Oh Brittany How Could You?

                Almost a month ago a 29 year old girl in Oregon named Brittany Maynard sparked off a national debate.  Maynard, who had been diagnosed with glioblastoma in the spring, announced that she was going to take her own life on November 1st.  Now, under Oregon's state laws (known as the Death with Dignity Act), she was perfectly within her rights to do so.  Her mode of operation for this choice was to take a fatal dose of barbiturates, which a doctor had prescribed to her.  The central message of her actions was that she was taking the power away from her disease and putting it in her hands.  She did not want to linger and burden her loved ones with her care or the expenses that would accumulate because of it.  Certainly, a noble and honorable thought....on the surface.

               Now, I really haven't known what to think about this story for some time.  Let me be clear:  I in no way endorse her actions and find them indefensible from both a moral and biblical perspective.  However, having had several friends and family members that have just "hung on" (some for years), I do know the pain (and cost) that comes with watching someone slowly slip away.  Like I said, on the surface, it really does seem like quite a noble and honorable gesture.

               The problem, for me, comes in how young Brittany perceived her choice.  In an article with PEOPLE magazine, Brittany had this to say about her choice to end her own life:

"For people to argue against this choice for sick people really seems evil to me," she told PEOPLE. "They try to mix it up with suicide and that's really unfair, because there's not a single part of me that wants to die. But I am dying."

Now, there are a couple of things that I find unsettling about Brittany's words to the magazine.  First, the use of the word "evil" to describe people arguing over this.  Well, the thing is that as people (not just Christians) we are taught that life is precious.  That's part of the reason why we use words like gift, blessing, or treasure to describe a newborn baby.  That's part of the reason why we go to such lengths (and expenses) to find cures for diseases and injuries for our loved ones.  That's part of the reason why we quit bad habits that could kill us is because life is precious and we want to be around to enjoy it.  I don't think that we can call people arguing over a person's right to live evil, at least not in this instance.  No, to me the word evil comes in at another point in this discussion.

               I'll be completely honest with you, Brittany's words confuse me a bit when she says that it's unfair for people to confuse her choice with suicide.  Now, I understand that she was dying already; I get that.  I understand that the glioblastoma was a medical death sentence.  However, what I don't understand is how this was not suicide.  Suicide is defined as the act of causing one's own death.  The definition doesn't say anything about wanting to die, but that it is when someone causes himself/herself to die.  Well, that's exactly what Brittany did.  Her taking a lethal does of barbiturates was what killed her, a dosage that she knowingly and willingly took.

               My middle child, Thomas, is a smart kid.  Amy and I know that he will grow up and do something great with his life.  At this point, we're guessing something in engineering because that's just how his brain is wired.  However, he only recently turned 4, so there's still a great deal of silly kid left in him.  Every now-and-then this silly kid says things that make sense logically, but really aren't what we're talking about.  We call this "Thomas logic".  Well, the latest example of Thomas logic happened just yesterday.  Thomas came in with a rolled up flash card and was looking through it like a spy glass (they were playing pirates).  I asked Thomas what he was looking through.  He told me that it was a treasure map.  My response, "No son, that's a flashcard that you've just ruined by rolling it up."  He looks at me with as serious of a face as he can and says, "No, it's a treasure map because that's what I'm pretending it is; gosh!"  He then looks to the ceiling and walks out of the room exacerbated with me that I just couldn't get it.

            Now, Amy and I both looked at each other and laughed as Thomas left the room, but that didn't change the fact that I was right.  Now, I acknowledge that in Thomas' mind the flashcard was a treasure map.  However, this was only a matter of imagination.  In reality, the flashcard was still a flashcard regardless of what a playful 4 year old thought it to be.  Brittany's decision to take her own life, regardless of what she may call it, was still a suicide.  There' really no other way to slice it other than to call it what it was.  Yes, those same positive benefits that I talked about earlier with her death no being strung out are there, but it's still a suicide.

