The Church and the Aged: A Covenant of Caring
By Jason Patrick, Ph. D. Candidate, Religion Baylor University
Bioethics might sound like an area of study that has little relevance to the local church. After all, issues concerning genetic engineering and environmental legislation might find interest in the Sunday School classes of affluent churches filled with professionals, but do these issues ever cross the minds of the majority of Christians? Over the past several decades, however, bioethics has begun to address issues that receive a great deal of attention in all churches. Abortion, euthanasia, and the AIDS crisis have nearly made "bioethics" a household word. Another issue has surfaced in quite a different way that extends the relevancy of bioethics even further. The Greek word bios means "life." Whereas, life has previously been defined as biological vitality, a new awareness of aspects of life has shifted the focus away from quantitative to qualitative qualifications of life.
This transition allows life to be viewed more holistically. Life is no longer solely determined by a functioning heart and brain activity, both biological elements, but also by emotional, spiritual, and other aspects of life. These aspects are no longer viewed as secondary elements belonging to the primacy of the physically functioning body. These aspects together form what we call the human life.[1]
The transition toward viewing human life holistically informs the church`s ethic toward the aging. The aging, viewed strictly through a lens of biological vitality, become failures to those who value human life in a utilitarian sense. The church`s elderly are found in nursing homes where they are rarely visited and also alone in the pews on Sunday morning, while other pews are filled with families. The family members of the elderly have either died, moved far away, or simply avoid their matriarchs and patriarchs.
If the value of human life is not based solely upon physical health and biological vitality, the church must radically re-examine its treatment of aged members. The church is in dire need of a new bioethic for and toward the elderly. Melvin Kimble acknowledges this need through his examination of paradigm shifts in the field of gerontology. First, he notes that "agedness" was given a biomedical definition based solely upon the physical health of the individual. Second, a psycho-social tendency attached itself to the biomedical stage. The psycho-social stage of gerontology did not replace the biomedical but, instead, associated certain psychological and societal aspects that were a part of the decline of physical health. Kimble now recognizes and calls for a "hermeneutical paradigm" in which both young and old engage one another in seeking the purposes of survival.[2]
To better understand the lives of the elderly, I offer two descriptions of individuals that represent the most common manner in which the church overlooks its aged members.
Rayford is 83 years old. His health is poor. As he describes it, "I can`t get no circulation." This might be an apt diagnosis. Rayford`s hands are purple. After sitting in the church pew for an hour, it takes him several minutes to be able to stand and walk because his legs have become numb. He smiles and laughs as younger members of the church greet him and visit with him, but during the week Rayford spends most of his time alone in his home. He leaves his house every morning and drives across town to visit his wife, Mamie, in the nursing home. Mamie has Alzheimers, rarely remembers Rayford, and has begun to lose the mental capacity for her motor skills. In his most honest moments, Rayford admits that he wishes that God would just go ahead and take him and Mamie both right now.
Eighty-nine year old Dolores, coincidentally, lives in the room next door to Mamie. She is a member of the same church as Rayford and Mamie. Dolores has been in the nursing home for 6 months. She is beginning to suffer a great deal of short term memory loss. She knows the few friends and family members that choose to visit her, but within an hour she has forgotten their visit. She spends a lot of time talking of going back to her home, but those who visit her know this will never happen. She also wishes more of her friends would visit her, and she makes excuses for why they cannot come: " They`re too old to drive. This place would depress them. They don`t want to see me like this, and I can`t blame them." Dolores asks her pastor if she`ll ever get to come back to church, and the best answer he can manage is, "maybe."
William May remarks that the American culture is an "oddity" for treating the elderly and the dying as synonymous.[3] The elderly are treated as a social pariah. Rather than being seen as a part of the family or a vital part of a circle of friends, they are put in a room in the midst of a long hallway surrounded by people in their condition, better conditions, and worse conditions.
What causes younger people to treat the aged as outsiders? Monica Furlong suggests that younger people are made uncomfortable by the emotions of the elderly as they reflect upon a life that nears its end.[4] Rather than working through the discomfort with the possibility of gaining insight into the meaning of life from one near the end of life, younger people flee from the inconvenience of an encounter with the elderly.
