Designer humans?

I have just read with great dismay the headline Human embryos genetically altered for the first time (The Times, Saturday 14 March). As usual the benefits are talked up, basically freedom from genetic diseases, a most worthy goal. But there seems to be little awareness of the further implications when we tinker with the terms of our own existence. Consider the following possibilities now opening up before us:

·         A militaristic nation creates the perfect soldier, who obeys orders without question and kills without compunction.

·         A multinational company creates the ideal worker, who is submissive and able to work long hours without fatigue.

·         A government institution creates a designer elite, a highly intelligent oligarchy who have no need of any input from the mass of ordinary people.

But surely we could never accept this in the liberal West? I think we will feel forced to. The line will be, "our workers must be as efficient as theirs or our economy will go down… our armies must be as ruthless as theirs or we will be at risk… our rulers must be as powerful as theirs or we will be unable to compete." We've done this before. When Alfred Nobel invented dynamite, he said this would end wars because nobody would be able to face the prospect of using such a horrific weapon. Instead everybody used it to avoid being defeated by their enemies.

This is what you get when you believe that human beings are valuable, not intrinsically for who we are, but for our uses. For the first time genetic tools are going to enable us to select the qualities we want and eliminate others. But what this really means is that we give some people, the ones who wield the technology, power over other people. This is a vastly more significant power than we have ever seen before – the power to determine our very nature.

In effect this means that human beings will become the property of others in a way not dreamed of even in societies that practised slavery on a vast scale. It will become possible for human beings to be created to order by generals, by multi-national companies, by elite institutions. The content of my DNA, my character, my abilities, my personality, will be owned and patented by somebody else.

We have the means to do all this – but do we have the wisdom? As soon as we start to conceive of our fellow human beings as blank sheets to draw our own aspirations on, manipulable to suit our own ends, we demonstrate that we do not have an ethical base capable of handling this technology.

In our contemporary world view, we are no longer children of God, valuable in our own right just by being who we are. Instead we are animals, the random product of a meaningless universe that got here by complete accident. Very soon now we will be saying, wouldn't it be better to be here by design? But who will the designers be? Sony? North Korea? the CIA?

I really, really hope and pray it never happens…

Je ne suis pas Charlie, mais…

I could never be Charlie. I just don't agree that it can ever be good gratuitously to trash other people. I'm not trying to protect islam from debate - for example, it teaches that Jesus never died on the cross, which is essential to the Christian relationship with God, and incidentally is also a matter of well grounded historical fact. But it is for the very reason that God is the kind of God who gives Himself for others that it can't be right to go around abusing people. He cares about them – enough to die for them, whether they acknowledge it or not.

Nor am I against satire. How can I be when the greatest English satirist, Jonathan Swift, was a clergyman in the Church of England, like me. But his satire had moral purpose. Swift attacked the unconcern with which Englishmen stood by while Irish children starved to death. He attacked the cant* with which hypocrites dressed up their double standards. He attacked the wilful ignorance and fanatical destructive zeal which sadly seem to be coming around again in our own day. But as far as I can tell Charlie's cartoons weren't about any of those things. Petty nastiness is not the same as true satire.

Freedom of expression means people have the right of course to express themselves even if they only have tawdry things to say. Very bad things happen to societies that suppress these freedoms. When freedom goes, sooner or later it will be my own Christian beliefs that are on the line.

Yet we need also to see the big picture. What is freedom of speech there for? Surely so that anyone can freely ask the big questions about life, that we can hold our own convictions and share them with others without fear, that we can poke fun at hypocrisy and evil, that we can take part in the big debates about how our country should be run and how we should live. This is the dignity and responsibility of being human. As humans we need to take part with others in defining our political, moral and spiritual landscapes. The Bible story of the creation of humans shows that God expects us to do this. "You are made in my image, so go into the world and take charge. Look after it for me..."

Having freedom of speech means of course that the less dignified and less responsible are also free to express themselves. In fact we curb that liberty in some instances. The old principle - that my freedom ends where it takes away the freedom of another – has been extended to vocal and written expression too. Sanctions are applied when people humiliate others because of their race or gender, or falsely defame them in such a way as to cause real harm to their interests. I'm not saying that Charlie should be suppressed, just that they have shown plenty of liberté but precious little fraternité.

Perhaps the best use for freedom of expression is to ask questions. So here are some.

1.      Which is the worse blasphemy against God? To draw a stupid picture? Or to burn alive someone made in His image? Actions speak louder than words…

2.      What would I.S. do differently if they worshipped Satan rather than God?

3.      How can people who carry out the most appalling acts of violence imagine they are going to heaven rather than to hell?

4.      Why would anyone want to go to heaven anyway if it means living forever with a god of terror?

5.      When you suppress other belief systems by force, isn't it because you are afraid to meet them in open debate?

6.      When you force people to convert at gunpoint, aren't you just demonstrating that nobody in their right mind would do so of their own free will?

I'm sure you can think of a few more questions of your own,

Jonathan Swift - our greatest satirist.

* What a wonderful word cant is. What a pity it is used so little nowadays when there's so much more of it about.

