Schiavo again briefly; perspective on tragedy in Sumatra

Getting the process right--that's the real question for most of us in Terri's case. And let's stay firm in prayer for Indonesia!

Terri Schiavo's case has dominated conservative blogs and talk radio lately. I've been leery of some of what I've heard. A blogger at Christdot stated the problem this way: "once again, Americans have taken a very complex issue and made it binary." (There's some interesting discussion there.)

In one sense, it certainly is a binary issue. The feeding tube had to be in or out.

The least helpful discussions I've seen are those that say, "she's not in a persistent vegetative state," or "Michael Schiavo is evil," or similar things--in other words, comments that claim to know the true facts of the case. Only a few people can possibly know the whole story; only a few doctors are qualified to speak to her prognosis. Others who try are embarrassing themselves, frankly.

The most helpful discussions are those that have focused on the process. Have we given her the rights of due process? That's a public matter, and the world can comment on it. I wish I could be more confident in how we've made these decisions; I wish we could be more confident in the courts.

Meanwhile, I'm so sad about the tragedy that has struck Sumatra once again. I went through a pair of earthquakes while living in a California mountain town in 1992. The first was magnitude 7.6*, about 20 miles from my home; the second, three hours later, struck very close to our home and measured 6.7. We had to clear a path through our home with a snow shovel afterward--everything was on the floor. Our stone chimney cracked and had to be taken down. It took weeks to get the hole repaired (we covered it with plywood and a tarp in the meantime).

The worst thing was the aftershocks, and knowing it could happen again at any time. One aftershock was strong enough to knock a home off its foundation. I said at the time, "It's like having an invisible person following you with a stick, who hits you in the back of the knees every once in a while. Some of the whacks are light, some of them are hard, but you always know one's coming." Along with everything else they are dealing with in Sumatra and Indonesia, you can be sure they are feeling incredible anxiety. If you can't trust the ground you walk on, what can you trust? They need our prayers and our financial help.

I laugh at one thing that happened during our post-earthquake weeks. I thought I would sing a praise song to remind me that God was in control, and he would take care of us. So I started to sing one of my favorite hymns:

I sing the mighty power of God
Who made the mountains rise...

And I stopped right there, and thought, "now why did I have to go and remind myself again of mountains jumping around!"

The lesson in the end was, no, there's nothing on earth I can really, always, trust--but God is faithful in all things, even more than a solid mountain.

*There are conflicting Richter numbers. I got these from an end-of-year (1992) L.A. Times article that said these were the updated, corrected numbers.

Posted: Tue - March 29, 2005 at 08:00 AM |

Thinking Christian by Tom Gilson getCategoryName("<$CategoryUUID$>");

Schiavo again briefly; perspective on tragedy in Sumatra

Thinking Christian by Tom Gilson