David Maitland recognizes a complicated element in the outsidership of the elderly. They are outsiders, but they were previously the insiders. The social system that now excludes them once brought about their own self-fulfillment.[5] This ironic characteristic causes younger people to silence the voice of the aged, and with feelings of guilt or obligation, the elderly often remain willingly silent.
Logistically, the number of elderly in proportion to younger people will continue to increase. The possibilities of children providing care for their parents will decrease, thus pushing the elderly further to the outside. Nursing homes already represent the exclusion of the aged from the rest of society. America`s nursing homes are a "national disgrace because they are overwhelmed, understaffed, and heavily criticized for the level of care they provide."[6] Nursing home overpopulation and diminished care will continue to increase and thus depersonalize the aged even more unless something happens to change current trends. John Lindquist suggests that the church as well as other communities of faith are one possible remedy to the present and worsening tragedy.[7] If the church does possess the ability to better this situation of the elderly, what can it do? Perhaps a good place to begin to is to explore what the church`s scriptures communicate to us about the elderly.
The Bible and the Aged
In the Bible, particularly the Old Testament, old age is a blessing. To die "full of years" is the fondest wish of biblical characters.[8] Zechariah 8:4-5 shares a vision of the new kingdom of God in which those of old age sit on the streets of the New Jerusalem. They carry canes, but the youthful children play around them. The elderly are respected members of this new society. Interestingly, in such prophetic passages the benefits of old age are never "explained;" they are "assumed."[9] The prophets share other such concerns for the elderly. Isaiah 46:4 reads, "To your old age I am the one who will look after you; to gray hair, I will carry you, I myself have created you and will lift you up; I myself will carry you and deliver you."[10]
The most venerated role posited to the elderly can be found in the book of Proverbs. Old age and wisdom are synonymous. Proverbs 22:17-24:22 contains a vast collection of sayings that instruct the young to obey their elders and to always deal wisely with the elderly. Negatively the same assertion is made in Proverbs 30:17, where the young are scolded for their foolishness if they do not "heed the education of the elderly."[11]
J. Gordon Harris comments on two Hebrew words found throughout the Old Testament that define the relationship children should have with their parents, youth with the aged. Kibbud describes the duty a child has to act as the "body servant" in taking care of the parents` needs, and the child is to have no aim of attaining a reward. The other word, mora`, insists that the child never attempt to take their parents` place nor act in a contradictory manner toward their parents. Although both these words function in the relationship between parent and child, their implications for wider community relationships between younger persons and the elderly is inherent within the passages. Ancient Israel was not composed of individual families so much as a community of which families were a part-the community had grandfathers just as much as a family has a grandfather.
The book of Deuteronomy illustrates that Israel`s reverent treatment for the elderly was much more than custom; it was covenant. Deuteronomy 10:18; 14:29; and 24:17 all demand that the elderly be cared for, and such covenant prescriptions are manifest in the care that is needed by and given to Naomi in the book of Ruth. As a widow with no sons, Naomi has no care-giver, but she is not pushed to the outside. Through her daughter-in-law Ruth`s remarriage to Boaz, Naomi too is blessed.[12]
The biblical evidences for a high regard for the aged extends into the New Testament. 1 Timothy 5:3-8 explains both the precarious condition of widows in the community of faith, and the church`s responsibility to care for them. Harris argues that the New Testament represents a benchmark in the entire corpus of Hellenistic literature: "Old age is glorified. Children existed to care for the psychological and physical needs of aging parents" as they themselves become aging parents.[13]
As the New Testament undergoes further interpretation in the early church, the Apostolic Fathers viewed God`s intention for human life as continuing to an age of "ripeness." Here life does not end but enters a "consummation of new life with God."[14] The earthly life reaches this "ripeness" through living a life of significance and contribution to the wider society. However, the New Testament also raises another issue pertaining to a bioethical view of the elderly. William May states that the New Testament ethic exemplifies the "moral responsibility of the subordinate."[15] The younger people have power and, therefore, a responsibility for the aged. However, the elderly also have responsibilities to younger persons. By giving subordinate persons ethical responsibilities, Jesus` teachings raise the downtrodden, such as the elderly, to a position of power. They too have the privilege and responsibility of making decisions. This insight into the reciprocity of ethics between the young and the old yields greater understanding to the relationship between ministry and the elderly. The elderly are not only to be ministered unto, but they are also to remain active ministers.
