Disease.

The Judeo-Christian understanding of the world declares 1) the universe and everything in it was created in an intelligible way by a God who can be glimpsed as we understand His creation, and 2) the world is fallen and corrupt and doesn't run according to God's perfect plan. Thus, we have science -- seeking (and succeeding) to understand God's creation, and failing when it thinks it can understand it completely and replace the "myth of a creator" with itself. To grow, we need to remember that discovering causes of problems doesn't imply moral culpability. The established fact that Tylenol's glutathione depletion is an autism trigger in susceptible individuals won't be socially accepted for decades, because many parents falsely believe that accepting such a fact means it's their "fault" their child has a condition. Nothing could be further from the truth. (Culpability is a consideration only when people choose to stay ignorant of their alternatives and continue to engage in practices that they know are harmful to themselves or others.) We can rightly reject that false moral judgment without rejecting the science behind the causal relationship, or rejecting the notion that some human conditions are challenges that are best avoided if possible. Nothing happens outside of God's sovereign will, and He will move (powerfully!) through all His children's lives. But we have an Enemy who is happy to steal, kill and destroy via disease and illness. We not only can, but must fight that Enemy (not driven by prideful control but in humble obedience to our Creator); discerning his guilt from God's guidance is the trick. In the meantime, trusting God is perfectly compatible with taking positive steps to minimize our children's risks and shepherd them as closely to God's human design as we can.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Passing on Panel Discussions?

Commercial comments (Blogging from Word!)