Recently in Morality Category

I hear a lot of arguments based on what's natural and what's not. So I thought I'd examine a few natural things.

I think greed is natural. It has a parallel in physics: gravity.

The more mass a body has, the greater its gravity and its inertia. As gravity increases, so does the tendency of things to become attached to the body, and the harder it is for things to leave the body.

Consider the Earth. Unless an object is moving pretty quickly, coming near the Earth means the object is likely to be ensnared by the Earth's gravity. And getting an object off the earth is no simple feat either: consider the size of the rockets needed to launch missions to the moon and other planets.

Or consider a black hole. This is an object so dense, with such strong gravity, that it can trap even light.

And so it is with greed. The more one has, the more one attracts and, by benefit of how much one already has, the easier it is to acquire more. And it is very difficult to relinquish whatever it is we have amassed.

But nearly every massive body has a danger: the more massive one is, the greater its pull toward even more massive bodies. This is why the moon orbits the Earth, and the Earth orbits the sun, and the sun orbits the center of the Milky Way galaxy. And in the center of the galaxy? Most likely a massive black hole.

Black holes teach us something about greed, too. In order to continue to exist, they must continue to swallow things or, the current theory is, they will evaporate through radiation theorized by Stephen Hawking. Of course, very massive black hole take a long time to evaporate, but still, their lives depend on consumption.

Capitalism serves greed. Capitalism - not to be confused with free enterprise - is the valuing of capital, or wealth. In capitalism, merely having wealth is a means to acquiring wealth - one need not labor at all. For all the complaints about the poor being lazy, one cannot be much more lazy than amassing more wealth simply for having much wealth already.

But greed is natural and so too sloth, just as gravity and inertia are natural.

But not everything that is natural is beneficial.

This was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy.

 - Ezekiel 16:49, New Revised Standard Version

I was thinking today about our tendency to help when it's convenient.

When we have a few extra dollars, we contribute to charity.

When we have extra food, we give some to the food bank (some of us offer the dented cans or things we don't want to eat).

Yet need does not wax and wane with availability. Homeless people don't disappear when there's a shortage of beds in shelters. People don't magically have enough winter clothing when there are no coats available. People aren't magically filled when there is no food available. And the needs of people for community don't disappear when churches decide they have no room for "people like that".

Candidate and ordained minister the Reverend Michael Dale "Mike" Huckabee find support for capital punishment in the death of Jesus:

Interestingly enough, if there was ever an occasion for someone to have argued against the death penalty, I think Jesus could have done so on the cross and said, "This is an unjust punishment and I deserve clemency."

After all, if Jesus wasn't OK with it, he might have prayed "My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet not what I want but what you want." Oh, yeah, he did - as documented in Matthew 39, Mark 14:36-39, and Luke 22:42-44.

Well, why didn't he say something about his unjust treatment on the cross, like "you guys are wrong" or, knowing his gracious nature, "Father, forgive them." Oh, yeah, he did - as documented in Luke 23:34.

Yet if we are going to use the death of Jesus, who by tradition and faith was innocent and blameless, as justification for capital punishment, it is only a minor step to say that it justifies the execution of the innocent.


That's the problem with using past violence to justify violence in the present - it assumes we cannot learn a better way. The rule of "an eye for an eye" was meant as a limit - that one could not extract more in vengeance than the initial harm. Yet even "eye for an eye" leads to the eternal violence of retaliation.


There is a better way - the way of deescalation, of relaxing the tensions, of mending relationships. That does not mean we should let murderers go free - but it means that revenge does not offer anything more than temporary satiation of our own blood lust.


I cannot make my enemy stop hating me by killing his loved ones.

References:
http://www.motherjones.com/washington_dispatch/2007/12/huckabee-faith-baptist-pastor-sermons.html

What would lead people to call for the death of a person?

Perhaps their pastor.