The Elderly and the Ministry of the Church
David Oliver writes that the Church should not think primarily of ministry for or to the elderly but ministry with the elderly and even ministry from the elderly.[16] Oliver does underscore some practical elements of reciprocal ministry available to both younger and older persons in the Christian community-phone calls and visitations are modes of ministry that will always bring mutual benefit to both the elderly and younger persons.
As younger people in the church seek to fulfill the ministry of acknowledging and giving thanks for the continuing "livelihood" of the elderly, they must be aware of both the duty and boundaries of that ministry. Jeffrey Watson points out that the church has primarily failed by treating the aged apathetically through avoiding them. However, Watson also underscores another danger present in those Christians who do seek to minister to the elderly.[17] Often times, younger people feign a sympathy with the elderly. Sympathy for the elderly from the young borders on sentimentality. Watson encourages empathy, an attitude that seeks to enter into the experience of the elderly while simultaneously admitting the limitations of "second-hand" experience.[18]
As younger persons enter into an empathetic ministry to the aged, older persons might be able to regain awareness of their vitality and the meaning their lives have for the wider community. In fact, many of the elderly who suffer the worst pains of aging often request assisted suicide, not because of the physical pain they are enduring but the emotional anguish.[19] The emotional pains of old age often consist of depression and the guilt of being a burden on family and friends. Many of the elderly who have made requests for assisted suicide have later experienced a ministry that addresses the underlying causes for their feelings of depression and guilt. These ministries emphasize the continued value and need of the elderly for the community of faith.
However, for younger people to be effective ministers to the elderly, the issues that have caused younger people to treat their elders as outsiders must be addressed. Ben Johnson rightly states that younger people fail in ministering to the elderly because of fear.[20] The elderly are understood as those who are dying or at least nearer to death than younger people; and when younger people spend time with older people, youth is confronted with the reality that they too will face death. For younger people to be effective ministers they must address their own inadequacies, thus realizing the inevitability of death, and finding from the elderly inestimable wisdom concerning that reality. Another word of caution given by Oliver is that communities of faith should not become too narrow in having specific ministries to the elderly.[21] The elderly are still a part of the community of faith and are, therefore, always a part of the ministerial vision of the church as is everyone in the community regardless of age. Oliver`s point further stresses that ministry in the church cannot be only to the elderly, but that there is a ministry to be received from the elderly.
Tim Stafford remarks that "if the paths to heaven and hell diverge visibly on earth, they begin to split in the nursing home."[22] Stafford`s comment distinguishes between the elderly who have retained their identity as ministers despite the challenges of old age and those who have grown bitter and despondent because of their old age. In this latter category, Stafford is certainly not including the aged who express bitterness and despondency because of severe mental deterioration. In seeking to be empathetic with the elderly, younger persons do not cast aside the hope that they might receive from the elderly the ministry of wisdom gained through life experience. Kimble describes this aspect of growing old as an "achievement" that lends a "transcendent element," communicating the meaning of life to younger generations.[23] The ministry younger persons receive from the elderly puts aspects of life into a perspective that might otherwise be unimaginable. Orlo Strunk describes old age as the period of life when an appreciation for smaller things is absolutely sincere: "Instead of pretending like the pretty bird outside the window matters, the pretty bird really does add something to the meaning of life!"[24]
Ann Belford Ulanov articulates the journey experienced by the elderly, and, thus, why older persons are able to be such effective ministers.
