Apologetics
When I was in junior college taking care of the undergraduate stuff and trying to decide what my major would be, I took a class in Psychology 5. This was Introduction to Psychology. It was taught by a woman professor who was good at what she did. It was a fun course, if an Intro class could be considered fun. She would have us play games on certain days. These games were designed to get you to interact with one another and to see what your values were: they were - "Values Clarification Games".
One of the games we played was called "Life Boat". In the game, you were to pick who would stay and who would be tossed into the drink. Only five people could fit in the life boat, and you had to decide from a list of nine. The list was: A movie starlet, a young male doctor who happened to be gay, an old priest, a young nun in her twenties, a five year old with Cerebral Palsy and his mother (these two can't be separated), an old atheist school teacher, a military officer, and a pregnant woman. You were put into groups and it was to be unanimous decision on who was to stay and who was to go.
I remember asking for the group if we could build a bigger boat. We, as a group, were told we could not do that. As we started to play the game, one of the groups I was in looked at the list and started with the priest. Everyone there, with the exception of a young girl who was raised Catholic and myself, wanted to throw the priest off. Reason being, he's old and and probably doesn't want to father any children. My argument was he would probably father a child because he realizes the importance of life. I was told that as a priest, he would be happy to die because he would be in Heaven. I held my ground. The group wanted to save the school teacher who was an atheist, because the school teacher could pass on valuable lessons to any of the children that might come along the way. The Catholic girl asked, "What about the teaching of God?' (way to go, sis!). The group didn't have an answer to that one, other than to say that religion was the main cause of all the wars that have ever taken place. In other words, we want peace here even if we have to cram it down your throats! They also failed to realize that the secular society and its religion had led to more killings than any war that was in the name of the God of the Christians. But that's another story for another time.
We moved on. Next up, the young gay doctor. The group wanted him to be the first saved. Why? To be a doctor means you have to be smart. My reply was, "and the priest is a dummy?" Someone in the group said that the doctor was young enough that he could also father a child. "Why would he go against his sexual preference?" I asked. It doesn't logically follow. He would understand the importance of life and be willing to put aside his preferences, I was told. "Wouldn't that follow suit with the priest?" I asked. "No," was the answer. In other words, don't give us logic when we're right. Then we started to discuss the fate of the young boy and his mother; over the side they went. Before I could say anything about the mother and son, a young woman in the group said, "Do you realize the cost of tending to a handicapped person?" My reply was, "So this is a reason to the kid becomes shark food, because we don't have the money?"
By this time the group wanted to find an ocean and feed me to the sharks. We could not get a clear cut decision on who was to stay and who was to go. I had never seen myself as an antagonist, but the LORD calls us to do this from time to time. Not to argue for the sake of arguing, but for the sake of the Kingdom. Even He was an antagonist to the Pharisees.
Some of my Christian friends have told me that they don't like this game because it devalues life, not clarifies values. In a way they are right. They would try to figure out a way to save all of the people. But I also think it has to do with not understanding what we believe and why we believe it. I, on the other hand, wouldn't want to play this game again for other reasons; I really don't like to argue, albeit I'm reminded of what the late Doctor Walter Martin said, "It never hurts to stand up, stand up for Jesus in the Halls of Higher Education and in the market place; it hurts when you don't."
This was almost twenty years ago that this game was played. I still hold fast to my values as I did then. Life is important and should be lived giving glory to our Father each and every day, no matter what our bodies may be or how important we think we are. God sees us as we really are; sinners in need of a Savior.
The Bible speaks of a life boat that is big enough for the whole world to fit in. In this life boat, all of His children are welcome and valued. There will be a day when this life boat will come and rescue us and take us on home to Heaven; this life boat is Christ.
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Very nicley put! Have you ever heard the song 'life boat' by Christian singer Steve Taylor? It also makes a very good point. If it were up to me I would have the priest and the nun share the Gospel with everyone on the boat, and if the gay doctor, and the actress blew it off, over they would go. God Bless!
Jim, some valuable truth in this one Brother and very well written as always. - Jay Cookingham
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