The Reverend Wiley S. Drake,(First Southern Baptist Church of Buena Park California) asked people to pray for the deaths of the Reverend Barry W. Lynn (United Church of Christ), Joseph Conn and Jeremy Leaming. The three men, leaders of People United for the Separation of Church and State, had filed a complaint with the IRS because Drake had drafted an endorsement of Presidential Hopeful Mike Huckabee on church letterhead.

Perhaps the prayer went something like this:

Heavenly Father, we call upon you to send death upon the Reverend Barry Lynn. We pray that you would make a widow of his wife, and orphans of his now grown children. We pray that his grandchildren would seek and yet not find him, and that his denomination, the United Church of Christ, would mourn his loss.

As I wrote the above in jest, I found this:

He gave as examples of imprecatory prayer:

"Persecute them. ... Let them be put to shame and perish."

"Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow."

"Let his children be continually vagabonds, and beg."

 - http://www.civilbrights.net/node/4673


I am overwhelmed by shame: shame that a member of the body of Christ has called out "I have no need of you" to other members, shame that an ordained minister has cried to God not for blessing but for punishment for men and their families.

Not all Christians are like this.

I promise.


References:

• http://pietyandpolitics.com/3/barry/
• http://www.civilbrights.net/node/4673
• http://www.auok.org/who_is_barry_lynn.htm

In nearly every language, there is a variation of what Christianity calls the Golden Rule.

What is hateful to you, do not to your fellowmen. That is the entire Law; all the rest is commentary. --- Judaism: Talmud, Shabbat, 31a

That nature alone is good which refrains from doing unto another whatsoever is not good for itself. --- Zoroastrianism: Dadistan-i-dinik 94:5

This is the sum of duty: Do naught unto others which would cause you pain if done to you. --- Brahmanism: Mahabharata, 5:1517

Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful. --- Buddhism: Udana-Varga 5:18

Surely it is the maxim of loving-kindness: Do not unto others that you would not have them do unto you. --- Confucianism: Analects 15:23

Regard your neighbor's gain as your own gain, and your neighbor's loss as your own loss. --- Taoism: T'ai Shang Kan Ying P'ien

All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the Law and the Prophets. --- Christianity: Matthew 7:12

No one of you is a believer until he desires for his brother what which he desires for himself. --- Islam: Sunnah

*In that it harm none, do as ye will. --- Wicca/Pagan: Wicca Rede 1

* --- Shintoism:

* --- Native American

My duty towards my neighbors is to love him as myself, and to do all men as I would they should do unto me. --- Book of Common Prayer: Catechism

All things whatsoever that thou wouldst not wish to be done to thee, do thou also not to another. --- The Diache, Teachings of the Twelve Apostles

Do as you would be done by. --- English Proverb

What thou avoidest suffering thyself seek not to impose on others. --- Epictetus: Encheiridion

Do not do to others what would anger you if done to you by others. --- Isocrates

This is the sum of all true righteousness: deal with others as thou wouldst thyself be dealt by. Do nothing to they neighbor which thou wouldst not have him do to thee hereafter. --- The Mahabharata

To do as one would be done by, and to love one's neighbor as one's self, constitue the ideal perfection of utiltarian morality. --- John Stuart Mill: Utilitarianism

Treat you inferiors as you would be treated by your betters. --- Seneca: Epistolae ad Lucilium, Epis. XLVII, 11

Be excellent to each other. --- Bill and Tedism


This is a very nearly universal idea. And yet, we are willing to apply this only to people who believe in our own version, and sometimes only a subset of that group.


So what of waterboarding?

Waterboarding was developed to help in converting people to Christianity by the Spanish Inquisition, so it does have a Christian basis. I wonder how many of the inquisitors were subjected to waterboarding?

Kaj Larsen was waterboarded as part of his training, and had it done again to demonstrate what was happening. I think this person may be able to judge what he would have done to him.


When will we learn to treat other human beings as human beings? When will we learn that torture encourages torture? When will we learn that killing encourages killing?

And when we we learn that mercy encourages mercy ?

