Brittany Maynard’s video about her hope of a peaceful, dignified death has gone viral. As of this writing, it has over 5 million hits on YouTube. One cannot help but be touched by Brittany’s heart and hope. Her video is a beautiful, professionally produced short film done through the organization Compassion and Choices. You may not recognize the organization’s name — let me help you. They were originally called the Hemlock Society, an organization founded in California in the year 1980 and named after Socrates, who infamously ended his life by drinking a beverage laced with hemlock.

Here is what I find interesting. The Hemlock Society, in its early years, was not in any way thought of as mainstream. They were thought of by the vast majority of Americans as a fringe group.  I dare to say that now 50 percent (or more!) of Americans would agree with their belief that a person should be able to determine when they want to die. In fact a Gallup Poll from this past June shows 69% of American believe Doctor assisted suicide should be permitted. What has changed?

Since 1980, thirty five years ago, there has been a dramatic shift in thinking. The shift comes because of a slow erosion of two foundational ideas. The first foundational idea is the premise that God is the Author of life and thus life is a stewardship we are entrusted with and for which we are accountable.  That has been replaced with the concept that life is an accident, a product (both generally and specifically) of an evolutionary process. Thus it is “my” life, “my” body to do with whatever I desire.

Our thinking has “evolved” (or devolved) from “This is God’s body and life; He gets to decide when my lease is terminated,” to “Don’t you dare tell me what to do with my body and life; I have the right of self- determination.” This is a world view issue. The God-centered world view is that there is a Sovereign God who rules the universe to whom I give an account. The man-centered view is that man is the highest evolved being and should be able to do whatever man wants. He is accountable only to himself.

In many ways, I think the contrast of these two views can be seen in the contrast of the American and French Revolutions.  The American Revolution came after a time of great spiritual awakening. This spirituality fueled much of the thought among this country’s founders. The French Revolution boasts in its founding document, Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, that their revolutionary thoughts were borne out of secular natural law. This fueled a humanism so arrogant that Maximilien Robespierre formed his own religious system known as “The Cult of the Supreme Being.” The French Revolution produced anarchy. The American Revolution produced an enduring democracy.

A second foundational idea that has factored into this shift is with reference to how we come to believe something is true. For nearly four hundred years, we determined truth primarily through reasoning it out. We became passionate about those ideas, which were well thought out rationally. Now the thought process must compete with how we feel about something. Our convictions are based somewhat on what we have reasoned out, but equally about what we feel. As a result, we are often passionate about something only because we feel it is right.

Here is where it becomes complicated. What we feel is greatly impacted by what we see and hear. Our feelings, and thus our concept of what truth is, are easily shaped and often manipulated by a picture, a movie or a song. So, in a YouTube world, how can anyone argue with a beautiful, serene video of Brittany Maynard showing us how she wants to go out of this world?

Determining truth this way is so dangerous and misleading. Two dimensional images on a screen, canvas or in a picture frame cannot convey what is really happening. They show you a reality that is often contrived. Bulletin: Reality shows aren’t real. Pictures do lie.

As a Christian it is important that I understand what is going on behind scenes. It is fruitless to argue the correctness of my point without addressing the question of world view. I think that is what the apostle Paul is getting at when he says “We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ.”(2 Corinthians 10:5.) In addition, we must also be aware of the images that cause feelings that certain convictions are based on. We need to help our audience work through the process of finding truth that transcends feelings, which are easily manipulated and always changing.

Beyond all this we must become experts in why our worldview works and why the truth we find in Scripture is indeed the truth. I wish it were simpler and easier but it’s just not. Christians, equip yourself with the skills necessary to contend for your world view. Christ follower, know what you believe and why you believe it and then stand for it.

Blessings

Pastor Dave Watson