Just ran over an article by Kristina Robb Dover entitled Spiritual Morphine while link-surfing. While lamenting the vacuous teachings of a certain well-known preacher, the author alludes to the fact that his style and preaching tends to substitute the gospel as painkilling in nature as opposed to its true nature as that two-edged sword designed to penetrate one’s very most inner being. What disturbs the author is the impact of such teachings that offer to a public- in- pain religion as pain relief.
The author is a hospice chaplain. The object of such an environment is to relieve the pain of terminally ill clients. Here are some of her thoughts: This is insightful.
Yet the highest, governing value presumed in these meetings was the necessity of freeing the patient from pain, physical, emotional, or spiritual. It is this presumption that gives cause for concern. In my experience as a hospice chaplain…this value has become an implicit, guiding principle that directs chaplains in their ministry of ‘pain relief.’
Concerning what she calls two unspoken common assumptions, the author says this:
The first is that the terminally ill patient is always right. Because he is on the threshold of death, he is presumed to enjoy greater access to virtue and judgment than is attainable by those who dwell in the land of the living. He attains a kind of sanctified status…It may be true that while pain relief is a large part of hospice care, it is not an end in itself, but a means of helping patients resolve various emotional and spiritual end-of-life conflicts. Even so, the use of palliative medicine as a way to encourage the pursuit of emotional and spiritual wholeness is still about helping the patient achieve his best death on his own terms …The second assumption is that death, embodying a ‘natural’ transition to a carefree afterlife, is a good in itself. After reportedly studying some 20,000 cases of ‘near-death experiences’, Kubler-Ross concludes that life after death is universally a ‘glorious experience’ and a ‘pleasant reunion’ of sorts: ‘There will be a total absence of panic, fear, or anxiety’; ‘you will be very beautiful, much more beautiful than you see your self now’ ; and you ‘will always experience a physical wholeness.’…For the chaplain who is a ‘mere Christian,’ this underlying principle of pain relief contains some disturbing theological implications. The first is that God is a God of grace only, not of judgment, with the implication that an orthodox Christian understanding of human sin and our need for divine pardon is outmoded and inadmissible. Guilt, regret, or a conviction of divine wrath only fosters unnecessary discomfort, and must therefore be eliminated….
My unease is with a Christianity that in a highly therapeutic, health-obsessed Western Culture genuflects before the idols of comfort and happiness. A religion that assigns greater value to pain relief in the here and now than to the lordship of Jesus Christ has only succeeded in erecting another golden calf, with the damaging result that health and comfort and a pain-free death are falsely proclaimed as the answer to the riddle of human existence….Is my role to administer a spiritual morphine drip? (bold added)
Hopefully, I can extrapolate her thoughts without saying more than she had intended. As a typology it seems reasonable to assume the world to be in a hospice condition with the entire population (outside of Christ) to be terminal patients within. The Church would take the place of the hospice nurse. What are we to do with such a stewardship? Shall we comfort these people with religious niceness, or shall we tell them that apart from Christ, death is not really a ‘glorious experience”? THIS IS A SERIOUS MATTER! So much of our efforts are geared toward strengthening comfort zones for a people who are in essence “under the ban”. At what price are we being seeker friendly? It seems to me that many in the Church are substituting a “therapeutic God” for the real God who is going to return in wrath, and in response to a community that is in apostasy. We need to reflect: It seems more than reasonable for those of us who proclaim His great salvation to consider the possibility that we are feeding terminal patients with a drip-line of religious pain relief - a drip line of spiritual morphine.
The same God who is forgiving and full of agape love is also a God who is going to bring us all into an accounting when His enemies have been dealt with. Let’s proclaim the full gospel. Eternal lives are our patients.
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2 comments:
I thank you brother for access to your bog. Reading this post this morning, I have some of my simple thoughts that come to me as a reminder for myself and to share. It seems these types of teachings, from many typical well -known preachers, truly tend to all but eliminate the true Blood of Christ in their message to their followers. And I use the term followers with extreme pain. The Spiritual Morphine article uses the struggling 72 year old Esther as a potential tragic example of the error in following a simple man diluting The Truth. Rather than as we are continually reminded, to be following The Living Water itself. As Christian brothers, we know Christ can do all things, including the healing and comfort we look and ask for. But He also asks us to put on the armor to be ready for battle. To understand that our salvation does come with the task of representing our Lord appropriately and fully. To push only the pain relieving morphine element to keep us comfortable is to eliminate the blood that Christ shed for us. This world needs to have His light shed upon it. For us to reflect or radiate that light, we must understand and be willing bond servants to shed, although not nearly the same level, some blood, pain, or discomfort. And with a loving and ever hopeful heart know that we will be accountable for that task in the end. As faithful and strong stewards, we must share ALL THE TRUTH, "the gate is narrow"
Thanx for the input Mike. Serious stuff, huh? I don't know quite yet how to handle this current thrust to religious niceness at the expense of substance. Let's observe together for a while and see what unfolds. We may become watchmen on the wall.
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