When Tyra Hunter was 24 years old, she was riding in a car in Washington, D.C. Her car was broadsided by another car. She was knocked unconscious due to the collision, but regained consciousness by the time emergency crews arrived. She was still dazed and had respiration problems because some of her teeth had been knocked into her airway.The paramedics went to work on Tyra, but in assessing the injuries they discovered she had male genitals.

At this point, one of the caregivers said "This ain't no bitch. It's a nigger. He's got a dick and balls." The paramedics ceased treating Tyra and instead laughed and joked about her while onlookers demanded they get back to work on her.

Later, after treating another injured passenger, other emergency workers found Tyra gagging and trying to move away from the insulting paramedics. Finally, a supervisor demanded that her airway be cleared.

In addition to these insults and lack of care, she was received at the hospital as "John Doe", given a contraindicated medication, and was not given blood that had been ordered for her. She died from lack of oxygen in her blood.

This is the kind of health care some transgender persons can expect. Value judgments can override common decency and mercy - and the basic job requirements. Amazingly, the District of Columbia defended the paramedics on the basis of their first amendment rights to free speech.

Time and again, I come back to what Jesus taught about how we treat others: "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you". "Love your neighbor as yourself" . The parable of the Good Samaritan, in which the person who acted as a neighbor to a victimized person was the one who didn't even get along with people of his kind. The parable of the sheep and the goats, where Jesus says that as you do to others, you do to him.

And yet, this is what we can expect from some of the people who choose a career in caring for others.

This is not how to do health care.

This is not how to do emergency care.

This is not how to be a Christian.

This is not how to be a human being.

Whatever one's opinion of transgender people, they are people. There is no excuse for allowing people to suffer while we laugh.

My prayer is that the paramedics learn to care for all others, and that they do not need to experience what Tyra did in order to learn it. I would not wish that on my enemies - because I love them.


Trial notes: http://www.gpac.org/im/tyra/tyindex.html



Remembering our dead: http://www.gender.org/remember/.
Transgender Day of Remembrance is November 20.

The City of Chicago has awarded $14 million to a man who accused two Chicago Police Department officers of  doing a "cavity search" using a screwdriver, causing internal injuries. While the officers claimed innocence, they could not explain the presence of screwdrivers in the glovebox of the police car, not the presence of fecal matter in the glovebox.

Meanwhile, a New Jersey woman was followed by a car registered to a company that doesn't exist. The Postmaster of the town in which the car is registered cannot comment because "it's a sensitive matter".

Are these our public servants?

It's certainly not the way I understand service.

While the disciples argued over who would be the greatest, or requested the favor of sitting at the left and right hands of Jesus, Jesus told his followers that the greatest would be the least, and the least: greatest. Jesus's own humility in serving the disciples - demonstrating hospitality to his own followers - shows his own ability to be a servant.

True servants do not spy on those they serve. Those who do right do not hide in shadows - or behind post office boxes for companies that don't exist. And true servants are not cruel, and do not seek to debase those they serve - even if such a person is a suspect.

The heart of service is in respect and in love. If we love one another, we will respect each other. Jesus taught his followers to even love their enemies - how much more should we love those of whom we only have suspicion?


References:

• http://www.chicagopublicradio.org/Cityroom_Read.aspx?storyID=13705
• http://www.chicagopublicradio.org/Cityroom_Read.aspx?storyID=13731
• http://www.chicagopublicradio.org/Cityroom_Read.aspx?storyID=13741
• http://www.chicagopublicradio.org/Cityroom_Read.aspx?storyID=13767
• http://www.chicagopublicradio.org/Cityroom_Read.aspx?storyID=13917
• http://www.chicagopublicradio.org/Cityroom_Read.aspx?storyID=13999
• http://www.chicagopublicradio.org/Cityroom_Read.aspx?storyID=14060
• http://www.newsday.com/news/local/newyork/ny-nyroc245387882sep24,0,1911059,full.story
• http://www.goodasyou.org/good_as_you/2007/09/is-that-wiretap.html

     As someone who transitioned over two decades ago, I don't have much to fear with respect to being called out on gender identity. I have much more to fear due to my identity as a lesbian in a 17 year relationship. Yet I am unwilling to use my privilege as an apparently cisgender person to grab for protection as a Lesbian while leaving behind my less privileged brothers and sisters.

