White House under fire over Cheney shooting

For everyone that does not live under a rock, bear with me in this next blog. Just yesterday some of my office mates were discussing, again, the stupidity of the discussion of this event. I couldn’t take it as it is such a non-story. So why then, you may be asking, am I being so hypocritical and bringing it up here? I do so because of something completely different that this story brought to mind.

The other day (I must confess that I should have written this blog that other day, but my life does not lend itself to the freedom to sit at a computer and type my thoughts. In the evenings the last thing I want to do is come home and be on the computer after having spent the entire day at one.) NPR was interviewing a cardiologist; questioning him about the severity and significance of the heart attack Harry Whittington had had days after being shot. The interviewer kept asking questions of the doctor: “How dangerous is this?” “What could be the long term effects?” “Is this heart attack serious?” The doctor, an “expert” in this field and more knowledgeable, I hope, than your average American, never once answered a question. He would say things like, “I haven’t seen the medical reports so I just can’t say for certain.” I was in my car at the time and wondered, “Why are you even on the radio program at all?”

This doctor was called upon to give his opinion. He didn’t. Why? I mentioned this to a pastor friend of mine. (Him being a pastor is inconsequential, he just happens to be one and I figured I would through that in so you all will know I hang with the right crowd.) He said that was the prudent thing to do. This doctor didn’t know the specific situation so don’t say anything. But I see it differently. The doctor wasn’t being asked to do anything more than educate some people, but he saw it as sticking his neck out. If he said something that was wrong, then he could, some how, be held liable? What, the doctors treating Harry would hear his opinion and change their own diagnosis and therefore be able to hold this other doctor accountable for his words? What is that all about?

Here is what I think. A couple things are at play in this whole scenario. 1. Americans are so unwilling to take responsibility for their actions that we look for anyone and anything to blame and hold accountable. 2. Humans, the men half in particular, are a bit weak in their own right and don’t know how to stand on their own two feet or convictions.

Where is all this coming from? Again, patience.

These last few months of my life have been marked by a resurgence of self evaluation. Now I have always been a bit reflective. Ok, there is no bit about it. But these last few have had some times of extreme confusion and seeking. One of the biggest areas has been in the realm of weak versus strong men. What do they look like? What characteristics are marked by a strong man? A weak one? The answer I have come up with is, “I don’t know?” My ignorance is not due to a personal lack but what I think is a universal inability. (Again, there is also a good amount of personal lack involved, but let’s not go there.) I don’t think that there is a concrete definition of strength that is possible on this earth, in human terms. Strength is like pornography as Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart said in 1964, “I can’t define it, but I know it when I see it.” We all can look at another person and decide on human terms if they are strong or weak. Sometimes it has to do with their position, or related wealth. It may be physical, in terms of mere mass, although I think most would be quick to say that a lot of buff dudes are so to cover up their true selves. It may be based on their presence and command of an audience. There are many other factors and all of these external characteristics are effortlessly put in the category of strength. But is that real strength?

Real strength can only be defined by the creator of it. Just as beauty can only be define by the creator of beauty. If you want to know what a painting, or sculpture, or poem, tome, drawing, building, or any other form of created thing means, then you have to ask the creator. No amount of speculation will ever be 100% accurate. So true strength is not defined by anything of this world, though the previous mentioned attributes are some of its by-products, but by something so completely other-worldly.

“If God’s moral judgement differs from ours so that our ‘black’ may be His ‘white’, we can mean nothing by calling Him good for to say ‘God is good’, while asserting that His goodness is wholly other than ours, is really only to say ‘God is we know not what’.” – C.S. Lewis

Here is why I don’t think that we, as humans, will ever fully be able to define it, or anything else of a Divine nature. “God is we know not what.” This is true as it relates to His goodness as much as to His strength, justice, mercy, grace, love, or faithfulness. The best I can do is to say that true strength is defined as true godliness. Look at the character of God, the creator of strength, and you will see the character of strength.

What does that look like then, the character of God? Wow, “there are also many other things which Jesus did, which if they were written in detail, I suppose that even the world itself would not contain the books that would be written.” But I love the image set forth before time began. “Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light.” Formless, empty, darkness, in a word, chaos. This was the beginning and God, our God, came; He established order, brought beauty and peace into what was previously nothing. Our God came and spoke into the unknown. Something I don’t see a lot of today, especially from myself.

So I don’t fault the doctor for not sticking his neck out, nobody else does. And this is why I think reason 1. exists. Not as a cause, but an effect. The cause is this world going away from the truth of its purpose, from its Creator. The effect is to hammer down anyone that would speak into the darkness as their Creator does. We want to beat out any image of the Divine. And we do it well, very well.

It is ironic though, that book ending this blog is Cheney. His response to the shooting is to take full responsibility. “I pulled the trigger, I am the only one at fault.” Is he a strong man? I don’t know, and I am certainly not advocating one way or the other, but speaking out is a start.

It is tomorrow.

Jason