Aging brings home to us what we have done or failed to do with our lives, our creativity or our waste, our openness to zealous hiding from what really matters. Precisely at this point, age cracks us open, sometimes for the first time, makes us aware of the center, makes us look for it in relation to it. Aging does not mark an end but rather a beginning of making sense of end questions, so that life can have an end in every sense of the word.[25]
Growing old with dignity and humility is in and of itself a powerful ministry. Stafford remembers this ministry in his grandfather: After suffering a severe stroke, "grandfather" still made it to church. He was not able to sing the hymns as he once had. His words often sounded like "gibberish." Though his words were no longer eloquent, his face continued to carry both eloquence and love.[26]
A Christian bioethic toward the aging must first recognize the manner in which the church has excluded its older members. A bioethical response acknowledges the continued vitality of the elderly in at least two ways. First, physical livelihood has decreased, and the majority of time this leads to some measure of emotional distress. Second, the vitality of the elderly continues as a gift to younger persons. The church must value and embrace the gifts older persons can offer to the wider community.
The theological insights of the elderly might be the church`s most insightful experiences of God. Contrary to popular thought, we do not learn and then live. We learn while living. A "well-spring of theology awaits the younger generation of the church."[27] These theologians and saints can be found wheeling themselves down the halls of nursing homes or on Sunday morning sitting alone in a pew that used to be shared with a spouse and children. They have much to offer to the community of faith, and the community of faith must adhere to its covenant to care for them.
Endnotes
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[1] Daniel McGee, lecture, Baylor University, 10 September 2002. The focus of the lecture was the transition from compartmentalizing aspects of life to the holistic treatment of the human person.
[2] Melvin A. Kimble, "Beyond the Biomedical Paradigm: Generating a Spiritual Vision of Aging," in Journal of Religion Gerontology 12, no. 1 (2001): 32-3.
[3] William F. May, "A Clue to the American Character: Who Cares for the Aged?" in Christianity Today 28 (5 October 1984): 39.
[4] Monica Furlong, "A Spirituality for the Aging?" Reflections on Aging and Spiritual Growth, Andrew Weaver, Harold Koenig, and Phyllis Roe, eds. (Nashville: Abingdon: 1998), 43-4.
[5] David J. Maitland, Aging as Counterculture (New York: The Pilgrim Press, 1991), 143.
[6] John H. Lindquist, "Prognosis for the Future: Looking at the Past," in Journal of Religion and Aging 3 (Fall-Winter 1986): 116.
[7] Ibid., 117.
[8] Tim Stafford, "The Old Age Heresy," in Christianity Today 35 (16 September 1991): 31.
[9] Ibid.
[10] Translation from J. Gordon Harris, Biblical Perspectives on Aging: God and the Elderly (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1987), 115.
[11] Translation Harris, 35.
[12] Ibid., 15.
[13] Ibid., 75.
[14] Catherine Gunsalus-Gonzalez, "An Historical Perspective on the Church and the Elderly," Gerontology in Theological Education, Barbara Payne and Earl D. C. Brewer, eds. (New York: The Haworth Press, 1989), 64.
[15] May, 41. May`s discussion relies heavily on John Yoder`s treatment of Jesus` ethics.
[16] David B. Oliver, "Reflections on the Role of the Church, Synagogue or Parish in Developing Effective Ministries with Older Persons," in Journal of Religious Gerontology 12, no. 2 (2001): 38.
[17] Jeffrey A. Watson, The Courage to Care (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1972), 170.
[18] Ibid.
[19] Gary Thomas, "Deadly Compassion," in Christianity Today 41 (16 June 1997): 16.
[20] Ben C. Johnson, "Spirituality and the Later Years," Gerontology in Theological Education, Barbara Payne and Earl D. C. Brewer, eds. (New York: The Haworth Press, 1989), 138.
[21] Oliver, 38.
[22] Stafford, 31.
[23] Kimble, 36.
[24] Orlo C. Strunk, "Positive Spins on Bad Ideas," Reflections on Aging and Spiritual Growth, Andrew Weaver, Harold Koenig, and Phyllis Rose, eds. (Nashville Abingdon, 1998), 99-100.
[25] Ann Belford Ulanov, "Aging: On the Way to One`s End," Ministry with the Aging, W. Clements, ed. (New York: Harper and Row, 1981), 122.
[26] Stafford, 31.
[27] William L. Hendricks, A Theology for the Aging (Nashville: Broadman, 1986), 253.
