Apathy is a Fruit of the Spirit

The year following the Columbine school shooting, the parents of murdered Christian teenagers Cassie Bernall and Rachel Scott cashed in on their daughters’ deaths in one of the more sickening displays of publishing prostitution seen in modern Christendom. Both families wrote books recounting the spiritual journeys and “martyrdoms” of their late loved ones (I use quotes because, in the case of Cassie Bernall, the whole “she said yes” business quite possibly never happened.) I was thinking about that this week in the aftermath of Terri Schiavo’s death. Somehow these two instances seem strikingly similar. In the case of Bernall and Scott, her well meaning parents decided to peddle their daughters’ recently snuffed lives for cash, undoubtedly for the greater good of “reaching people for Jesus” or “comforting the afflicted” (though it’s possible they also used the writing of the books to work through grief; grief, if you didn’t know, is easily comforted by a cash advance). In the case of Schiavo, RepubliChristians decided that this politically advantageous life was one worth saving. In both cases, we have well-meaning people using tragedy for their own purposes. I’m willing to let the Columbine parents off the hook. Losing a child makes one do funny things, I’m sure. I’m not so willing to give the RepubliChristians a free pass. That’s because even a cursory glance into the world reveals that there is a lot of tragedy that RepubliChristians don’t give a rip about. As Baptist minister Tony Campolo is often known to remark to Christian audiences, "I have three things I'd like to say today. First, while you were sleeping last night, 30,000 kids died of starvation or diseases related to malnutrition. Second, most of you don't give a shit. What's worse is that you're more upset with the fact that I said shit than the fact that 30,000 kids died last night." If Terri Schiavo had not been politically advantageous, or had she not been white, you can bet your ass George Bush would have continued his vacation. Don’t believe me? Explain why, in the very midst of arguments about removing Schiavo’s feeding tube, a church in Charlotte, N.C., decided to cut ties with a food pantry because said pantry works with Roman Catholics (Would this group of Christians have let Catholic Schiavo starve?). Explain why the Michigan House of Representatives has agreed to let doctors refuse to treat gay patients. Explain why the US may have allowed malnutrition rates of Iraqi children to double since the invasion. Where is our outrage over these things? Perhaps apathy, not love, is the fruit of the spirit.