Author: Ian Harris

We heard from an academic study the aspects that arise when considering the topic. These included:

Compassion – good in itself but does not determine any action. Is it OK to act on emotion alone? Can pain be completely eliminated as claimed – perhaps not in some cases. Does this devalue the elderly?

Mortonomy – avoid a ‘painful death’. Risk of copy cat suicides, the impact on society as a whole. Does having the ability to end life infer an obligation to die rather than justifying the right to live?

Securism – autonomous self-determination. The law can only say what is not right not what is right. If there was such a law would this amount to the State determining the right to die? Out of home care (eg hospice) needs better support. We use the phase ‘committing suicide’ as though it is a crime – need better terminology. Do suicide bombers control their own death or is this really in someone else’s hands?

We then heard a very moving account from a son who assisted his very ailing mother to end her life. He noted that at the time (emotional involvement) the many questions around assisted suicide had incredibly good and satisfactory answers! The terminally ill have a right to die in civilised societies he argued.

In discussion, we noted that euthanising pets is commonplace and seen as the humane thing to do!

This programme was first broadcast on BBC in 1984 and this long ago was obvious from the film style, background scenes and quality. The latter eventually preventing further viewing of episode 1: The Mechanical Universe. This ran over the history of scientific awakening eg Galileo and the challenges this presented to church orthodox teaching based on Biblical interpretation. Prior to this the world was mythical, magical and filled with religious symbolism eg doors and archways in churches. Priests had knowledge and hence power and therefore political influence.  He suggested that science and religion use different languages (mathematics – v – poetry and imagery) that don’t contradict each other; neither can be dogmatic. Truth is to be found in the quest. Also covered work of Strauss, Pascal and Descartes.

A somewhat surprising claim was made at the start: the rapid decline in church attendance on Sundays was 48% of the UK population in 1850s to just 7% in 1982. We are now experiencing the end game of this trend with smaller and smaller congregations of increasing average age with little energy becoming economically unsustainable.

We started by considering the DomPost article by asking what are the NZ characteristics that make us who we are, as raised in the article. Generally fed up with rugby – even before the World Cup starts; we agreed that rugby doesn’t represent NZ. Other suggestions were honesty, women’s rights, equality/workers rights, welcome immigrants, multiracial. The flag will not define us – but how we treat people.

The social survey consisted of factual and values based questions – one being characteristics which one feels are important to being a NZer? Some thought ‘being born here’ or ‘brought up in NZ from young age’, others simply ‘to feel like a NZer’ – which would imply that they have lived in NZ for some considerable time.

Another question was how do you see yourself as a NZer or member of ethnic group, or if both which predominately?

Noel challenged the group with 4 introductory questions

1. How would you like to be treated if you develop dementia at sometime in your life? Responses: Compassion, stay (& die) at home, balance stay at home with pressure on family, have a source of ‘happy pills’ to reduce my worry, anxiousness.
2. What would you like to say to your family? Responses: Clear the garage, decide what to do with my ashes, don’t let me become a burden.
3. How would you like to be remembered? Responses: as I was before dementia.
4. What type(s) of songs would you like to be listening to everyday? Responses: Basically one’s from earlier times of our lives.

The common reaction to dementia is fear but with cancer its concern. We compared John Locke’s definition of ‘What is a Person’ that could imply that someone without memory becomes a non-person (a dangerous line of argument); we preferred John Swinton’s as it is more relational. These also touch on Martin Buber’s ‘I – It, I – Thou’ philosophy

We watched part of the movie “Alive Inside” by Michael Rossato-Bennett (2014). This shows the remarkable positive impact that familiar music can have on dementia sufferers. The music seems to stimulate the whole brain; the memories are not lost – they are still there (in the brain); the interaction with the music seems to recreate the pathways to recall! Seems to be more beneficial than drugs so massive resistance from vested interests against providing personal music players.

This is a fantastic presentation by Obama – content, emotion, loud and quiet, fast and slow, encouraging and supportive, displaying superlative presentation skills. The content covers both that of a traditional eulogy and effectively a sermon on ‘grace’.