               Now, I'm not going to go the route that many have and call it cowardly or anything like that because I haven't been in her shoes.  I have never received that diagnosis that started a countdown on my life.  The problem that I really have with all of this is what it represents in our world today.  You see, Brittany committed suicide (as I think I've pretty well established).  However, she (and many others) are wanting to call it something else.  Many are wanting to call it something wonderful and great when it really isn't.  After all, a precious life was lost because of it.  Regardless of the view that we may take of it, we need are saddened by the death of someone so young.  And that's where I think the term evil is best used.  No, not in Brittany's taking of her life and not even really in her reluctance to call it a suicide, but in the fact that we can't tell anymore what is right and what is wrong.

               You see, that's the way that sin works.  Sin sneaks in and distorts the lines between right and wrong.  Sin comes in and confuses us on whether we should abhor or celebrate something.  Sin pulls us away from God and leads us after earthly desires.  Yes, Brittany's suicide was a sin, just as all murder is a sin (see a sermon I preach on Exodus 20:13 if you want to know my thoughts on murder).  Now, let me also say that there is no such thing as a sin that God cannot forgive.  I don't know Brittany's faith.  I don't know what her relationship with the Lord was like.  For all I know, she could be experiencing the full righteousness of God at this very moment.  That's not what I'm interested in right now.  What I'm interested in is the fact that we have allowed sin to go so unpunished and uninhibited throughout our society for so long that now we just can't tell anymore what's right and what's wrong.  And for that reason, I am truly saddened.

               You see, the serpent in the Garden with very subtle in his trickery of Adam and Eve.  All throughout Scripture, Satan very subtly works his way into the lives of Godly men and women and pulls them away from God.  That's how sin works.  It's always worked that way and will continue to work that way.  You see, we all share something in common with young Brittany:  we too are dying.  Each and every one of us is dying.  Sure, our deaths may not be as rapidly approaching as her death was, but they're still approaching.

               I don't really know the best way to end this post other than to ask you if you know the difference between right and wrong.  If you do, then where have you gotten it from?  Has it come from your own opinions?  Has it come from Scripture?  Has it come from life experiences?  Has it come from somewhere else?  I know that we tend to develop our opinions from a number of different sources, but I want to remind you of one thing when it comes to our sources:  only one is infallible.  There is only one source that we can look to for complete and total truth, and that is God.  So, when you're sitting there trying to decide what's right and wrong, remember that there is only One source of Truth, and it's found in God Almighty.

The Evils of the Ice Bucket Challenge

Ok, so the title of this blog article is a little misleading.  I don't think that there is anything inherently evil with the ice bucket challenge (IBC).  In fact, it's been something that in many regards has been a great blessing to charity and non-profit organizations during this time of decreased giving.  The IBC has caused ALS (Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) research organizations to report record-breaking donations and it's not even the end of the third quarter.  No one can say that any campaign that causes folks to give record-breaking amounts of non-profits or research organizations is a bad things...or can they.

The IBC had been around for a few weeks; social media sites seemed like endless feeds of folks hoping on the bandwagon.  My wife was even one of those folks.  There were endless lists of celebrities, political figures, sports personas, sports teams, and even children accepted the IBC.  Then, there came the nay-sayers.  At first, it was what I like to call the "legitimate complainers".  These were the folks that had a moral (and in many cases biblical) complaint not with the IBC itself, but with the ALS research organizations.  You see, many of these organizations were using embryonic stem cells taken from aborted fetuses in order to find a cure for ALS.  I myself fall into this camp (hence why I probably give this school of thought more legitimacy than the group I will mention later).  I'm all for finding a cure and ending the horrible disease that is just as hard on those around someone diagnosed with ALS as it is the actual person who has it.  However, I am not a proponent of elected abortions.  I'm not in favor of a woman being able to have an abortion simply because she doesn't want to have the child.  I could get into a whole different discussion when it comes to health concerns, but this isn't the place for that and I just don't have the time.  However, what we ended up seeing was that people accepted the IBC, but instead of giving a donation to ALS research, they simply gave to some other institution.  Great!  As long as something charitable was coming out of this it was all good.

