Minister says there are no absolutes
In his letter of Oct. 31, Tom Visoky challenged me to
debate with him on the issue of abortion from the perspec
tive of the Bible. His assumption is that the Bible can be us
ed to "prove" that there is a "right" answer on the matter.
The Bible was not written to give absolute answers to
human questions. There are a great many issues for human
beings to decide on that the Bible says nothing about.That
is intentional on Cod's part. God endowed human beings
comments
stuart shaw
with spirits, hearts, and minds. God intended these dimen
sions of our being to be used to make the choices that af
fect our own lives and our relationships with others. The
only judge of our behavior is God — not Visoky, or me, or
anyone else.
The basic teaching of the Bible is to love God and love
your neighbor as yourself (Matt. 22:37-39). Sometimes love
for your neighbor means giving birth to a child you will love
and nurture to adulthood. Sometimes love for your
neighbor means you don't bring into this world a being you
will not love and care about. The creating of a human life
has far more to do with how a child is nurtured for its own
growth in the fullness of what God intended for its life than
in just giving birth to a baby, which is relatively an easy
thing to do. Raising a child to be a responsible and caring
adult (I have raised four of my own, hopefullly to that level)
is a much more difficult and complex task. I would not have
chosen to have any of my four children aborted. Their
mother and I looked eagerly forward to their arrival.
If, however, by reason of rape, serious potential defor
mity, possible death or disabling injury or illness to the
mother, economic misery for the family, or the clear "no"
of the human will to a birth that is not wanted — the loving
choice may well be abortion. Giving birth and then sur
rendering the baby for adoption is another optional choice.
But the preference remains tnat or me pregnant woman, it
is she who primarily must live with the consequences of
whatever choice she makes.
After giving the matter a lot of thought, I don't think a
debate that tries to "proof-text" the Bible on this issue
would serve a useful purpose. There are those who regard
the Bible as an absolute authority affecting every human
choice. I do not choose to read it that way. To me the Bible
is a valuable source of divine and human wisdom that came
together out of years of dialogue among human beings,
and between human beings and God. It reports God's
response to the human condition and God's hopes for our
living in peace and justice, love and harmony with all our
neighbors (whoever and wherever they are). I regard it as
my most significant guide for living. But God didn't intend
the Bible to take away my will, or Visoky's will, or anybody's
will in choosing for good or ill the way our lives will go.
Stuart Shaw is campus minister with the Wesley Foun
dation, the United Methodist Church at the University.
letters
No reward?
The other day I went through an
identity crisis; I had lost my Gucci
wallet with all my identification.
Being a resident of Connecticut, I
was going through the "who are
you syndrome." Fear was increas
ed when I realized that someone
could use my credit cards with
malicious intent. However, much
to my surprise, a good Samaritan
by the name George Pfister
returned my wallet fully intact. I
wish to thank him for going out of
his way to do this for me. As Paul
Harvey would say, "thank you,
good day.'
Drew O'Rourke
Senior, sociology
Yet, am glad
Of course it is horrible that a
few U.S. Marines died in Grenada.
-Of course it is horrible that 300
' other guys were killed in Lebanon.
Who could say that war is not
horrible?
Yet, I am glad the U.S. invaded
Grenada. Yet, I am glad that the
Marines are in Beirut. And I would
be glad if they were in a few other
places of the world as well.
We have come along way since
we were cave people. However,
there is still one law of nature that
hasn't changed: "to eat or to be
eaten." This is precisely the situa
tion that the U.S. faces right now.
Throughout history empires
have risen, empires have fallen.
Most of the time their falls were
preceded by decadence.
Decadence is an attitude and
defeatism is part of it.
You folks will end up building
your country — or killing it. Being
humanitarian, defeatist and
pacifist, the U.S. will not have long
before it falls
But that is up to you folks. If you
want to be "eaten," sad, but fine
with me; as for me, no way. The
death of people is the necessary
price that an empire has to pay in
order to survive. And this price
will pe paid whether you lose or
win. So even if I deplore the
deaths of the Marines because
these lives were human ones, I am
glad that the U.S. is in Lebanon.
Upon .such moves depends the
survival of the U.S.
Stephane Codin
Dispel illusion
This is in response to David
Nott's letter of Oct. 31, in which
he said he felt protest marches
"don't accomplish much."
I agree with you, Nott — policy
makers don't pay much attention
to protests. Demonstrations are
perceived to be sponsored by a
small, but vocal, minority — usual
ly students, who are immature in
their political experience, don't
contribute money to campaighs,
don't vote consistently, and in
most cases can't even persuade
their parents to change their
views.
I would, however, like to do my
part toward dispelling the illusion
that writing your Congressman is
a more powerful tool. Most Con
gressmen don't read their mail.
They pay someone else to do it.
That was my job before I came to
the University.
Also, unless the issue is of par
ticular interest to them, Con
gressmen don't even read most of
the answers we staff people write
back to you. One of my functions,
in fact, was to operate a machine
that signed my Congressman's
name for him.
As a general rule, student views
as a whole are not given much
weight in decision-making. Please
remember that one of a Con
gressman's primary interests is in
getting himself re-elected. Since
we are inconsistent, apathetic,
poor and unorganized, we simply
don't have much clout.
Congressmen do, however,
read the newspapers. Coverage of
events like protest marches serve
as an indication of the attitude of
the local press, which is important
to re-election. If a march is
featured on page one with a
photo, it more likely reflects the
public's interest in the issue than
would less symathetic coverage.
Protests also serve more signifi
cant long-term purposes. They
provide group support for shared
feelings, a ventilation for pent-up
anger, and, hopefully, the beginn
ings of a fundamental change in
our value structure.
The real impact of protests,
though, is on people like you and
me, the contributors and voters
(and maybe even Congressper
sons) of the next half century. We
will be the policy-makers during
what may turn out to be the most
crucial time period thus far in the
planet's history — a responsibility
for which we seem poorly equip
ped. Learning to listen to each
other, it seems to me, is an
unavoidable prerequisite for
survival.
The next time you see a protest,
Nott, could you talk to the par
ticipants, ask one or two why they
feel the way they do, or share your
views where you disagree. If you
do, you will be accomplishing far
more than you would by writing a
letter to your Congressman's
machine.
Sherwood Reese
law
Send 'em in
When someone makes a move
of which we don't approve who is
it that always intervenes? The UN
and OAS, they have their place, I
guess, but first, send the U.S.
Marines.
We'll send 'em all we got, John
Wayne and Randolf Scott,
remember those exciting fighting
scenes? To the shores of Tripoli,
but not to Mississippi, what do we
do? We send the Marines.
For might makes right, until
they see the light. They've got to
be protected, all their rights
respected 'til somebody we like
can be elected.
Members of the Corps all hate
the thought of war. They'd rather
kill them off by peaceful means.
Stop calling it aggression, we hate
that expression, we only want the
world to know that we support
the status quo, they love us
everywhere we go. So when in
doubt, send the Marines!
Tom Lehrer
mathematics
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