The Culture Grid

Recently, I visited the Body Worlds exhibit with some friends  (one of whom was good enough to pay for my ticket). For those who don’t know, the exhibit displays plasticized (real) human bodies in multiple poses with various levels of emphasized details. One display might be a human with only the internal organs, one might have just the nervous system, and one might be the malformed body of an unborn child, all with detailed placards giving information about the display. One even had a human body sliced into about several sections about an inch thick, allowing you to every layer. They look like models except far more elaborate than any models you’d find made artificially. The website is available here: http://www.bodyworlds.com, but you may wish to use caution in visiting as it displays the bodies on the front page.

As I walked through the exhibit, my friend Sarah asked me what I thought about the ethics of the display. I had given it some though before. Was it right to have these bodies on display? Granted, there have been claims that not all of the bodies were donated as the exhibit claims, but while that would make things worse, I think we can examine the ethical questions even if they exhibit people are telling the truth.

Now I should say that I don’t think that is unethical in and of itself for doctors and scientists to examine the remains of the deceased. But one must consider motive. Those doctors study human bodies in order to help the living. Therefore, they do this out of an appreciation for human life.

Can one do the same with this exhibit? I’m think so. A med school or nursing student could easily benefit from walking around the exhibit and taking notes, but most of the people there (including myself) aren’t doing that. I asked myself some questions. Do people visit this exhibit out of a desire to learn or be entertained? Is it a freak show? Does charging a fee to get in make a difference? Does this make people appreciate the human body more, or do they regard it as mere tissue after seeing this exhibit? Perhaps the most disconcerting question I asked myself was this: Does this exhibit make it easy to forget that I’m looking at the remains of people who lived, loved, fought and prayed? For me, I must say it was extremely easy to forget. Perhaps my Christian worldview reveals itself here. Whereas in some religions like Buddhism where one must escape the physical to be enlightened, Christian theology teaches that God created the human bodies as part of an original good design and that believers will actually have new, physical bodies in eternity. Nevertheless, the more I think about it, the more I feel that this exhibit pushes a line (if it hasn’t already crossed it long ago).

I wrote this because I am interested in what other people think. Do you agree? Disagree? Post your comments.

We’re already wrapping up our second week of session 3, and this past week has been extremely exciting. We started off the week with JP Moreland and Michael Bauman, then we had Francis Beckwith, and tomorrow the students will be listening to Greg Koukle.

The highlight came on Tuesday when Judson asked what plans I had for the afternoon. I told him I was planning to read during sports time (as I had just bought Lewis’s “Abolition of Man” and was looking forward to another read of it). He asked if I would like to pick up Dr. Francis Beckwith at the airport. Beckwith being one of my favorite speakers, I naturally said, “Yes.”

It was a very fun forty minute drive. I brought up an argument my friend, Nik Breiner, told me about in Oxford. Anthony Kenny argued that if we don’t have complete evidence for something, we can’t have complete certainty in it (an example being the resurrection). We talked about a variety of things, largely concerning evidence for our beliefs interacting with our faith on a daily basis. It was intense, fun, down to earth, and very practical. The discussion was particularly refreshing for me as I’ve recently been pondering the interaction of faith and reason and even how we think about the concept, and I’m very grateful to Dr. Beckwith for the time.

I’ve recently been getting to spend quite a bit of time with Dr. Beckwith, Dr. Bauman and even John Stonestreet to some degree. Getting to know these God-fearing men from across the theological spectrum helps me better to appreciate what it means to be a Christian scholar.

Yesterday afternoon, my father sent me a text message: “Sadly, Dr. Tiller was murdered today in church.” I cannot imagine how this will spawn more debate and possibly legislation over the coming months and years, but the whole situation makes me want to sit back and ponder. Here was a man who I firmly believe committed infanticide. To call it anything less, I feel, would be to mince my words in the face of murder. Yet I often prayed that he would be found guilty of crimes in a court of law and that he would face justice in the eyes of the nation, never that he would be a victim of murder himself. Perhaps he might have one day repented of his sins before facing his creator.

The tragically ironic thing here is that George Tiller was a victim of his own philosophy. Dr. Tiller believed it was his choice to abort countless pregnancies. The man who shot him yesterday believed it was his choice to walk up to Tiller and murder him. Both men fell prey to the deceitful philosophy that we as individuals can decide when to take a life. George Tiller may have felt that he wasn’t taking any human lives; in fact, that’s more than probable. But he felt his actions were justified. The man who shot him also felt that his actions were justified, for whatever reason. In both cases, human desire and choice prevailed, not justice and righteousness.

