It is clear to us or ought to be that there are ranges of differences between persons, differences that may be serious, and those that ought to be incorporated as both educational and flavorful for life. These last are in a neutral zone, neither to be given undo accent or concern between persons, unless made meaningful to morality or ill effect for life. They are present to offer some variety to life, so to keep us from being cookie cutter persons forming from the same private mold. If not varied we might find each other boring so to reduce the miracle of life to mechanical living, predictable in thought and conduct adding nothing fresh to what we are when we see ourselves alone. This differential complex of life is a mysterious and favorable factor in influencing persons of good will (a gracious context factor assumed in Scripture) and may be a silent influence in the making of laws in a free society. The neutral differences in us must be somewhat controlled so as to permit individuals to be both themselves and to belong to social context. We seek the balance of life between individual rights and social responsibility. Neutral differences (not evil unless made so in some way) include factors like race, gender, generations, health, and the like. This includes the invisibles like emotions, beliefs, ambitions and the like. The wise person learns how to live in the balances. The biblical word is, understanding, borne in true knowledge so to gain wisdom in living practice. The understanding leads to acceptance when put to the tests of application (action). Many persons can’t even put the gentle life together so must suffer variant consequences that show in family break-up, prejudice, selfishness, loss of acceptance, exclusiveness – and the list grows long. For these persons normalcy is lost and morality becomes an issue when good will might have covered some matters.
There is another context of life that is identified as more dramatic, gaining the greater attention and publicity for life. It may be found in handicaps, terrorism, and other influences that are seen as deviations from the normal contexts meant for human beings. The causes are outside the individual person’s influence, so are seen as infringement on the normalcy meant for life – and they are. They also stimulate reactions that may or may not commend a person or society. Morality in this context is the major issue related not only to the causes but to the solutions to problems. Favorable solutions may be difficult to find, and when found are difficult to apply. Bad management in moral matters leads to deviations, to loss, to death – of persons and societies. We limit our consideration here to the dramatic warfare that occurs in all human beings. It may reveal itself in one way to these persons and another way to those persons. That tension may focus in one or several contexts. We may find horror in observing the context of another, and miss our own violation of morality revealed in another way. We may excuse ourselves, or we may bear the burden of guilt. A part of our differences from one another is found in the sensitivity to guilt and our insensitivity to guilt. Many law enforcement personnel are appalled at the lack of guilt in some persons for heinous crimes, while others feel they must suffer penalty for what they have done. How do we treat both?
We illustrate this last with abortion. Gertrud Kolmar, a highly regarded Jewish poet disappeared to Auschwitz with many thousands of other Jews in 1943. She was 48 years of age. Her early life was idyllic, writes reviewer Micah Mattix, but ultimately swallowed up in the Jewish holocaust. During her life she loved a German officer in 1917, and before marriage became pregnant. The officer was sent to a battle station in World War I so ended marriage hopes. She arranged an abortion. Many of her poems deal with motherhood and her overwhelming regret at the loss of the child. She was, for a time, sent to a sanatorium. She remained in Berlin to care for her aged father, even though pressed to escape Hitler’s monstrous programming. She wrote her intense poetry. Reading it is a fascination of life and loss. She wrote the line sometimes quoted: I am a continent that will one day soon sink without a sound into the sea. While her conduct led to her sense of guilt and loss, other persons have several abortions without guilt. Abortion is violation of God’s life gift, not based on the guilt or non-guilt of society. For those seeking righteousness, there is a way in them that is dramatic to gaining the self-controlled life. Christ offers that way. One of the follies of common life is the belief that society without God can define true morality. *Mark W. Lee, Sr. — 2016, 2020