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Focus
Focus is the bi-monthly magazine of Brislington United Reformed Church.
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Pastoral Letter
January 2007
"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you
…"(Jer. 1:5) |
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Our new granddaughter arrived a few days before Christmas three weeks before her expected birth date. We were overjoyed but less than happy when she was back in hospital a few days later having lost weight. Thankfully she is out of hospital now and doing well but it made me think just how fragile life is. As Christians we recognise the sanctity of life as something God given and which we receive with thanks and gratitude. Yet how different it was for Saddam Hussein who met his end in such an undignified manner just a few short weeks ago. This is not the place to discuss the rights and wrongs of capital punishment or to comment on the affairs of a sovereign state that carried it out. Mine is a more general comment that the taking of any life in cold blood is not only repugnant but conflicts with biblical teaching.
The book of Genesis paints a picture of God creating human life as the crowning glory of creation fanned into life by the very breath from his own body. It is a touching picture that illustrates the personal relationship between God and humankind; it also emphasises humankind’s dependence on God who formed us, provides for us, loves us and expects us to honour him by treating others with dignity and respect. Human beings are of a different order than animals and gifted with higher intelligence as befitting those given the responsibility of administering earth’s precious resources. Genesis sums it up by saying that God created humankind in his own image. This does not mean that we look like God but that we share his characteristics i.e. we can think, reason, investigate, create, solve problems and make decisions in a way that animals cannot – this is what sets us apart within creation.
Yet life is increasingly becoming a commodity to be tampered with as researcher’s dictate. Scientists say this is vital if diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s are to be eliminated and of course we have sympathy with this argument. But in resent days scientists have been lobbying for permission to experiment on animal eggs (probably from a cow) filled with human, genetic material to carry out stem cell research. However, this raises at least two concerns. First, it blurs the distinction between animals and humans and second, it reduces the embryo to a commodity rather than to a potential human life. In 1984 the Warnock Committee, set up to examine human embryology, sidestepped the question of when life begins (whether at conception or sometime later) but did set a limit of fourteen days after which it is illegal to experiment on an embryo. However, a dissenting minority did acknowledge the wrongness of creating something that had the potential to become a human person and then to deliberately destroy it. As Christians we would probably go further and acknowledge that as life is a gift from God an embryo is a “person on the way.”
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However, as with many ethical questions of today people are divided on the issues and we are likely to be so too. So perhaps a more helpful question might be: “just because we have the technology to do something should we still do it?”
Again, not an easy question to answer. In the search for a cure for some of the most distressing diseases of today it is a fine line between what is acceptable, what is in the spirit of the Bible and what gives life the reverence and dignity that God intended and which it, therefore, rightly deserves.
In Jesus’ name
Derek Marsh January 2007
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"Derek Marsh Assembly Accredited
Lay Preacher" |
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