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Is it right? Would God approve?
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It's important to note that God never makes exceptions. Not for Moses when he struck the rock, or David with Bathsheba, or Adam with the apple, or anyone else for that matter. Never. His word is iron. It is law.
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But in those cases, the sinner was able to find forgiveness for his sin. He was able to seek God and be saved again. Moses is even in heaven. So what does that say? In sin, "even there does grace much more abound." We're able to sin and be saved. Right? So this sin can be saved. I can be redeemed for what I am thinking about doing, right?
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But God is not there to be used like an old rag, to clean up my mess and be thrown away. The unpardonable sin is rejecting his grace. But I should think that tantamount to that would be throwing myself away and expecting him to understand.
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When do two wrongs make a right?
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Dilemma: the presentation of two impossible choices.
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Saint Augustine had a good point: I can't control anyone else's actions. So if I were to put myself on the line, I could only claim that I killed myself. I haven't saved anyone. I haven't changed anything. I have only committed suicide, as surely as if I put the gun against my head with my own hand.
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So do I obey God's rigid laws and the unthinkable consequences? Or do I follow the spirit, not the letter, and risk a life to save a life? Is it alright to do the wrong thing for the right reasons?
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It isn't right to do the right thing for the wrong reasons. If I were to go on a mission trip just so I could see Guatemala, I wouldn't be commended, even though I work on a church. The good is incidental. And the fact that I know all of these things, these horrible, horrible truths, makes the decision I have before me harder, not easier. If I were ignorant of all this, I would choose to throw myself in a heartbeat. It's not fair.
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Fair? Really? I'm choosing to think of fairness right now? Should I not just instead choose to think of other impossibilities, such as Superman swooping in to save us? Or perhaps that their guns are in fact water pistols? Fair. Fairness evaporated at about the time the serpent first spotted Eve. I should be thinking of something
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anything
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else
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except that my love
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wife
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soul
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is about to be shot
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because I can't tell the man to shoot me instead.
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I should just close my eyes.
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St. Augustine:
ReplyDeletemotive can play an important role of the moral goodness/evilness of a choice: motive by who you are, who you are guides your understanding of God's will
two wills: your will is not the only one at fault. For example, the terrorist's will has more power, he is more morally culpable. However, you can only control what you have control of. Therefore, should you do a bad thing to stop a bad thing or not? Just don't do the bad thing. For you, it is the morally right thing. And that's all you can control. So don't try to manipulate another person into doing something right by doing something wrong yourself. That's throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
I have heard a lot of this sort of dialogue in my head before. Seeing it in this made me feel as if I'd stepped around a corner of a maze and found a meadow there, with daisies.
ReplyDeleteThis reminds me of an episode of "Adventures in Odyssey" in which they play a game that matches up actions and motives under the categories of "right" and "wrong" (like one person says Uzzah was "right/right" but he was really "wrong/wrong"). I figure it deserves mention because it always comes up in my head when I listen to a discussion about motive.
The stuff about what you can control is very Stoic, but I like your Christian twist.
I went on a mission trip to Guatemala, so this was especially meaningful to me.
Last thing, and I promise I'll stop painting everything with the idiocy of this early-morning explosion: WHY DID YOU NOT FINISH BY SAYING WHAT HAPPENED? IT'S PREYING ON MY MIND. I KNOW IT'S POWERFUL THE WAY YOU DID IT (REALLY, IT IS) BUT I NEED TO GO TO SLEEP NOW AND ALL I CAN SEE IS THIS SCENE IN MY HEAD.
Okay. Goodnight.
This may have absolutely nothing to do with your scenario. But I'm in Canada and nobody here carries handguns, or they are instantly incarcerated; and we were talking about how different it is with my friend's Canadian mom. So I think it's funny that you wrote about this.
ReplyDeleteBut I like our way better. I like carrying a concealed weapon. But then the question arises, could you actually shoot somebody if your life was at stake? Truly, if you were going to die if you didn't take another life, what would your choice be?
Personally, I don't know if I rate my life that high. A lot of the others here don't know either. But I do know, that if somebody I loved was in that position, that I would pull the trigger with no hesitation. And it wouldn't be with intent to injure, either. Nobody hurts my family.
So I guess this ungodly long comment was to say, that if I was in that position, I don't think I'd care about consequences. I'd do whatever it took to save them.
