The
Musings 18
Tuesday,
January 29
Read:
Galatians 2: 11-13
When does life begin? Is it
when a person is born or can we assume that life begins in the womb?. These are
questions that are being raised by Jeremy Stodghill to both the Catholic Church
and also to Supreme Court of the State of Colorado. A very strange case where a
Catholic Health Care Company has argued in the court that an embryo is not a
person until it is born alive, is being
reported by the CNN news agency today. This tragic story is about a couple
Jeremy Stodghill and Lori Stodghill of Canon City, Colorado. On new year eve of 2006, Lori Stodghill was rushed to the emergency
room of the St. Thomas More Hospital in Canon City. She was 28 weeks pregnant
and as she was rushed to the emergency, she collapsed in the lobby itself due
to cardiac arrest. Along with her death, her two unborn twins also died. Jeremy
sued the hospital and the Catholic Health Initiatives for the wrongful death of
his wife and his two unborn children. The litigation went on for two years and
that is when the defense attorneys for the hospital and doctors entered into an
argument about conception and inception of life. When does life starts?. Jeremy
Stodghill got a shock when he was told that according to state law, an embryo
is not a person until it is born alive and thus the twins of Jeremy Stodghill
was dead when they were removed from the mother's dead body. The court also
agreed on this line of defense and argument
and thus Jeremy Stodghill lost the case along with other cases that he
had filed for his wife. That is when more trouble arose for him. The hospital
and doctors now sued him for more than $118,000 in terms of legal fees. However,
later they decided to compromise with Jeremy with the claim that if he dropped
his appeal against the hospital, the defendants will offer to forget the fees.
But Jeremy refused to buckle and he filed for bankruptcy so as to avoid having
to pay the claim, since he has a nine year old daughter to be raised up. It is
at this stage of the case that he has decided to petition the Colorado Supreme
Court to hear his case. He also wanted the Catholic Church to respond whether
the stand taken by the Catholic Hospital on the inception of life is what the official
stand of the Church. The representative of the Church has declined to comment
on the legal proceedings but Jeremy Stodghill is hopeful that the both church
and State will give him justice not only in his legal case that he is fighting
but also in his perception about when life begins. When looking at this strange incident we do
not know the intricate details of this case nor the back door happening but it
is pertinent to note that at times to win certain legal cases, the church and
other institutions are sometimes forced to compromise the very tenets of faith
that need to uphold. This could be true not only in regards to huge institution like Christian Hospitals or
may be the Institutionalized Church, but
this could be the true in our cases also, because sometimes in our desperate need
for survival or for some monetary benefits we tend to throw into the winds all the
beliefs and commitment and our convictions that we have held on for long. Faith
often seen to be used as and when an opportune need arises and when things are
not conducive to the exercise and the expression of ones faith, then the best
way is to abandon our convictions and our faith.
In the early church,
this sort of hypocrisy had happened. This is recorded the Paul's epistle to
Galatians 2. The context of this passage is the message of freedom given by the
Jesus Christ. The Church had taken a decision that when Gentiles join the
church, they need not go through the rite of circumcision before getting
baptized as was the case of Jewish believers or Jewish Christians. This statement
of faith can be found in Acts 15. It was Peter though a Jew who espoused the
case for the gentiles through the revelation that he had got through a vision.
[ Acts 10]. Thus the church preached about the message of Jesus Christ and the freedom
that Jesus Christ gives to each one of us to live our Christian life without
being bound by rules that inhibit us to exercise our faith and our Christian
life style. But in Galatians 2: 11-13, Paul is very upset with Peter because he
tend to be hypocrite. Paul rebukes Peter because of his certain behavioral
traits that was not in agreement with the line of thought that he preached.
What Peter did was though he argued for the gentiles he would not stand for his
beliefs in public especially among the company of his Jewish believers. What
Peter used to do was that he would mingle and eat with Gentiles but the moment
he saw his fellow Jewish believers he would withdraw himself from the company
of Gentile believers, trying to show and
please the Jewish believers, that he does not associate very closely with
the gentiles as he associates with them. Paul is upset at this hypocrisy of
Peter, because some of the Jews felt that this was the right thing to do and
they also showed the same behavior leading even Barnabas to a hypocritical way
of living. Here is Paul condemning Peter and asking him to stand up for what he
preached and be ready to pay a price for the convictions and faith that he
dearly stands for. Paul later speaks boldly about his convictions and he tells
the believers that everyone is justified by faith in Jesus Christ and not by
observing certain laws. I think Paul teaches us a lesson on Christian living.
Faith and our convictions are not moulded or changed according to ones circumstances
or according to the type of group that
we are in. I remember one of my friend in theological college, who belonged to
an independent church. He would be very daring when giving sermon. He would
very liberal while preaching in the chapel of the theological college, often criticizing
some of the faith practices and faith convictions espoused by his church while on
a Sunday, while preaching from the
pulpit of his church he would go back to so called lopsided understanding of
the gospel message. When confronted about this stark contradiction my friend
smilingly replied, I have to please both my professors during week days and my
congregation on Sunday's. I think we are also guilty along these lines. Let us therefore
consciously evaluate whether our convictions and our faith changes according to
circumstances or whether we are ready to affirm our faith no matter who our audience
is and or what circumstances we are in.
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