Blessing death. . .

For a long time I have suggested we ought to be wary of our neighbor to the North.  They have instituted things that eventually find a home here and, although it usually takes a while to make it through the border, it does not take long enough.  Assisted suicide is one of those things.  Labeling the Bible hate speech not to be tolerated in the public square is another.  When you cannot screw things up any worse, what you can do is bless the mess.  That is what Canada is doing -- at least some of the Canadians.

The Anglican Church of Canada has deemed it time to provide for a litany of blessing for those being killed.  Indeed, the Canadian Anglicans have authorized their clergy to bless people being euthanized just before, during, and after being lethally jabbed (at least with the permission of the bishop). From “Pastoral Liturgies at the Time of Death in Contexts of Medically Assisted Dying”:

It is not our intent to enter into the ethical arguments regarding MAiD, nor to provide a moral argument for or against MAiD. . . . No matter where people are in their life journey, we as a Christian community and Christian leaders in particular are called to respond pastorally to the needs and concerns of the people before us. Wherever the church serves, we are the Body of Christ reaching out to the suffering, the sick, and the dying. When someone reaches out for pastoral care, the church responds: there is a duty of pastoral care.

Ouch.  Jesus came to overcome death but the Anglicans are now authorized to bless it.  Imagine if only Jesus had the benefit of their generous pastoral care!  But that is the point.  In their theological vacuity they have failed to raise an ethical argument against euthanasia so what is left but to bless it -- giving it the stamp of approval from the Anglicans who presume they are also acting on behalf of God?  Never mind that suicide has a long history of being one of the most egregious sins in the Christian book of wrongs from the earliest of our days.  No, they have no stomach to prevent this death but they do think it might benefit from some nice words being spoken as it makes its way to rob the life of the living (whether they were complicit in this death or merely its victims).  Better let the Anglicans speak for themselves:

Death is a natural part of life, and in the spirit of the Church’s continued ministry, we are called to walk alongside health care agencies and practitioners to offer a pastoral response and presence to those who are dying. As the Book of Alternative Services notes, “if the sick could not get to church, then the Church [. . . should] come to them.” 

So, then, if death does not come at the right time to those who wish it or those wishing it for them, the church can come to them with a blessing while the government conveniently provides the painless end for the very thing Jesus suffered all to kill once for all.  Legal must mean moral in the playbook of the Canadian Anglicans.  Again, their own words:

People who choose MAiD freely and without coercion may indeed be ready to go. They have been living with and suffering through complex health challenges and they want the pain to stop. They want to be able to sleep. They desperately do not want their families and loved ones to watch and wait, wondering how much longer? They have exhausted all medical options, and they know, everyone knows, that there is no cure. Some wish, most of all, not to be alone at the time of their death, and to die well. Some, who are Christian, also desire not to be alone at the time of their death, and to die well, and with the grace and blessing of God and with the presence of the Church at their side. 

Indeed, I am not sure that hastening death with a medical assist is something anyone who has read the Scriptures or knows the history of Christianity would ever want to do alone.  Funny how they want to put the imprimatur of Christ on the very thing that Christ came to end.  Oh, well, sometimes we know better than God, don't we?  For what it is worth, I am not suggesting that we abandon the Christians who are making this kind of choice but the alternative to abandonment is not blessing.  Is it?  No wonder the Anglicans are struggling so in North America.  They just don't seem to know how to get it right.  Perhaps that is why they US version is selling its prime property and church headquarters.  I am sure they will come out with enough money so that they can afford to print up blessings when the time comes for the Americans to follow the Canadian lead.