Happenings 10 September 2020

We are a society of contradictions, it seems. Yesterday I listened to talkback radio discussing the upcoming referendum on the so-called ‘End of Life Choice’ from the perspective of one of its proponents. It was a public discussion on a proposal for what is effectively state-sanctioned suicide. If this referendum gives the nod to this bill, it will for the first time allow the ultimate act of self-harm to be an accepted part of our communities. Yesterday, I also received in my inbox a number of emails from schools warning parents about the graphic violence of a video clip being shared through social media of a person committing suicide. This clip was ‘going viral’ amongst young people in our high schools, intermediate schools, and possibly also seen by children in primary schools. I stopped and pondered the mixed messages that yesterday brought me – on the one hand, the message that suicide is harmful, upsetting, and damaging for our young people to be exposed to; on the other hand, the message that it should be normalised in our culture. And I do not believe it is simply a question of the graphic violence of the video clip – had the video been of someone being lethally injected under medical supervision, I’m sure there would still have been an outcry. We are a confused and a confusing bunch, aren’t we? May we hear the words of God spoken over our world, “I have set before you life and death … now choose life, so that you and your children may life!”

In Him,
Murray