A Very Long Shadow
By Jerry W. Reeves, Chaplain (Ret.)
Lincoln, TX
There is a very long shadow casting its grip across Washington, D. C. these days. No, it is not the long, thin line of the Washington monument. Nor is it the selfish, evil shadow of the greedy lobbyists, as they vacuum their puppets in the offices of Congress and the White House for the profit of their wealthy, corrupt benefactors. It`s not even the shadow of a small Cessna nearing the White House.
It is the shadow of the Vatican.
Now before you mount your cavalry and come looking for a catholiphobic Baptist preacher, you might consider that this author has always had very warm feelings for John XXIII, both while he was alive and to this day. Pope John saved the Roman Church from itself by opening its windows, letting fresh air and cleansing light into the Church. Vatican II let the Spirit of God dance in Roman churches around the world with results that still demonstrate themselves right now.
It maybe would be good to also know that Mother Theresa is one of my heroes, and that Francis of Assisi is my role model for what it means to be a real pastor. So you would do well to hold your breath and keep on reading. Hollering right now is like a squirrel dog barking up the wrong tree-lots of noise and wasted air!
Behind all the squawking about stem cell research is some history that probably few on either side have considered. It is a theological issue called cosmology.[1] The term is from two Greek words that literally mean, "a word about the cosmos"-the study of creation.
The problem is that the cosmology of the Roman Catholic Church is built on a pre-scientific understanding of the universe. This is why the church has had knock-down, drag-out battles with scientists since the Dark Ages. The doctrine of "Natural Law" was formulated by the Catholic church, more for law than for an accurate understanding of nature. With egg on its face, the church finally had to admit that the earth was not flat and that the earth is not the center of the solar system. The real issue was the control of people`s thoughts and behaviors, not scientific truth.
Ponder this. I am not a scientist, but I have been told by scientific authorities that every little girl is born with 200,000 eggs. Sexually mature boys produce 100 sperm with every second-hand tick of the clock. Obviously God intended in creation for every woman to have 200,000 kids, correct? That`s obvious, because he put that many eggs inside her in creating each female life. Why are we not following nature`s law?
When I hear some "learned" representative rise and sanctimoniously pontificate, "I believe that human life begins at conception," I want to rise and answer: "Well, duh!"
If every egg and every sperm are that valuable, then why are we not monitoring every woman`s menstrual cycle and every little boy who might masturbate, so we can protect these precious commodities? Or maybe that`s the 1984 that the president is 20 years late delivering on? And even more frightening, maybe that`s his desired future?
No. The reductio ad absurdum[2] above is intended to show just how stupid some people can be, and how ignorant Americans in general have become with regard to history, especially the specialized field of church history.
So this whole problem is an issue of theology, and the villain is the Vatican, who wants its creepy, crawly little fingers on the levers of government?[3] Again, the answer is "No."
The problem is one of morally bankrupt politicians, too concerned about getting re-elected and who try to please their socially bankrupt constituency, so they can play their little control games. They don`t have any care or concern about suffering humanity. And in ironic hypocrisy raised exponentially, they wave the flags of "family," "family values," "ethics and morality," etc.
Jesus was castigated for healing on the Sabbath. Were he here in the flesh today, I can easily imagine him saying to the descendents of his tormentors, "Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. You who turn down up and up down, right to left and left to right, truth to lies and lies to truth. I will remember every one of my `little ones` who could have been helped but for your stone-cold-hard hearts. Drowning yourself in the deepest hole in the Pacific will not protect you. I will come get you, and you will answer to me."
How in God`s Holy Name can one claim to know the Jesus I know and be more concerned about a few cells in a Petri dish (which will be destroyed anyway), requiring a microscope to even see, than a real, live, flesh and blood human being who has Alzheimers, Parkinsons, or Lou Gehrigs disease-or cancer, diabetes, and only the Lord knows how many other diseases that might be cured or at the least made treatable by this research?
Now I must go outside. I just saw a huge shadow here in central Texas. I need to see if the earth is still rotating around the sun. But one never knows in this state. The Texas legislature has just been in session, and the textbooks may have been corrected to read the sun orbits around the earth!
Kyrie Eliason (Lord have mercy) on all of us!
[1] It really did not surprise me to find that even in my new 2005 computer Windows 2003 Word dictionary said: "No results were found."
[2] To carry out to its logical absurdity.
[3] They indeed do, as well as a deep-dip hand in the US Treasury. They are just like fundamentalist Baptists and others who are just as ignorant of the importance of Jefferson`s "Wall of Separation."
© 2005 Jerry W. Reeves.