Then, after about another week, that's when it happened.  That's when sin (as I see it) really reared its ugly head.  People became tired of the IBC not because of the moral or biblical implications of ALS research, but because they simply got tired of seeing their Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram accounts littered with people pouring ice cold water on their heads.  It was as if people decided that what really mattered wasn't all the good that was being done, but that they wanted their Facebook news feeds back.

You know, sin is a funny thing.  It comes in the most subtle of ways.  Over the past few months, I've been preaching on how here in America, sin comes in the form of comfort:  comfort in our lifestyle, our friends, our surroundings.  We have become comfortable, and therefore we don't seek out the lost or seek the will of God as much because we're just trying not to rock the boat too hard.  It also comes in the form of envy, jealously, sloth, lust, and many other forms that we could keep on listing until our lungs gave out.  But as I sit in my office this morning, I'm reminded that the things that are glorifying to God's kingdom are always going to come under attack.  The things that are good and seek the best for God's children are constantly under fire.  It's like what C.S. Lewis said in his book Mere Christianity about the fact that Satan has nothing to do with something (or someone) that's evil and separated from God because they're already doing what he wants them to do.  It's the things that are being worked out for good that he tries to destroy.  

We are a fallen people who live in a fallen world.  Do I think that there are better uses for clean water than pouring on peoples' heads needlessly?   Absolutely; go ask any third world country (or California for that matter).  Do I think there are better organizations (morally and ethically) than those that use stem cells to try and cure diseases?  Absolutely; that's why we've donated to a different institution.  However, I'm all in favor of seeing things like this be spread across social media sites instead of whatever Miley Cyrus did at the MTV VMA's last night (although I have no clue if she was even there seeing as I didn't watch it).  There's times when we (as humanity as a whole) stumble into something good and seek good instead of evil.  This happens to be one of those times.  There's going to be people who seek to stop all things good, but we (as people and more importantly Christians) have to simply keep our eyes on the cross and continue to strive forward, seeking the will of the Father.

Sin and Mental Illness in Light of the Passing of Robin Williams

I was sitting down at my computer in my office last night before a prayer meeting and checked Facebook real quick.  What I saw on the screen was a post that simply said “wish this one was a hoax” and then it had a picture of Robin Williams underneath the caption.  I clicked on the link quickly and read what happened.  I jumped over to other social media sites, only to see them filled with people paying their respects to and wishing condolences for the passing of this great comedian and actor.  After my meeting, I went home and helped my wife get our kids in bed.  Once they were asleep, we sat down and watched some television; me, Amy, and my mother-in-law (who is here helping us out during the first week of school).

I guess the news channels were feeling overly saturated on the various pockets of chaos in the Middle East, because every single one of them was running some type of special on Robin Williams.  We decided to watch one of them just to see some of the things that people were choosing to say about this man and his passing.  They pointed out his career highs.  They pointed out his awards.  They pointed out how many generations he had impacted with his work.  As a kid, I grew up watching Mork and Mindy reruns at my grandmother’s house as they replayed on Nick at Night.  On long car trips, one of the few movies that I used to watch on the small VHS TV we took with us was Mrs. Doubtfire.  When I was a teenager, Good Will Hunting was one of the most popular movies.  As I got older, I found myself coming to love movies like Good Morning, Vietnam and Dead Poets Society.  As a parent, my kids (and wife) know almost every line that Robin Williams’ character Genie has in the movie Aladdin.  There was a part of me (like many other folks last night and this morning) who felt like they lost a member of their family.  I felt like somehow I had lost a distant uncle last night; one that had a pretty substantial impact upon my life and especially my childhood.

