Sorry for the long post and the rambling, run-on sentences . . .
“I desire mercy, not sacrifice” (Hosea 6:6). Is there ever a situation in which showing mercy is wrong? This was the parting question during the Doctor Who season 9 opener last week. In lieu of giving away spoilers, the Doctor is forced into an ethical dilemma. Should he save one of his greatest enemies, or should he stand idly by allowing his enemy’s demise? Think of it this way. Imagine that you could go back in time to meet a young Hitler who is being held at gunpoint in his German grade school. What would you say? What would you do? If you intervene you may save his life, which might lead to the history we know. Would you abstain, and let what happens, happen? Maybe you would pick up a gun and take the story into your own hands.
Let’s check some of our assumptions. Let’s assume that showing mercy is wrong in this situation, and that the Doctor should leave his enemy stranded and certainly doomed. In full disclosure, I’m still thinking all of this through, so forgive me for the short bullet points. If we assume mercy to be ethically wrong, we assume the following:
- 1. Violence solves the problem. “Those who live by the sword will die by the sword,” Jesus says in Matthew’s Gospel. Violence does not offer closure, nor does it offer healing; rather violence breeds violence. As long as there is vengeance, anger, and retribution, violence will only perpetuate it’s own reason to exist.
- 2. We are silos. Killing a potential leader does nothing to end the system that gave birth to the evil the leader perpetuates. Systems search for the path of least resistance. If a system is bent toward the lust for power or greed or might, cutting off the head just leaves room for a new dictator to take her or his place.
- 3. Evil is more powerful than good. If you must use evil means to reach a good end, you’ve proven that good is not as powerful as evil. This is precisely what the Doctor’s nemesis is hoping to reveal.
- 4. Quantity matters. If you sacrifice few for the sake of many, ethics boils down to simple arithmetic. I appreciate what the Doctor says during season 8—“Sometimes the only choices you have are bad ones, but you still choose,” but I wonder if sometimes we feel forced into the decisions we make because of quantity. Certainly there is more to the Gospel than minimizing collateral damage?
- 5. Showing mercy to whom? If we are ever in the situation of offering harm to one for the safety of another, how do we choose to whom we show mercy? It may be easy to say that we should favor the defenseless or the young or the innocent against the powerful or criminal or guilty, but I know myself well enough to know that my judgment of innocence or guilt is rarely (if every) objective. I’m also aware that this is all a head game until someone attacks one of my daughters. I can’t promise to mull my theory-based ethical decision in that moment. I pray I never have to make that decision, and I pray for those who face this kind of violence more than our sensibilities might want to admit.
In Hosea, the Lord says, “I desire mercy, not sacrifice” (Hosea 6:6). I really wished the Lord said, “I require mercy,” or “I demand mercy,” but “desire” seems too ambiguous for life or death decisions. This text makes great sense in the context of a sacrificial Temple cult, meaning that God desires our merciful actions rather than making personal sacrifice at the Temple, but how does this apply outside of the Temple or does it? Usually, “desire” means to be in want of something, and I desire that we all are in want of more mercy in the world, but what is showing mercy means the sacrifice of the innocent?
Interestingly, the second definition of “desire” means “to move.” I wonder if a more appropriate reading of what God is saying through Hosea is, “I move toward mercy, not sacrifice.” It seems that when we show mercy, we move toward where God is calling us to be. It’s not that our decisions are perfect, and we may mistakenly choose the lesser of two evils, but maybe the point is always to offer mercy, forgiveness, and grace, because in so doing we move toward the very heart of God. If we believe in redemption, and that our story ends with the life Christ merited through death and resurrection, then mercy is always the correct answer. Living in charity and grace certainly gets in the way of our notion of power, success, and security, but if Hosea is to be believed, mercy is always a movement toward God, and isn’t this the very reason we have air in our lungs?