I mourn Tiller’s death. But even more, I mourn the innocents who have been killed throughout the entirety of this culture war. Colossians 2:8 warns us to not be taken captive by deceitful philosophy. Unfortunately, both men (who seemed to be on opposite sides) fell prey to the same mentality of death. Let us not also fall for these dangerous ideas but rather follow 2 Corinthians 10:5, “We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ”.

Doc Noebel read this today to the staff. I found it an excellent poem for today’s times. Just as a note, I should point out that Copybook Headings were on the top of students’ pages in schools, and they often contained verses of the Bible.

The Gods of the Copybook Headings

AS I PASS through my incarnations in every age and race,
I make my proper prostrations to the Gods of the Market Place.
Peering through reverent fingers I watch them flourish and fall,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings, I notice, outlast them all.

We were living in trees when they met us. They showed us each in turn
That Water would certainly wet us, as Fire would certainly burn:
But we found them lacking in Uplift, Vision and Breadth of Mind,
So we left them to teach the Gorillas while we followed the March of Mankind.

We moved as the Spirit listed. They never altered their pace,
Being neither cloud nor wind-borne like the Gods of the Market Place,
But they always caught up with our progress, and presently word would come
That a tribe had been wiped off its icefield, or the lights had gone out in Rome.

With the Hopes that our World is built on they were utterly out of touch,
They denied that the Moon was Stilton; they denied she was even Dutch;
They denied that Wishes were Horses; they denied that a Pig had Wings;
So we worshipped the Gods of the Market Who promised these beautiful things.

When the Cambrian measures were forming, They promised perpetual peace.
They swore, if we gave them our weapons, that the wars of the tribes would cease.
But when we disarmed They sold us and delivered us bound to our foe,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: ”Stick to the Devil you know.”

On the first Feminian Sandstones we were promised the Fuller Life
(Which started by loving our neighbour and ended by loving his wife)
Till our women had no more children and the men lost reason and faith,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: ”The Wages of Sin is Death.”

In the Carboniferous Epoch we were promised abundance for all,
By robbing selected Peter to pay for collective Paul;
But, though we had plenty of money, there was nothing our money could buy,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: ”If you don’t work you die.”

Then the Gods of the Market tumbled, and their smooth-tongued wizards withdrew
And the hearts of the meanest were humbled and began to believe it was true
That All is not Gold that Glitters, and Two and Two make Four
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings limped up to explain it once more.

As it will be in the future, it was at the birth of Man
There are only four things certain since Social Progress began.
That the Dog returns to his Vomit and the Sow returns to her Mire,
And the burnt Fool’s bandaged finger goes wabbling back to the Fire;

And that after this is accomplished, and the brave new world begins
When all men are paid for existing and no man must pay for his sins,
As surely as Water will wet us, as surely as Fire will burn,
The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return!

I love my job. I’m on the night watch at Summit, hence my early morning entry. I stay up all night patrolling the grounds every now and then as well as other nightly duties. I sleep during the morning and miss the morning lectures, but so do staff doing morning kitchen, domestics, or maintenance. Basically, all my work time is during time when students are asleep, and my sleep time is when they’re in class. Thus, I have all afternoon and evening to hang out with them.

I’m having a great time getting to know students. Today had some great discussions on the porch with another staffer and a few students. The discussion centered on determinism from a materialistic worldview and whether we have free will. I had another discussion with a student later where he was asking about multiverse theory and Richard Dawkins’ arguments on the probability of this world coming about with such fine tuning.

We also had Dr. Francis Beckwith in today who spoke on bioethics, law in America and state-neutrality. The man has an MA in law and a Ph.D in philosophy. Gotta love the mix of legal and philo-talk. Margaret really appreciated him, and I think he was her favorite speaker so far. We had a very fun open forum today; many students asked good questions concerning God’s will, abortion, and (for the first time in three years, Beckwith said) his Roman Catholicism. He handled the question very well, eventually telling the student that he can read his book, “Return to Rome.” One of the funniest moments was when the student asked “What must I do to be saved?” Beckwith responded, “Nothing. You don’t do anything for your salvation.” That threw the kid for a loop.

Afterward, I got to spend about half an hour chatting with Dr. Beckwith and Chuck Edwards on the porch. It was really neat, just chatting with these two men about the world and various doctrines. It was truly great fun, and I appreciated the casual setting.

At around 9:30 pm, some of the staff and I went on a night hike up Red Mountain and then ran back; it was a blast. The staff here are well chosen. I know it sounds vane to say, but I truly mean it. This is especially true of the higher administrational staff like Jen, Judson and Dustin. They all do a great job here, and it’s an honour having them as coworkers.

I love this job. The fun discussion reminds me of the time in Summit Oxford. True, it’s not the same since Nik, Kevin and Daniel aren’t here to take the philosophical discussions into really rough territory, but it’s still great.

Well, it’s about time for me to go. A bit more duty calls, and then sleep.