However, during the media coverage, they also pointed out his lows.  They pointed out his cocaine addiction during the 80’s.  They pointed out his sobriety and the strides that he had made in that regard.  They pointed out how he had been such an advocate for seeking help and was even in the midst of a sort of “maintenance” stent in rehabilitation.  They also spoke of his depression.  They spoke of the darkness that existed within him that sought his destruction, even though all most people saw was the happy and jovial outside persona.  This darkness within him, ultimately, is what would claim his life.

Now, Williams’ wasn’t an overly religious man.  He was raised as an Episcopalian in Chicago by a devout Christian father and a Christian Scientist mother.  Williams would often make jokes about religion, but always did acknowledge the existence of God.  Now, I don’t want to turn this into a religious discussion right now because that’s not what it should be.  This is a tragedy, a tragedy brought on by mental illness.  Mental illness is real and there is no point in saying that it isn’t.  Having close friends and family members who have struggled with mental illness, I know that sometimes it isn’t something that can just be overcome with more effort and more prayer.  I know that there are times when therapy, treatment, and medicine are needed.  However, I don’t think that a complete answer to overcoming mental illness can be found without prayer.  I think that many times it’s the right combination of treatment and faith that gives us the strength to overcome mental illness.

Now, I’m going to be kind of religious the rest of the way, so if you don’t want to go down that road then please stop reading and just remember the man that passed away last night for the brilliant genius (yes, I know that’s repetitive) that he was.  In Scripture, people who suffered from mental illness were seen as being possessed by some sort of demonic spirit (for example:  Mark 5:1-20).  We see that the power to overcome such spirit comes from God and God alone.  However, I don’t want to focus on the power to overcome it as much as I do the source of it.

If the source of mental illness in Jesus’ day was demonic possession, if it found it’s origins in Satan, then why can’t that be the case today too?  Well, the answer (I think) is that it still is the case.  The answer is that it is sin.  Mental illness is a result of sin.  Now I’m not saying that you did something bad and that God punished you with an illness.  That’s a foolish and inaccurate understanding of how God (and sin) works.  No, sin is a force that seeks to pull us away from God.  Sin is anything that seeks our destruction and separation from God.  Sin is a tool of Satan used to drive a wedge between us and our Creator to bring about our demise.

God gave Robin Williams a beautiful gift.  He gave him the gift of comedy.  It was a gift very similar to the likes of John Belushi and Chris Farley who went before him.  It was a gift similar to what men like Jim Carrey and Frank Caliendo still enjoy today.  There’s no denying that God gave these men (to various degrees) the ability to transform themselves into characters that could make us cry with laughter.  It truly is a beautiful thing.  However, the presence of sin seeks nothing but the destruction of the beautiful things of God.  It comes in the form of temptation, drug use, or even in the form of mental illness. 

Now all of this being said, when mental illness comes about in someone’s life, I’m a huge advocate of seeking help.  I’m a huge advocate of seeking professional attention.  I’m a huge advocate of getting the proper medication when it’s needed.  As a pastor, I’m often called on to counsel people who are going through emotional problems.  One of the great pieces of advice that I was given some time ago was to never try and work someone through a problem with mental illness when they need professional help.  It’s like trying to build a house when you don’t know how to, but you know what it’s supposed to look like.  It’s never going to work and the end result is going to be even more tragic than if you would have done nothing at all.

However (and this is where many won’t like this whole argument), I don’t think that one can truly overcome mental illness without God.  I think that medicines help.  I think that therapy helps.  I think that programs help, but I don’t think that they have the power to overcome it.  If God was the only one with the power to drive out this sin in the Old Testament, then how could that have changed today?  If God is the only one who has the power to forgive sins, then how could it be any different today?  The answer is that it can’t and it hasn’t.

If you know someone who is struggling with mental illness; get them help.  Get them serious and professional help.  However, don’t neglect the faith aspect of their health either.  It’s only when we have the balance proper treatment and the only One who has the power to overcome sin that we can truly hope to overcome mental illness.