The Wall Falls Down

The Berlin Wall – what a symbol of human divisions! what hope was born 25 years ago when that hideous barrier Curtain finally came down in November 1989. The whole Iron Curtain was torn in two. Nations one after another emerged blinking into the sunlight. Even apartheid fell apart at the same time. It really felt for those of us who were there as if a fresh wind from God was blowing through human existence, waking us up from the nightmare, showing us that there could be hope.

Yet those heady days did not last. There are new dangers and new hatreds roaming the earth. We are still divided, hiding behind our walls of hostility. Name some – class? nationality? money? the generation gap? the war of the sexes? religion? ideology? sporty types versus nerds? arty types versus Philistines? Jew / Gentile? ethnic Group? Accent? Somehow we humans feel compelled to define who we are by deciding who is IN and who is OUT. It always comes back to us and them in the end.

Jesus however has come to break down these barriers. Somehow bearing the rejection of all on the cross broke down the barriers by which we reject one another. He broke down the wall in his own flesh when his body was broken for us on the cross. His cross puts the whole human race together in one category – sinners who need to be forgiven. There's no IN and OUT. We're all IN – up to our necks!

But he also puts us all together in a further category. We are all equally beloved: that person who is on the other side of the wall from you because they talk funny or they are the wrong gender or they do a menial job or their skin is different or they don't hold their knife and fork right – God loves them as much as He loves you. So much he even went to the Cross for them.

This is how the Bible puts it:

For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. (Ephesians chapter 2:14-18)

God is the fountainhead of love and peace. Our broken relationship with Him takes away our security and destroys our confidence that we are beloved. It drives us to base our lives on fear - we run away and hide behind our walls. But then the Cross comes! It restores our relationship with God and puts an end to our fear...

But only if we choose it. Let's then come out from our trenches and from behind our walls. Let's come to the Prince of Peace who has broken down every wall. And as we draw near to Him, we'll draw nearer to each other too.

The best lack all conviction, while the worst

are full of passionate intensity...

These are lines from W B Yeats' poem The Second Coming. They describe a society disintegrating into ruin and chaos. And they have a prophetic sound to them, don't they? They were first published in 1921, yet they could be describing our time. We see with horror the passionate intensity of those who think they are serving God by murdering people who have never harmed them, butchering even children with unbelievable cruelty, raping women and selling them as slaves, looting and destroying everywhere they go. They kill blasphemers, but what greater blasphemy than to proclaim that God is pleased with such wickedness? I mean, if they were worshipping Satan rather than God, what would they do differently? Who could want to get to heaven if it meant living with a blood-soaked  God like theirs?

But this goes hand in glove with Yeats' other line - the best lack all conviction. It is natural for young, idealistic people to search for meaning and purpose in their lives. What's going to happen when society constantly tells them that there is no point in our existence? That we are just animals who have arrived by accident in a random universe? We have made people who are hungry for reality ripe for indoctrination. It is the converts who are carrying out the worst atrocities and it is our moral and spiritual vacuum that is driving the conversions.

Sadly the religion that has become naturalised on these shores for nearly two millennia has been so denigrated, maligned and slighted that it is not seen as an alternative. Jesus' values – show mercy, do not judge, forgive your enemies and pray for them, love your neighbour as you love yourself, take care of those who are different from you, have compassion on those in need – these are the diametric opposite of the sickening news stories coming out of Iraq. What a different world it would be if young converts flocked to Jesus instead of to jihad. If you want to change the world, do it in the name of love!

But the young and zealous look at our unending river of porn, our deep problems with drugs and alcohol, perhaps above all the Gadarene disintegration of our family life, and they don't think Christianity is an alternative. It's not because Jesus has been tried and found wanting. It's because the Gospel isn't wanted, so it hasn't been tried. They see that Christians don't really speak out, so they assume we have nothing to say. And we don't! We have become self-censoring. We've given in to the constant pressure, we've accepted that the name of Jesus or the sight of his cross might cause somebody to be offended, so we've keep quiet while Christianity has been suppressed. The best lack all conviction… Sadly the harvest of this may turn out not be easy-going secularism (if there is such a thing - it's becoming more and more strident) but hard-edged fanaticism.

What's the answer? Not yet more abandonment of convictions, but standing up for the right ones: speaking out for truth, living for love, bringing peace, declaring in word and action that the Kingdom of the God of love is near. I dare you.

Here's the full text of Yeat's amazing poem:

    Turning and turning in the widening gyre
    The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
    Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
    Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
    The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
    The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
    The best lack all conviction, while the worst
    Are full of passionate intensity.

    
    Surely some revelation is at hand;
    Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
    The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
    When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
    Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
    A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
    A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
    Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
    Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.

    The darkness drops again: but now I know
    That twenty centuries of stony sleep
    Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
    And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
    Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

Holiday Reading...

Great chance to catch up with my reading this summer, especially last year's bestseller and most critically acclaimed novel, The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt - all 864 pages of it!