Points that made a special impact:

• Rev Clementa Pickney combined both ministry and public service (as a Senator) – he saw no distinction between the two.
• His focus was on ‘saving community’ rather than individual salvation
• Obama noted these features of churches such as AME where the shootings occurred: community centres where organise for jobs and justice; places of scholarship and network; places where children are loved and fed and kept out of harms way, told they are beautiful and smart and taught that they matter. A sacred place not just for ‘blacks’ and Christians but all people who care about the expansion of human rights, human dignity, liberty and justice for all. This is what church means.
• When reflecting on grace – grace is not earned, merited or deserved; its a free and benevolent gift of god; (through the shootings) God has visited grace upon us, a chance to see ourselves as we are, make the most of this gift;
• Lets not stop at taking down the Confederate flag (a symbol of racial subjection), but tackle racial injustices in school policy, poverty, hate, criminal justice, police bias, employment, gun violence – by embracing change through God’s grace, not returning to business as usual. [Particularly relevant for NZ] We have, quoted Obama, a deep appreciation of history but we don’t have a deep appreciation of others history!

With grace, by offering grace, by giving graceful, everything is possible!

We saw and experienced the beauty and grandeur of some of the regional and national parks in the central south west of America.

We considered 2 TED talks:

https://www.ted.com/talks/alberto_cairo_there_are_no_scraps_of_men In this presentation the speaker, a Physiotherapist relates how he was encouraged to move beyond his comfort zone by his desire to help others requiring prosthesis. By a series of steps, the consequences of one decision lead to another and yet another to help this group of people. The presenter was encouraged and supported by a colleague, showing the importance of this kind of role. We admired the vision, persistence, empathy and care that the presenter portrayed.

https://www.ted.com/talks/tim_harford This presentation was a little more provocative than the one above. The ‘God Complex’ refers to people who believe their view is the only right and correct one – if you like, behaving as an omniscient, all-knowing god. The presenter’s argument is that the natural world and the situations humans find themselves in are very complex. Humans have a natural tendance to reduce the complexity to a few variables that we can hold at once and hence generate a path to a logical conclusion. We just can’t hold and optimise solutions from many variables. The conclusion the speaker advocates is the practice of trial and error, as has occurred in nature through the process of evolution. We considered that politicians are the most visible group that reduce complexity to simple mantras eg the market knows best, competition and privatisation will benefit all, small Government is good. Could a politician campaign on the platform “I don’t have a definitive answer to ….., but I have these ideas which I would like to try, see what works and then refine those in further trials’ be successful? I think not as we, the public, crave the prospect of apparent certainty in definitive answers, from leaders who (seem to) know! I also suspect that we realise that they do not!

[For the churches in 21^st Century NZ facing falling attendance, some humble ‘don’t know but lets try this and see how it works out’ would be better than trying to replicate programmes which worked a generation ago or sitting on our hands hoping things will improve.]

Adrienne also identified https://www.ted.com/talks/uri_alon_why_truly_innovative_science_demands_a_leap_into_the_unknown Give it a try and see what you think.

A most interesting and personal insight into life in Iraq under Saddam Hussein and after his downfall.

Chapt 11: To love God is to love like God    This is the last chapter in this very interesting and stimulating book and it also has a somewhat different character compared with preceding chapters. Borg seems to be implying a love for an entity that is real and (almost physically) exists; the meaning of love for God is not-unnaturally based on our human experiences – parental, friendship, lovers – ‘of lover and beloved’. He alludes to a lover’s ‘longing’ for God. He relates an exercise in which students were invited to write a passionate love letter and then unexpectedly addressing it to God!

It seemed that this intensity was not the experience of members of the group. We spoke about believing being a prerequisite for a relationship and hence potential for love to develop. We wondered why nuns ‘marry’ God but monks do not. Do we love the concept of God as a loving and all-powerful who will make everything good and eliminate evil? Does loyalty and caring for others equate to loving God? Or what one holds as core values, one holds most dear to oneself and therefore ‘adores’? We acknowledged our mystical experiences; our Christian experiences have lead to a ‘wonderment’ of life and the natural world that is both cerebral and emotional.

We noted that Borg’s fruits of the spirit – compassion, freedom, courage and gratitude are not the same as Paul’s in Galatians 5:22. Are these possible without centring on God? Perhaps the greatest ‘gift’ is to be able to live and face death without fear. This is the gift of ‘liberal’ theology.

To round up Cristina notes: Consider loving what God loves – the human and non-human world (John 3:16), friends as well as enemies, righteous and the unrighteous (Matt 5:44 – 47). Consider Micah 6:8 – What God requires of us is to do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with your God.