August 28, 2009
The Christian Journey
The root of all wars: Deliberate forgetting of inherent dignity
BY FATHER JIM SAUER
A 20-year-old memory keeps dancing non-stop through my mind. The occasion was either the National Press Breakfast or Clinton Presidential Breakfast; the guest of honor was the diminutive Mother Teresa of Calcutta. Mother Teresa was invited to address the assembly. The only words, which either she said or I can only remember, were these, “If you want to stop war, stop abortion.”
Her words touched my spirit captivating my thought. I pondered, “What do these two have to do with one another?” I couldn’t see any connection. Slowly, I see how abortion insidiously weaves its tentacles throughout our social fabric, ever so unnoticeably.
In the first line of defense, the unborn primarily and unconsciously depend upon their mothers (fathers) to protect them from harm, danger and death. However, today approximately 3,300 fetuses and embryos are daily “throw-away” matter in America, no longer worthy of our basic “civil” protection and reverence for life. What effect does this have on the rest of society, on our attitudes and behavior towards the living?
Hardly a week passes without hearing about fathers horrifically murdering their entire families; child abduction, molestation cases and pornography are rising, many times ending in the brutal mutilation of their young victims. Multi-billionaires build pyramid schemes luring average people to invest their entire life savings into seemingly well-established investment plans. Then there are self-serving CEOs awarding fellow employees and themselves outlandish year-end bonuses with taxpayers’ dollars. Has the respect for others’ safety and dignity vanished from our society today?
We watch the evening news trying to make sense of the health care reform as our congressmen and women and senators dialogue with their constituents. However, what do we see? We are repulsed by “adult” shouting matches! Children usually shout when they don’t get their way, but adults?
To add fuel to the fire, we add name-calling to the shouting such as “Obama is another Hitler” or “I hate Obama.” I’ve visited Dachau over 15 times, read several books on WWII, and have friends who survived WWII. I do not like everything President Obama has done, but President Obama is no Adolf Hitler (or the “anti-Christ” as someone said to me the other day)!
We may disagree with his programs, but mudslinging the president (or anyone) is simply undignified child’s play. A local newspaper quoted someone saying, “Slavery has a bad name in America. Yet our president, who is 25 percent black, is so zealous to place Americans into slavery.” What does this comment contribute to the discussion on health care reform other than inflame other people? Americans are obviously angry, frustrated and, it seems, full of hatred, which they are unashamed to vent (some supposedly carrying weapons into meetings). Can we no longer disagree with others without tearing them down, without being disrespectful to their persons?
In Ephesians 4:31-32, we find, “All bitterness, fury, anger, shouting, and reviling must be removed from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another.” In Colossians 3:1, we are instructed, “to put on kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another . . .” Finally, St. Paul writes Timothy these words of advice, “I ask that supplications, prayers, petitions, and thanksgivings be offered for everyone, for kings and for all in authority” (1 Tm 2:1-4).
“If you want to stop war, stop abortion” — world wars, genocides, wars of words, marital and child abuse — all war is rooted in a deliberate forgetting of the inherent dignity of each person as God’s creation. How many wars do we start in our homes, workplaces? How many wars could we have stopped had we but bitten our tongues or walked away?