     It is morally wrong for me to abandon my brothers and sisters. In the parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus tells of two respectable leaders who chose not to help a man who was robbed, beaten, stripped naked, and left for dead. They knew they were at risk of becoming ritually unclean, requiring them to turn back to Jerusalem - a costly delay.

     Yet a Samaritan - who didn't even get along with the Jews - was so moved by the man's situation that he stopped to help and even paid to have the man stay at an inn and recover.

     We have the opportunity to stop and help - even if it causes us delay - or to walk on with the hope that the man will not suffer too much waiting for us to come back

     If it is more difficult to pass ENDA with transgender language included, what does that tell you? It tells me that more people are willing to accept discrimination against transgender people and, therefore, transgender people need this law even more than gay and Lesbian people do.

     Waiting until people don't want to discriminate before passing an anti-discrimination law makes no sense.

     Waiting until people don't want to discriminate against a class of people before passing an anti-discrimination law to protect that class makes no sense.

     I'm siding with the Samaritans on this. Walk on by at your own risk.

     In tales of a pop icon, we learn who the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, supportive, and questioning people are. Some see these people as the enemy, trying to destroy society. If you read the article, you might realize these are real people who are experiencing real harm.

     "Who is my neighbor?" is a question often asked. Jesus told a story about two religious leaders who passed by a man - who had been beaten, stripped naked, and left for dead - for fear that they would become ritually unclean and have to turn back to Jerusalem to be cleansed. An outsider, someone who was considered to be "the wrong kind of people", was moved by compassion and stopped to help the man - even paying for his stay at an inn to recover. The question Jesus asked was "who was the neighbor to the injured man?"

     We all have the choice of being strangers or neighbors. May we be moved by compassion to choose to be neighbors.

     A talking point I often see is that same-sex marriage will devalue marriage.


     But will it?

     In the Western world, marriage is rarely traded on the open market. Few of us are likely to sell our children into marriage for cash, a house, or livestock.

     Marriage is valued by the people in it. Lately, some highly-visible celebrities have had month-long, week-long, or even day-long marriages. These do not strike me as highly valued marriages.

     Likewise, we have seen some people - even "family values" folks - outed as having affairs and/or patronizing prostitutes. It would seem that they do not value marriage that highly.

     When gay and lesbian people are willing to fight for the right to marry, it shows they consider marriage to have a high value. They are willing to invest heavily in marriage.

     To the Christians reading this, I would like to ask:

     When Paul ministered to gentiles, and when Peter was told to meet with Cornelius, did that devalue the relationship the existing, Jewish Christians had with Christ?

     In Matthew 20, Jesus tells a parable about workers and wages:

For the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard.

After agreeing with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard.

And going out about the third hour he saw others standing idle in the market place; and to them he said, `You go into the vineyard too, and whatever is right I will give you.' So they went.

Going out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour, he did the same.

And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing; and he said to them, `Why do you stand here idle all day?' They said to him, `Because no one has hired us.' He said to them, `You go into the vineyard too.'

And when evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his steward, `Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last, up to the first.'

And when those hired about the eleventh hour came, each of them received a denarius.

Now when the first came, they thought they would receive more; but each of them also received a denarius. And on receiving it they grumbled at the householder, saying, `These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.'

But he replied to one of them, `Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what belongs to you, and go; I choose to give to this last as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?

     Now, of course Jesus is talking about those who have long been faithful, and those faithful for a short time, and that they receive the same reward. But the lesson I am drawing here is: those who worked a short time and received a denarius did not devalue the denarius. Those who worked the full day still retained the same value for which they had bargained.

     Same sex marriage cannot devalue a couple's marriage. Only those in the marriage can devalue it.

     Cherish the bond you have with your spouse. Keep it healthy, holy, and happy. If you do these things, no one else's marriage can cheapen yours.