I had a conversation yesterday with at teacher about dealing with sensitive topics in literature. Euthanasia was brought up. I said I would have my students find out what their religion had to say about it. She didn’t think it was a good idea to bring up religion. I told her that my religion would decide it for me. She felt that there were situations where euthanasia might be right and that the students ought to grapple with the question. I wished later that there was a better way to explain the certainty I felt in following prophets.This morning I was reminded of a talk by Elder Faust. In it he quoted President Kimball saying “If pain and sorrow and total punishment immediately followed the doing of evil, no soul would repeat a misdeed. If joy and peace and rewards were instantaneously given the doer of good, there could be no evil—all would do good and not because of the rightness of doing good. There would be no test of strength, no development of character, no growth of powers, no free agency. … There would also be an absence of joy, success, resurrection, eternal life, and godhood.”
He also said “Now all this suffering might indeed be unfair if everything ended at death, but it doesn’t. Life is not like a one-act play. It has three acts….”
I felt bad that my friend might never read these words…and that she would bring up problems without connecting students to the peace that would come with real answers. If I had a chance to do it again, I would tell her that this life is a test and that how we endured suffering had a great impact on the final grade. She would probably not pursue my reasoning but she might better understand why I found my answers in my religion. (See Moroni 10:4-5)
(The views written in this post are the views of the author and do not necessarily represent The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.)
3 comments:
I seems second nature to me that with any controversial topic such as Euthanasia, that one would fall back on ones religious beliefs. However I can see if you aren't really religious, or you religion is not involved with current issues you may see it deferently. I am grateful that the LDS church is so on the ball with issues that are important, it helps a lot in a confusing world.
(I took off my first comment so I could finish it.)
You do have to be careful when bringing up religion in public schools. However, I tell my History students that if you don't know what people believe, you will never understand why they act the way they do. Teaching children that religions deal with life and death decisions and telling them what to believe are two very different approaches. My next comment in most classes would be that this was a good thing for them to talk about with their parents.
Emilee is right. There are many people that would see the subject differently, or would be undecided about what they believed. Perhaps discussing it with their children would help them think it through a little more. At some point it would be good for them to wonder why the law doesn't allow it. I’m also pretty sure I would only want to bring this up with high school or college students. I would want to avoid books that presented the question to younger children. I’m pretty sure my friend would agree with me on that point.
You're doing a great job with this blog. I commend you for your efforts.
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