that last phrase. “I have the keys of Death and Hades.” As I wrote in Letters from the Lamb about the letter to the church in Philadelphia:

In the case of Jesus, we need to remember that each of the letters refers to chapter 1 of Revelation. In the vision that John had of Jesus, Jesus had keys in his hand, the keys to death and Hades. It seems likely that Jesus is referring to the same keys here; the reference to the key of David is made to emphasize the permanence of Jesus’ actions regarding death and Hades. Now that he has opened that door, no one can shut it again, until Jesus himself decides to do so. Christians can face death without fear, for their Lord holds the key to let them out of the realm of death. Their stay in Hades will be but a temporary one, for they know the One who holds the key. When he opens the door, no one can shut it again. When Christ spoke with Peter about having the keys of the kingdom, he also spoke about the gates of Hades, saying that they would never be able to prevail against his church. Jesus opens the door to the place where the dead are, and once he has opened it, no one can shut it.

I hate death, but I also face it with confidence. I know he who has gone before and trust in his power to keep his promises.

Photo by msp on www.morguefile.com

Joey

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Joey (2nd from left) with his parents and little brother

I guess it’s one of the biggest fears that parents have: losing one of their children. One woman who had suffered this several times in her life said to me: “Parents shouldn’t have to bury their children.”

My friends Bob and Sally Tamez will have to do that this week. Joey passed away on Friday. I’ve written before about Joey’s struggle with cancer and his deep faith in God. The entire family has leaned on God throughout this whole episode. In Joey’s last moments here on earth, family and friends were gathered around his bed “singing him to heaven,” as they deemed it.

There are still hard times ahead for Bob and Sally, as well as their kids: Casey, Tina and Timmy. I’m glad that they have the support of loving Christians. I know that God will comfort them. And I know that it will still hurt very deeply.

Please raise them up in prayer today, tomorrow when they have visitation at the funeral home and Wednesday when they will have the funeral. Should you wish to send them a note of encouragement, I can send you their address privately.

We cling to the promise: “I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.” (Revelation 1:18)

Joey will live again.

A time to mourn

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As Ecclesiastes says, There is “a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance.” This is a time to mourn. 38 people were killed when a helicopter was downed in Afghanistan on Saturday. Not 30. Not 22. 38 people. We don’t just count the Navy SEALs nor the U.S. servicemen. The loss was just as great for all involved.

It’s tempting to use this moment for political purposes. If you favor withdrawing troops from Afghanistan, this proves your point. If you oppose withdrawing troops from Afghanistan, this proves your point. If you support the President, this proves your point. If you oppose the President, this proves your point.

But this is a time to mourn, not to politick. I posted a comment on Facebook yesterday (in a group), and I now think that it was mistimed. There are points to be made, but this isn’t the moment. This is a time to mourn.

It’s only natural, I guess, that we in the U.S. should relate to this death more than the recent killings in Norway. Had these been servicemen from the base here in Abilene, I would probably feel it even more. But I can’t help but think that citizens of the kingdom of heaven should mourn all deaths, not just the passing of those geographically or ideologically close to us.

I would ask that, if you feel pain today, that you remember that pain when you hear of other deaths, of suicide bombs and drone strikes. Even if they aren’t Americans, even if they aren’t specially trained soldiers, we should feel the pain of each and every loss. May those days also be a time to mourn.

Honoring the sacrifices of war

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There’s an aspect of the U.S. military’s actions overseas that is continually hidden by proponents of military participation: the cost in human lives in other countries. When discussing the sacrifices of war, so many Christians in America focus on our soldiers and their families. They are to be considered, naturally, but so are the tens of thousands of people affected by those wars we fight. (It’s extremely difficult to get good numbers on that. I have been chastised for referring to the site Iraq Body Count, but the material released by WikiLeaks has shown that, if anything, that site is conservative in its counting.)

One reason that 9/11 impacted this country in such a strong way was the fact that it happened on American soil. We’ve worked hard throughout the years to keep all fighting limited to somebody else’s home, not ours. This morning on the news, as the proposed reduction of troops in Afghanistan was being discussed, people expressed the fear that the fighting might come here. “Better to fight them over there” has always been a popular slogan.

As Christians, I think we’re obligated in such a situation to consider those who live “over there.” Consider the Afghani people. In the late 1970s, the Soviets became involved in Afghanistan as military advisers. The U.S. saw the chance to lure the Soviets into a military quagmire, so operations were undertaken to escalate the fighting in Afghanistan. Once the Soviets invaded, the U.S. began arming Afghani warlords to fight the Soviets (When asked about the dangers, Zbigniew Brzezinski, President Jimmy Carter’s National Security Adviser, responded “What is most important to the history of the world? The Taliban or the collapse of the Soviet empire? Some stirred-up Moslems or the liberation of Central Europe and the end of the cold war?”). When that war came to an end, these armed strongmen continued to dominate the regions where they lived. Then after 9/11, the United States invaded, fighting against many of the same people we had helped arm and train. And throughout it all, the civilian population suffered destruction of property, serious injury and death.

When we speak of sacrifice, do we think of those people? Do we consider the mothers who lost sons, the children who lost parents, the villagers who lost everything? Where are their parades? Who raises memorials in their honor? Where are the churches that send them care packages and stand and clap for them during worship?

But they’re not “our people.” No, of course not… unless you’re a Christian. Unless you believe that there is no “Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free.” Then, of course, those people are as much “our people” as any freckle-faced American soldier.

On Memorial Day, I was accused of not honoring the sacrifice of those who have lost loved ones in war. I respond that I honor many more of those people than do those who march down Main Street and salute the flag.

When we count the costs of war, let’s count all the costs of war.