RBWords - Volume 22 - Number 8: August 2009
Something to Think About
The death of Senator Edward Kennedy has given many people something to think about. It made me think of the famous lines from Shakespeare’s JULIUS CAESAR: “The evil men do lives after them, while the good is oft interred with their bones…..” I found myself irritated and fascinated by much of the media coverage. Of course, it was oriented to sin, tragedy and conflict, emphasizing the various terrible tragedies that the Kennedy family has suffered, the Chappaquiddick incident and the perceived conflict between Senator Kennedy and the Catholic Church on the subject of abortion. It should be noted that Senator Kennedy was strongly allied with the Church on many other issues including immigration, civil rights of minorities and certain elements of health care. It should also be noted that Senator Kennedy died as a Catholic in good standing, despite those who felt he should have been “excommunicated” for his legislative support for abortion.
I was most fascinated with the tributes paid to him by certain very influential Republican colleagues, especially Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah. He pointed out Kennedy’s tremendous talent from bringing opposing sides together to hammer out a consensus on important issues. Kennedy’s last illness made his absence in the debate on health care in Congress a truly unfortunate loss. The current polarization in Congress and the bitter tone of the debate both in Congress and in the various forms of media cry out for a calmer and wiser forum and leadership.
Whatever agreement or disagreement one may have had with Senator Kennedy’s political stances or his private life (which was not admirable for a long time until he married Victoria Reggie), he belonged to a family that has dedicated itself in large part to public service. He was in the United States Senate for 46 years, which seems to me to testify to the general satisfaction of the state of Massachusetts with his performance. The media will see to it that whatever evil he did will live after him, but justice and charity demand that we give credit to the good that he did and not let that be “interred with his bones.” IT’S SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT.
It Has Been Said
“The gospel is the announcement that Jesus is Lord – Lord of the world, Lord of the cosmos, Lord of the earth, of the ozone layer, of whales and waterfalls, of trees and tortoises. As soon as we get this right we destroy at a stroke the disastrous dichotomy that has existed in people’s minds between ‘preaching the gospel’ on the one hand and what used to be called loosely ‘social action’ or ‘social justice’ on the other. Preaching the gospel means announcing Jesus as Lord of the world, and unless we are prepared to contradict ourselves with every breath we take, we cannot make that announcement without seeking to bring that lordship to bear over every aspect of the world.”
From WHAT SAINT PAUL REALLY SAID – WAS PAUL OF TARSUS THE REAL FOUNDER OF CHRISTIANITY? by N. T. Wright
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