And I also think you need to follow up with how the story ends. Or a new story altogether, maybe from her perspective. I really liked how you did this. Really really.
I do like the cliffhanger at the end, because it leaves the conclusion up to the reader. In my conclusion, he moves in front of his wife and ends up dying to save her, while the gunman retreats, as murder was not his original plan, and he does not want things to escalate further. In someone elses scenario, he might shoot up the whole family, who knows. although I have to agree with Lyssa. If it comes down to me dying or someone else, I will likely choose myself, but when it comes to shooting someone else, I think I could only do it if it was to protect someone else, though my primary goal would be that EVERYONE, including the guy/girl threatening people, come out alive. Part of that is just the fact that I dont like guns. I've shot them before and I just don't like that feeling. swords I'm okay with lol, but for some reason not guns.
ReplyDeleteI like your line about God not being a dish rag. It made me think of when the Monkey King from American Born Chinese tries to out run the hand of God, and he reaches the five pillars outside the realm of reality, and he pees on them. Then he travels back, and learns that those pillars were God's fingers.
ReplyDeleteNicely done.
If I were in a situation where it was me or my wife/child/parent/loved one, and they presented me a choice, I would just not make one.
ReplyDeleteTo choose that they shoot my wife would be murder. To choose that they shoot me would be suicide. Both are morally wrong.
I would naturally prefer that they shoot me, of course. But I can't control what they do.
And the same goes for defending myself. I can't take a human life. I wouldn't want to, and if I accidentally did, I would vomit until there was nothing left inside me but sadness. Janelle asked if I would defend myself against a dragon. It depends. Is the dragon sentient?
If so; then no. I would not kill a dragon. It's the same as killing a person. If it were a dumb beast, yes. I would kill a bear if it were trying to kill me; why not a dragon?
This whole post wanted to be a clean situation in which to examine what I would say in situation x.
I can write the end if you want, but it won't be uplifting; only sad.
I'll try, maybe. I'll listen to this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nrI2ttkM-U
to get me in the spirit of it.
But not making a choice is a choice, isn't it?
ReplyDeleteI don't know; whenever I think about guns in America, I remember that the fact that pretty much EVERYBODY had guns in 1700s America was why so many buffalo and Native Americans died and also why we won the American Revolution.
The trouble with gun laws is if you disarm the public, you may only be disarming the law-abiding people who could keep the criminals in check.
I'm not saying I want a gun or anything, but . . . I can't say I condemn the people who do.
Brooke: I really super adore your comment and that is an excellent book!
Oh, and Robby: don't write more unless you think it's important. Despite that, that music you're listening to is quite beautiful (haunting). Thanks.
Oh, it's not suicide to die for somebody else. Remember? It's the greatest example of love that God says we can possibly have.
ReplyDeleteHm.
ReplyDeleteHowever, you can't guarantee with your death that she will be saved. The thugs in the scenario might just kill her too (I mean, with one death at their hands do you really think they're squeamish about raising the bodycount?)
My whole thought is that you can't control the other people's actions. I mean, if you were tied up in a burning building and untied the other person first, that wouldn't be suicide. (control of all variables--you and her)
It's because of the direction of choice. In one scenario, you're choosing the destructive outcome. In the other, you're choosing the productive outcome.
It's who dies vs. who escapes first.
And I'm pretty sure that throwing yourself on a grenade is the same as the previous scenario of choosing a bullet from a thug. Same for throwing yourself in front of a bullet. It's because you're choosing the destructive outcome.
The "greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friend" only says that it's love. Not that it's right.
ReplyDeleteIf I am ever presented with the situation, I will have to struggle with it, and I hope God understands if I choose incorrectly for the right reasons. I'm not infallible. The chance that I will make the wrong choice is pretty high. But at least I'll be able to make a choice because I have thought about it, right?
That's the important thing about this; not that you're on one side or the other, but that you're able to think about your actions and not just act blindly based on instinct.
I really like your conclusion here.
ReplyDeleteHmm.
"Don't be hasty."
ReplyDeleteOkay, Treebeard.
ReplyDeleteEnts!
ReplyDeleteI just wanted to say "Ents."
Captcha is beginning to worry me. Last time, it said "tacke" and now it says "restole."
Just what is it stealing?