In response to Saturday’s post on the death of Cecil the lion my good friend Molina offered the following comment:
Down to the nuts and bolts, humans need to stop killing the weakened, the helpless, the unprotected. It is ALL so sad that we have no respect for any of God's creation, horribly, horribly sad!
Molina's comment was for me thought-provoking, so I started writing a reply beneath her comment and before I knew it I'd churned out enough words for half a blog post.
So I moved my half-finished thought from the comment section over to here to finish it up.
So anyway:
I don't know, Molina. It's true, as you say, that the weakened, helpless and unprotected are killed every day in this world, probably every minute, and yes, there is a lack of respect out there for God's creation and all this is horribly sad. Yet in my heart I believe that you, me, and most of us do try to respect God's creation the best that we can. I believe this in spite of the Neros, the Adolph Hitlers and the Osama Bin Ladens, the war-mongers, the power-hungry, the terrorists, rapists, murderers and all the mean, hurtful, hateful, warped, sick twists kicking around our there who have the means to make a misery of our lives and our planet.
But there are 7.3 billion of us on this planet and I believe that most of us want to do the right thing. It’s just that sometimes we really don't know what to do. Sometimes we find ourselves in a situation where it's just too hard for us or we don't have the strength or resources to do what we wish we could do. Or we find ourselves in a situation where we believe we have no choice but to do something we wish we didn’t have to do.
Of course this wasn't the case with Walter Palmer. The lion whose life Palmer took was not in pursuit of Palmer's life or a threat to his well-being, he didn't need the animal for food or clothing or income to support his family. Walter Palmer was a wealthy, successful man who killed that lion in a most cruel fashion for fun and sport without the least moral compunction.
But I believe that most of us do naturally feel compassion for the weakened, helpless and unprotected. I believe that for most of us it's our natural instinct to help one another if we can. Sadly, sometimes our own life's situation causes us to act against our natural instinct. We humans are complex creatures who are faced all the time with morally complicated situations. We're also extremely suggestible. We tend to believe whatever we're taught from our youth, even the most phenomenally counter-intuitive notions. And we tend to follow like sheep and need the sustenance of social acceptance. Still I believe most of us want to do the right thing if only we can figure out what the right thing is. And if only we're able do it.
And by the way, though I was as sad and angry as the rest of the world over the death of Cecil the lion, still I have no desire to see Walter Palmer sent to some horrible prison in Zimbabwe. I have no desire to see him prosecuted or suffer mob justice. Because what he did, though a crime against God's creation, was illegal only because he accidentally killed the wrong lion. And because Walter Palmer, for all his education and wealth, was a morally ignorant man. What I wish for Walter Palmer is a moral epiphany.
Down to the nuts and bolts, humans need to stop killing the weakened, the helpless, the unprotected. It is ALL so sad that we have no respect for any of God's creation, horribly, horribly sad!
Molina's comment was for me thought-provoking, so I started writing a reply beneath her comment and before I knew it I'd churned out enough words for half a blog post.
So I moved my half-finished thought from the comment section over to here to finish it up.
So anyway:
I don't know, Molina. It's true, as you say, that the weakened, helpless and unprotected are killed every day in this world, probably every minute, and yes, there is a lack of respect out there for God's creation and all this is horribly sad. Yet in my heart I believe that you, me, and most of us do try to respect God's creation the best that we can. I believe this in spite of the Neros, the Adolph Hitlers and the Osama Bin Ladens, the war-mongers, the power-hungry, the terrorists, rapists, murderers and all the mean, hurtful, hateful, warped, sick twists kicking around our there who have the means to make a misery of our lives and our planet.
But there are 7.3 billion of us on this planet and I believe that most of us want to do the right thing. It’s just that sometimes we really don't know what to do. Sometimes we find ourselves in a situation where it's just too hard for us or we don't have the strength or resources to do what we wish we could do. Or we find ourselves in a situation where we believe we have no choice but to do something we wish we didn’t have to do.
Of course this wasn't the case with Walter Palmer. The lion whose life Palmer took was not in pursuit of Palmer's life or a threat to his well-being, he didn't need the animal for food or clothing or income to support his family. Walter Palmer was a wealthy, successful man who killed that lion in a most cruel fashion for fun and sport without the least moral compunction.
But I believe that most of us do naturally feel compassion for the weakened, helpless and unprotected. I believe that for most of us it's our natural instinct to help one another if we can. Sadly, sometimes our own life's situation causes us to act against our natural instinct. We humans are complex creatures who are faced all the time with morally complicated situations. We're also extremely suggestible. We tend to believe whatever we're taught from our youth, even the most phenomenally counter-intuitive notions. And we tend to follow like sheep and need the sustenance of social acceptance. Still I believe most of us want to do the right thing if only we can figure out what the right thing is. And if only we're able do it.
And by the way, though I was as sad and angry as the rest of the world over the death of Cecil the lion, still I have no desire to see Walter Palmer sent to some horrible prison in Zimbabwe. I have no desire to see him prosecuted or suffer mob justice. Because what he did, though a crime against God's creation, was illegal only because he accidentally killed the wrong lion. And because Walter Palmer, for all his education and wealth, was a morally ignorant man. What I wish for Walter Palmer is a moral epiphany.
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