Senility
It is natural to ask why God has made things as they are. And one question that arises in the Western world, with its aging population, is why God has ordained that a considerable number of people should live out a proportion of their lives, sometimes a substantial proportion, in a state of senility. It is distressing for their families when their dear one is alive and yet “absent”, and when they can no longer communicate interesting things to them and enjoy their company and comments.
Yet the Lord has purposes in this affliction, and one purpose undoubtedly is that such people should be a living reminder to the rest of us of the vanity of this world. They were once as we are, and we must soon follow them, perhaps into weakness and senility, and after that into death. How trifling many of the pleasures, cares, and concerns of the world appear in the light of old age and of death. How forcibly we are reminded that we should be labouring, not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of Man shall give unto sinners (Jn 6:27).
It is this reminder, as much as the burden that the senile place upon resources, that is the driving force behind euthanasia. Men do not like to be reminded of the vanity of human life. They think of their plans and activities as immensely important and they do not like the silent condemnation of those who are alive as they are, yet have no interest in these things. The poor senile form, dumped in front of the television, and gazing vacantly at the Olympic Games, is an eloquent comment on the folly of it all. The world has no answer to their silent indifference. What is the point of life, or rather, of life without Christ? The world’s only answer is to put them out of sight and to continue the vanities without them. If they were dead, it says, so much the better.
Christians struggle with this subject, too, but they find the answer in the gracious work of the Spirit of Christ in the heart of God’s people. This is the only thing in human life that is of eternal value, and there is as much scope for it in the Dementia Unit as anywhere else in the world. A senile person may be trusting and rejoicing in Christ – much as John the Baptist leapt with an infant’s joy in his mother’s womb – and so too may those nursing them
and those visiting them. If Christ cares for the dead bodies of his people, and will raise them up again, how much more does He care for them while they are still alive, though the mind and the memory may have gone. So far from repining at the burden of senile relatives, those who have this burden should adore God’s wisdom and providence in the dispensation, and willingly and thankfully embrace the needful lesson that He is teaching them. DWBS
The Sabbath
When the rulers of this world appoint a public holiday, they expect the people to observe it. An employer who disregarded the holiday and forced his employees to work would be snubbing the rulers and breaking the law and might be liable to its penalties. God is the most compassionate of all rulers and He has appointed a weekly holiday – the Sabbath day, or first day of the week – which is to be observed by all mankind. “The Sabbath was made for man” (Mk 2:27). It is to be a day of holiness and rejoicing: “call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord” (Is 58:13). For the people of God, it should be a foretaste of heaven.
We are certainly not to work on the Sabbath day, except for works of necessity and mercy, nor should we in any way be complicit in the unlawful work of others. People who are running public transport for profit on the Sabbath are despising God’s holy day, and we should not be giving them our money and joining with them, on that day, in their sin. If people would stop using their transport then they would stop running it because it would not be profitable. Equally we should not be using restaurants and take-aways on the Sabbath. How are the poor staff going to keep the Sabbath? How will the proximity of worldly people with their vain example and conversation help us to “delight in the Lord”? We heard recently of a Presbyterian congregation where an elder took a take-away order after the evening service. Such unthinking conduct can only hinder the Kingdom of God. “My brethren, these things ought not so to be” (Jas 3:10). DWBS
State Guardians for Children in Scotland
On February 19, the SNP Government at Holyrood passed the Children and Young People (Scotland) Bill. While there may be much that is good in this Bill, other areas are causing concern to many parents, especially Part 4, which legalises the appointment of a state guardian for all children and young adults from birth to 18. The proposal is that the NHS will appoint a health worker to act as a “named person” for every child under the age of five. Local councils will then take on the responsibility, and the role is expected to be taken on by teachers.
There is no doubt that the Children’s Minister, Aileen Campbell, who led this Bill, is concerned about child safety, especially in the wake of high-profile child-abuse cases, such as four-year-old Daniel Pelka who was brutally beaten to death by his mother and stepfather. The seeming inability of social workers, health professionals and the police to intervene in such cases has certainly encouraged the formulation of this new law. The Minister, and the Scottish Government as a whole, feel that placing the duty of care on a single named person will be a more effective way of addressing the problem and she appears perplexed by critics who see a more sinister side to the legislation.
In reality, as a result of this change, the state will have greater powers over the child’s life; indeed the state, through the named guardian, will be able to override the wishes of the parent. This may be good news in child-abuse cases, though there were already sufficient legal powers, if used appropriately, to deal with such incidents. The vast majority of families will have no need of intervention and indeed will be alarmed at this state intrusion into their lives. Christian families will have their parental rights eroded by a secular state. The state claims to know what is good for their child and may dictate to the parent as to what is best for the child’s welfare. Before this law was passed, parents would have to give consent if information about their child was to be shared with a public body, except in cases where there was danger of real harm. Now, under the new law, there is wide scope for the named person to share information with a range of public bodies, without any parental knowledge, if the guardian considers it is in the child’s best interests, irrespective of what the parents think.
There will now be greater room for the increasingly-insidious culture of “children’s rights”. God-fearing parents take vows to bring their children up in “the nurture and admonition of the Lord”, but the child may decide that this path is too strict. He or she may demand rights to go to a football match on the Sabbath Day. A girl may wish to gain information on contraception. A boy may want to explore his “sexual orientation” in this immoral climate. There are many situations which should be under the parents’ control and discipline, but the child will now be able to complain to his/her guardian, who may well have different moral values and override the parent’s wishes. Nick Pickles of a group called Big Brother Watch states the view of many: “This whole scheme is an unprecedented attack on the privacy of families and the civil liberties of law-abiding parents and children”.
The Christian Institute feels so strongly that this is an attack on the family that they are proposing a judicial review. They are using the advice of leading human-rights lawyer Aidan O’Neill QC, who claims that “the scheme
may not be compatible with the European Convention on Human Rights, which says the state should respect private and family life”. He adds, “It is startling that the proposal appears to be predicated on the idea that the proper primary relationship that children will have for their well-being and development, nurturing and education, is with the state rather than with their families and parents”.
In a day when family life is becoming more fragmented, should the state not be using all means to encourage, and not to override, the relationship between parents and children? We should seek that God would pour out His Holy Spirit upon our families so that we may get back to that relationship which He commands in His Word, and have it deepened by His grace. He is the God of the family and says, “Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right. Honour thy father and mother; which is the first commandment with promise; that it may be well with thee and thou mayest live long on the earth. And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord” (Eph 6:1-4). KHM