It's about a drug abusing, alcoholic conman - and it ends up full of profoundly Christian themes. It's fairly amazing that a novel with some sort of Christian outlook gets any kind of support from the critics at all these days! Yet it shouldn't surprise us. Redemption, whether it comes to fruit or is refused, is the main spring of drama in most human story-telling - without it there is no story, just moods that go nowhere. Character is vital for the novel, where it is a huge driver, as it is for Christianity, where it reflects humanity in the image of God. Meaning is fundamental to words, as it is for Christianity. Values are the background which makes it matter what characters do - their actions are not just the random processes of animals.

No wonder then that the greatest novelists of the twentieth century - Evelyn Waugh and Graham Greene - were Christians, just as were the greatest poets - T S Eliot and W H Auden. Atheism and don't know-ism just don't cut it in these areas. Of course it doesn't mean that being a Christian makes you a great writer, nor that not being a Christian makes you a terrible one. But it does mean that the right framework for story and character, words and the clash of values is already important to you.

So is Donna Tartt up there with these greats? Well I was so impressed that I've written a book review - see my Book Review blog http://colinsbookreviews.blogspot.co.uk. If you read it I hope it will inspire you to take up Donna Tartt's blockbuster too - just book yourself plenty of time off first...

Our bishop (John Pritchard, Bishop of Oxford) is retiring soon. You may know that he is also the Church of England's spokesman on education. His wish as he prepares to retire is that every Christian should read at least three Christian books a year. So I'm plugging my book review blog as it offers some ideas where you might want to start.

Walking on water

Last Sunday's talk was about Peter walking on water, or at least giving it a good try. The story's in Matthew 14:22-33. Here's what we said...

I want to talk about your comfort zone. Peter and the disciples in the middle of this storm had a comfort zone. It was their boat. They were fishermen. They'd grown up in boats! They made their living from them, day in, day out.

So stepping out of the boat was leaving the comfort zone. I mean here they were, in the middle of a terrible storm, no Jesus with them, and suddenly they see what most of them take to be a ghost! What would you do? Who'd stay put?

I've heard sermons that rather belittle Simon Peter here – yes he started out fine, didn't he, but then he took his eyes off Jesus, he looked at the wind and the waves – all that's going on around him – instead of trusting in the Lord. So he began to sink… If only he'd listened to my preaching, if only he'd had my faith, he wouldn't have sunk. But Peter's really brave here – would you have stepped out of that boat? Your comfort zone?

When is the last time you stepped out of your comfort zone? It needn't be in a big way. Perhaps you took on a new role – you weren't sure how it would go. Perhaps you went to visit someone – maybe you took up last week's challenge to go and find someone who we might need our company or our help – remember when we ate the fourth bit of donut? Or maybe it was a big thing – you launched a risky business venture, you tried to put things right with someone you'd fallen out with.

Have a chat with your neighbour: when did you last step out of your comfort zone? Where was God in that? ... Anyone want to share? …

As you've noticed, we've actually acted out stepping out of our comfort zone. Opening up to another person about times when we've felt vulnerable – that's stepping out of our comfort zone. Being expected to talk to each other in church – that's stepping out of our comfort zone. 

But why should God want to take us out of our comfort zone? After all, we like it there! And we need to be there a lot of the time - but maybe not all of the time. I think God has three reasons:

1. Because God wants our faith to grow. Faith like a mustard seed is faith that can grow – seeds grow. Put it in God's hands and it will grow – because that's what faith is. It's not about trying to make yourself believe things you know aren't true. It's about trusting in God that He is at work in you. Peter responds to Jesus – "Lord, if it's really you, call me!" God doesn't ask us to do stupid things in the name of stepping out in faith. He just asks that we let Him take the lead in cosmic dance of faith. Faith cannot grow while we play wallflower. We need to get out there and exercise those faith muscles - or they will waste away.

2. Because our comfort zones don't last. Sooner or later, storms come. That's life. Nothing we have will be there forever. Only Jesus is forever – because of His death and resurrection.

3. It's because Jesus Himself is our comfort zone. How do you picture Jesus walking on the water? Scrambling up and down those mountainous waves? No, He didn't scramble, He walked! Peace spread over those waves around Him. Peace spread to Peter when Jesus took him by the hand. Peace spread to the disciples when Jesus got back in the boat. This is a peace that cannot be taken away, because the Prince of peace is forever.

So it's about swapping one comfort zone for another one – a better and more lasting one for one that sooner or later will succumb to the storms and sink. Which comfort zone do you prefer?

For further reading, try this title:

Ethnic Cleansing in Iraq

I am appalled to learn of the horrific violence being meted out to my fellow Christians and other minorities in Iraq simply for not being muslims. This is a systematic attempt to eradicate Christianity from a country where it has been present since the time of Jesus.

The first responsibility for this ethnic cleansing lies with the pack of murderers who are carrying it out, and the second with the wealthy regimes in the Middle East who actually approve of Isis and are bankrolling it to a staggering extent.

But the British and American governments deliberately went in and destabilised Iraq. Whether intentionally or in rash ignorance, they left it prey to these killers. They must surely bear their share of responsibility too.

I encourage everyone who reads this to write to the Prime Minister, the Secretary of State and their MP and ask to know how the government intends to respond. Can they deploy clandestine forces? Can they take steps against those who fund Isis? What humanitarian aid are they going to offer?