Monday, August 10, 2020
717 - One Life to Live
Spirituality Column #717
August 11, 2020
Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) isn’t fearful of the virus; he is angry at the politics.
August 11, 2020
Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary
One Life to Live
By Bob Walters
“My command is this: Love each other as I have loved
you. Greater love has no one than this,
that he lay down his life for his friends.” – Jesus, John 15:13-14
“Give me liberty or give me death!” – Patrick Henry,
1775, Second Virginia Convention
“It is simply false that life is the highest good.” –
Rusty Reno, 2020, editor, First Things
So much human, medical, media, and governmental energy in
this pandemic is devoted to considering and containing the awful possibility of
death. Perhaps it’s time we seriously
considered the more eternal priorities of life and put them in perspective.
We are all, together, facing this Covid mystery with varying
degrees of rebellion and acquiescence, distrust and compassion, fear and anger,
in many cases hardship, in most cases suspicion. I can’t imagine anyone believing everything
they hear.
We argue about masks; we wonder who’s telling the truth
about reliable treatment. What’s up with
all levels of schools and all levels of sports? Church and state collide over
distancing guidelines. How do I save my
life? How do I save yours? How much “information” is political agenda
tied to public health panic? Who is
rigging the mixed-message statistics? What constitutes prudent precaution vs.
culture-killing proclamation? Our
politicians claim they will do anything to save just one life.
And this while most abortion clinics are open, essential,
and killing the unborn.
I include that line mainly for irony, but it speaks loudly
to priorities and principles.
Our central point here is in whether as a society facing
this disruptive and still in many ways medically mysterious coronavirus, we are
asking ourselves the right questions and demanding of ourselves – in toto,
all of us – the right sacrifice.
As a nation, in March, we were agreeable and quick to pull
the plugs on production, commerce, companionship, religion, and education – anything
to save just one life. But it was a
gigantic exercise of fear; not courage, sacrifice, and honor. Jesus went to the horrible cross for our
salvation; Patrick Henry urged his countrymen to war for their freedom, and Rusty
Reno gasped at politicians urging Americans to cower before the false altar of anything
to save just one life. Shut it all
down if it saves one life.
No, Reno accurately points out. Life itself is not the most important
thing. “What of love, honor, beauty,
justice, truth – faith?” he queried. I’d add freedom and aspiration.
“If we begin with wrong principles,” Reno suggests, “we make
a mess of things. It is simply false
that life is the highest good.” That is this moment’s forgotten truth
In our fallenness, diseases always have and always will haunt
humanity, but in Christ we are commissioned for love and hope in eternity, freedom
and responsibility in this life, and to face hardships courageously. Anyone selling despair is selling us short.
Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) isn’t fearful of the virus; he is angry at the politics.
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