One of the things that always gave me a chuckle on Easter Sunday was the number of people who showed up at church whom I had not seen all year long. Well, maybe I would see them at Christmas, and more than once, they read their calendars incorrectly and showed up on Palm Sunday thinking it was Easter. I was always tempted to say, "Psych! Now you have to come back next Sunday, too!"
Easter usually means new clothes for Sunday services, eggs, baskets, and candy. Many churches offer a breakfast. When I was a kid, after church, we would all head over to my aunt and uncle's house for the obligatory Easter ham. In the rush of Easter traditions and customs, it is easy to overlook the reason for the day or the need for it.
In Calgary, Canada, a judge has ruled that preventing a young woman from ending her life through medically assisted suicide would cause her "irreparable harm." The 27-year-old woman, who is being referred to as MV, has autism. The Calgary Herald reports that the judge, Justice Colin Feasby, has also issued a 30-day stay to give MV's father the time to decide if he would like to file an appeal. Feasby's decision read in part:
The harm to MV, if an injunction is granted, goes to the core of her being.
An injunction would deny MV the right to choose between living or dying with dignity. Further, an injunction would put MV in a position where she would be forced to choose between living a life she has decided is intolerable and ending her life without medical assistance.
This is a terrible choice that should not be forced on MV, as attempting to end her life without medical assistance would put her at increased risk of pain, suffering, and lasting injury.
Feasby also recognized that MV's death would create pain and suffering for her parents, who raised her and continue to support her. MV has met the requirements for medically assisted suicide in Canada, which includes the approval of two physicians. Feasby also told MV:
What I know of your journey through the healthcare system from the evidence in this case suggests that you have struggled to find a doctor who could diagnose your condition and offer appropriate treatment.
I do not know why you seek MAID. Your reasons remain your own because I have respected your autonomy and your privacy. My decision recognizes your right to choose medically assisted death, but it does not require you to choose death.
I do not have autism, so I will not speak to the burdens that condition creates on those who suffer from it. But it is worth noting that Feasby laid the blame at the feet of a failed healthcare system. In doing so, he had the unenviable task of trying to thread the needle with his decision.
One cannot fault Feasby, MV's parents, or even MV. MV lives in a society in which she is unable to receive the care that she needs, and which has increasingly presented suicide as a viable alternative to care. In doing so, it has made death preferable to life for some. Like many of us, MV likely lives in a world filled with dire headlines and inflammatory rhetoric designed to foster fear, conflict, and despair. MV lives in a broken world and sees no alternative other than to surrender by ending her own life.
A broken world leads to broken lives.
Related: Is the Culture Targeting the Orthodox Church?
In another story, the Post Millennial notes that the Associated Press has won the allegedly prestigious "Photo of the Year" award in the competition "Pictures of the Year International." The contest is hosted by the Donald W. Reynolds Institute at the Missouri School of Journalism. Ali Mahmud and Hatem Ali are members of a group of people who are credited with taking the award-winning picture.
The photo in question is that of the half-naked body of German-Israeli woman Shani Louk, splayed on the back of a pickup truck. Louk attended the Nova Music Festival on October 7 and was one of the victims of the Hamas terrorists. The photo shows her jubilant attackers celebrating over her body.
Congratulations to @AP for winning a Pictures of the Year award. How does it feel to do so on the back of Palestinian photojournalists who infiltrated Israel on Oct. 7 and took photos like the one below of Shani Louk's dead body in a Hamas pickup?
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) March 22, 2024
Was @RJI bothered about that… pic.twitter.com/MSasc9yzVp
This photo captures Hamas terrorists desecrating the body of Shani Louk, may her soul rest in peace. Yet the @AP news agency proudly received an award for it. Their continued pride in their photographers' "work" and involvement in the atrocities is shameful. pic.twitter.com/WYet09sST9
— Danny Danon 🇮🇱 דני דנון (@dannydanon) March 27, 2024
The Post Millennial said that Hamas photojournalists were embedded with the Associated Press, the New York Times, CNN, and Reuters. Survivors and relatives of the victims of the Nova festival are suing the AP for "materially supporting terrorism." The suit states that the photographers were “known Hamas associates who were gleefully embedded with the Hamas terrorists during the October 7th attacks.”
The Associated Press says it does not know why that picture was submitted for the competition. It reiterated its claims that it did not have advanced knowledge of the Hamas attacks and said that the suit's claims are baseless. I don't believe them. Human life has become transactional and is treated like a commodity instead of a gift.
The Hamas attacks are examples of the degree to which humanity has degraded. The fact that someone at the AP decided to submit the photo for consideration and the odious and beyond-flimsy response by the news outlet when it was called to account speaks to the degenerate nature of people who seem to give terrorism tacit approval by celebrating it. In a way, MV's plight is a result of the world that has been created by the mindsets of people such as Hamas and those at the Associated Press. Life has become cheap, and people have no value. Small wonder that MV wants nothing to do with the world anymore.
The world has been broken beyond man's ability to repair it. Some might make the point that it has been that way since the beginning. People cannot repair the world or one another because people are the ones who continually inflict the damage. We cannot achieve new life on our own because we are unable to disentangle ourselves from the earthly one. No one but Christ can save us.
The irony is that the very people who reject Christ are often the ones who have helped create the situations that illustrate our desperate need for His grace. But, lest we grow too comfortable in demonizing the opposition, it is important to remember that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. All of us have crucified Christ at one time or another. And He has answered the call.
Let us enter the Easter season solemnly, but also joyfully and with thanksgiving. Solemn because we are aware of our peril, and joyful and thankful because we can be saved from it.
