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February 16, 2014 at Advent Lutheran Church in Cedarburg, WI. Sixth Sunday
after Epiphany. Matthew 5:21-37. Part two: Are people born good or evil?
Question: Who can finish this nursery rhyme?
Lizzie Borden took an axe and gave her mother forty whacks. When she saw
what she had done she gave her father forty-one.
Lizzie Borden was born on July 19, 1860, in Fall River, Massachusetts. She lived
with her sister Emma and parents Andrew Borden, and stepmother, Abby. On
August 4, 1892, Andrew and Abby Borden were found murdered in their home.
Lizzy was arrested and tried for the axe murders. She was acquitted in 1883 and
continued to live in Fall River until her death, on June 1, 1927. Although the case
was never solved there was almost unanimous consensus that she did indeed
murder her parents, hence the Lizzie Borden nursery rhyme that eventually
circulated across the country and is still known by many to this day.
Just a few examples of why they thought that way are the fact that it was
common knowledge that Lizzie had a tumultuous and strained relationship with
her step-Mother who demanded that the sister call her “Mrs. Borden.” Add to
that that the father was very wealthy and a motive involving money was
reasonable.
Lizzie never took the stand in her own defense, and when it was made known that
she had burned a dress immediately following the murders she claimed the dress
had paint stains on it.
Lizzie and her sister Emma did indeed inherit a significant portion of their father’s
estate which allowed them to purchase a new home together. Shortly after that
without explanation the two sisters abruptly separated never to speak again.
Speculation was that Emma learned the truth and could not continue living with
Lizzy.
Last Sunday was Evolution Sunday in thousands of churches like ours where the
pastors of those churches talked about how they can see no conflict between
science and religion. In fact, like me, most of these pastors would agree that
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science and religion are two different languages about life, and how life came to
be.
I personally believe that atheists who claim that only science is needed to
understand life and that there is no God – and – the Christian fundamentalist who
say the Bible is literally true including the creation story – are both sadly limiting
their understanding of reality.
As I have repeated the last couple of Sundays there is a vast difference between
what you personally believe and the objective reality of life itself. The right faith
or belief system for you is the one that has meaning and enriches your life. In
simple terms one that works for you.
But that does not mean you should demand that others believe the same thing. I
don’t know why that is so hard for many people, maybe most people to
understand. Even Jesus makes it abundantly clear when criticizing the Pharisees
in Matthew 6:5-6:
“When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites! They love to stand up and pray
in the houses of worship and on the street corners, so that everyone will see
them. I assure you, they have already been paid in full. But when you pray, go
to your room, close the door, and pray to your Father, who is unseen. And your
Father who sees what you do in private, will reward you.”
I take his words to mean what I just said about personal or private faith. It can’t
be wrong if it works for you. The reason Jesus calls the Sadducees and Pharisees
hypocrites is because they always talk a good game – but do nothing about it.
I concluded my message by introducing Neuro-scientist James Fallon who was
asked to study MRI images of the brains of hundreds of prisoners. The brain
scans were not identified as to origin or reason for study. He was simply told to
group them according to what he finds significant about the images.
His research resulted in two groupings. A large group of images where there were
some minor anomalies or differences between the images, and a much smaller
group containing virtually identical scans.
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When the scans were identified James Fallon and the other scientists were
overwhelmed at the findings. The large group of scans was of the general prison
population of various criminals without any particular connection to why they
were there but every single scan in the smaller group belonged to one of the
serial killers.
This is big. It means that that there was a scientific way to identify the difference
between the general population and these monstrously violent people who
seemingly have no conscience whatsoever.
The implications are obvious. For instance if we can determine by observation
that certain children begin showing signs of a troubled state of mind or even as
the experiment with the babies choosing the bad behavior showed we might be
able to intervene before the person becomes a murderer.
The documentary continued by showing James Fallon at a family cookout where
he explained what an amazing discovery his research had found when she heard
about it his 84 year-old mother rather casually said to him;
“You should do a study on our family James.”
When he asked why, she said;
“Lizzie Borden was a cousin of yours,” and maybe there is someone in our family
line with similar traits.
His whole family thought it a good idea and volunteered to be scanned. Just as
with the prison experiment the scans were not identified in any way as Fallon
studied them. As he viewed the images he was relieved to find that they looked
normal enough as the others in the large prison group had, with understandable
minor differences.
In a word, they were “normal.” But the very last scan he studied, unfortunately
was identical to the serial killer scans with the Orbital Cortex and Temporal
Medulla showing virtually no activity. Obviously this bothered him so he removed
the masking of the identities so that he might learn who this person in his family
was and was absolutely astonished to see it was his scan he was looking at!
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To say this was troubling for him would be a gross understatement. After
collecting his thoughts he wondered, since he had never had even the slightest
impulse to hurt anyone, and he certainly didn’t think he was a bad or violent
person, maybe the second piece to the puzzle of violent behavior, the Warrior
Gene anomaly is not in the picture for him.
Unfortunately when studying his genetic mapping he did indeed also have the
Warrior Gene anomaly. When he told his family some of them actually withdrew
from him somewhat. His adult son said that he remembered that his father
would often lose his temper and got angry easily.
His wife said that although he was a very accomplished scientist she always felt
there was, as she put it, “another side of him that was distant or hidden.”
As you can imagine all of this was very puzzling as well as troubling to Fallon. So
he realized that there was a third component to the serial killer brain that was
present in every single case study. All of the serial killers had been either
physically or sexually abused as children.
He began to study his own childhood through family pictures, stories and
intentional memories. As he flipped through dozens of photo albums he realized
that he was smiling and looking happy in virtually all of them.
He was most often with his father in a motorboat, fishing with dad. Riding his
bike alongside his father, again smiling for the camera. He could not find or
remember a time when he was not happy, and concluded that this must be the
key to why he never took the darker path that so many psychopaths take.
And of course the implication being that we may be able to not only identify who
is in danger of become a psychopath but through intervention prevent the
behavior all together.
You see, that’s why we need science and spirituality, neither is complete without
the other. Neither can answer all the many varied and complex questions of
existence. Neither can stand alone without the other. That’s why Jesus
constantly talks about needing to be healthy in both mind and body.
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That’s essentially what today’s long and strange Gospel lesson is all about. Once
again, impossible to be read and understood literally as if he meant you should
physically pluck out your eye! That’s absurd. What he did mean, I believe, is that
it is not enough that you have not committed a crime or abused someone. It is
not enough that you have broken no laws and you claim to believe in God.
To be part of the kingdom of God which is the phrase Jesus equates with living
according to God’s word and will – you must also do what his message demands.
Practice more kindness than necessary. You know the drill;
“Feed the hungry, cloth the naked, etc., etc.”
Next Sunday I will begin a series of sermons on the science of happiness…you
may be surprised at what I have found. There really is a way you can increase
your happiness and emotional well-being.
I conclude with the words of Civil War Era orator Robert Ingersoll penned in 1880:
If Cathedrals had been Universities
If Temples had been Observatories
If Priests had been Philosophers
If Astrology had been Astronomy
If the Black Arts had been Chemistry
If Superstition had been Science
If Religion had been Humanity
The world would be a heaven filled with love, and liberty and joy.
Indeed. Amen.
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