Well, I’m here at the Summit, here in Manitou Springs, CO. For those who don’t know what the Summit is, the website is available here.

Our first day, I missed, but that ended up being intros on Wednesday evening and Thursday morning. I arrived just in the middle of lunch. That afternoon we cleaned up the hotel and prepared for the students’ arrival. That evening, we sang some worship songs and got to know each other. There’s a lot of neat staff people here. Judson, Dustin and Russell I remembered from when I was here two years ago. Stephen Sutherland, one of the staff here was with me back at Session 3 of 2007. I’m already making friends and plan to have a great two months.

This morning was wonderful. Eric Smith lead us in group discussion about the importance of love in the Christian life. Many times in discussion, Christians can make the Christian walk sappy and dulled down by focusing on love. This, however, convicted me on how we live. He brought up the story of a pastor whose daughter was killed by a drunk driver and how the father petitioned for a lenient sentence for the man after forgiving him. We considered how we love one another as fellow believers and whether we show agape love to non-believers. How often do we truly love our enemies or those who persecute us? I know that for me, the answer is hardly ever.

There’s really great people here. One guy I’ve really connected with is Brian Genda. He went to Oxford before I did, but not with Summit. He and I have had intense discussions already on the problem of pain, theistic evolution, God’s sovereignty, whether the “goodness” of music lies only in lyrics, church heresy, and, well you get the idea. He’s actually not staffing this Summer, and he’ll likely leave this week. It’s really a shame. Hopefully, we’ll be able to meet up again in the future.

We’re about to take a staff photo, so I really must go soon. I wish I could spend more time on these entries. Perhaps in the future, I shall spend more time and put in a brilliant piece of cultural criticism. Till then…

The following letter to the editor was published in the Lawrence Journal World on 24 March, 2009. http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2009/mar/24/comparing-plans/

To the editor:

In his March 8 letter, Stephen Crockett asks, “Why can’t we have that kind of affordable care (meaning Canadian) here in the USA?” The answer is that Crockett’s father paid a low cost because of the tax dollars of the Canadians, not because their system is so much better.

Perhaps we should look at the British model. According to Investors Business Daily, drugs like Lapatinib (which slows breast cancer) and Tarceva (which has been proven to extend lives of lung cancer patients) have been banned by Britain’s National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence. We’ve had angioplasties in the U.S. for almost 20 years. The British government introduced it last year. Why? It was too expensive, despite their enormous taxes.

OK, so what about Sweden? The service isn’t much better, and even if you can afford to pay for these expensive drugs yourself, that’s illegal too. According to an article from Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons, the bureaucrats in Sweden feel that “would set a bad precedent and lead to unequal access to medicine.” There we go. It doesn’t matter if you’re hard working and thrifty, or lazy and wasteful. Your health shall be treated equally. That’s fairness for you.

The fact is that a government isn’t going to make the best choices for what patients require. The escalating cost of health care in the U.S. is a real problem. But unfortunately, replacing our system with a model from Europe or even Canada will only replace current problems with new ones.

Isaac McPheeters,
Lawrence

For those wanting more information, the journal article I quote from can be found here: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_6878/is_1_13/ai_n28501064

By now, I have been back in Kansas for over a month after my semester in Oxford. As one might expect there have been little bits of culture shock. I almost made a turn into the left lane a couple times. A stranger smiled and said “Good morning” on the street one day, and I wasn’t sure how to respond (since that never happens in England). But these aren’t what I reflect on the most now that I’m back. The different perspectives I was made aware of cause the most contemplation, and these bring me to think about how I can implement them into my studies here.

One of the things I came to treasure while in Oxford was good conversation. Philippians 4:8 challenges me greatly whenever I consider it. “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” I’m not entirely sure about the full ramifications of this verse concerning a Christian’s daily decisions (not to mention entertainment choices), but I do think it certainly should challenge us on our conversation.

The fact that we have “Bradjolina” as a word in English conversation says a great deal about our culture. I often ask myself what I find myself thinking about in my spare time. What do I spend my time talking about with my friends?  Do we build up? Do we edify? Are we thinking about things of excellence? Do we talk about things that matter, or do we talk about things that needn’t be discussed (like the latest gossip about so and so friend or even celebrity)? I confess I must often answer no to this question.

In Oxford my friends and I would discuss subjects that really mattered to our lives. We would talk about the role of faith in our Christian walks. We would talk about how we judge between what is harmful and edifying in art. Every day we learned something new from someone else. Were all of our conversations lofty and serious? Not at all. We frequently would talk about light-hearted subjects as well, but they too were useful. They encouraged. They built up.

This is one of the grand experiences I miss from Oxford, and it is also one that I am intent sharing with my friends back home so that I shall not again grow content with discussing the mediocre things of life. It’s too short is why.