On a fateful day in 1963

On a fateful day in 1963, the 50^th anniversary of which we celebrate on 22 November, three prophets died, the death of two eclipsed by the dramatic assassination of the third. The death of the Declared Hedonist overshadowed the deaths of the Declared Atheist and the Declared Christian. The Declared Hedonist was prophetic in his wisdom and in recognising the evil intent of his enemy and we do well today to learn from his practical wisdom and insight into evil. JFK – John Fitzgerald Kennedy, commonly known as Jack – was indeed a great statesman albeit flawed in his personal morality.

JFK:

'No government or social system is so evil that its people must be considered as lacking in virtue.'

'A nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.'

'The rights of man come not from the generosity of the state but from the hand of God.'

'Let us pray that God may grant us the wisdom to find and to follow a path that will enable the men of Notre Dame and all of our young men to seek truth in the halls of study rather than on the field of battle.'

The Declared Atheist of course was none other than Aldous Leonard Huxley – three initials again – and as you know he was wonderfully prophetic. In 1931 he described in Brave New World a laboratory in which fertilized human ova would break into separate buds, each maturing into an embryo that could be genetically manipulated for various roles and purposes. So prescient.

ALH:

'Interestingly enough, the people who are conducting this experiment have figured out how to pre-program genetically what each person who will be created in that test tube will be. Some will be labourers, some will be congressman, some will be business leaders.' (from Brave New World)

'That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons of history.'
'Cynical realism is the intelligent man's best excuse for doing nothing in an intolerable situation.'
'I'm afraid of losing my obscurity. Genuineness only thrives in the dark. Like celery.'

(from brainyquote.com)

The Declared Christian – arguably one of the greatest writers and apologists ever – was, of course, Clive Staples Lewis, again known by his initials, hardly ever by his two given names and also commonly called Jack. His work is major: in an incredible and prophetic series of three memorial lectures in 1943 at the University of Durham, subsequently published as The Abolition of Man, he talks about 'men without chests' or adults who lack moral formation and moral character, who divorce their head from their hearts, who use their 'head' but lose their 'chest.'

Men without chests. Meaning that we should be more moral in our science, more ethical in our medicine, more responsible in our economics, and re-integrate values at all levels of education.

CSL:

'In a sort of ghastly simplicity we remove the organ and demand the function. We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honour and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. We castrate and bid the geldings be fruitful.'

'The practical result of (such) education... must be the destruction of the society which accepts it.'

We might illustrate this by saying that we sow violence and indiscriminate sex on media screens and computer games and then wonder why we reap violence and indiscriminate sex in our society.

Lewis again:

'Stepping outside (the moral values), they have stepped into the void. Nor are their subjects necessarily unhappy men. They are not men at all: they are artefacts. Man's final conquest has proved to be the abolition of man.'

J I Packer, in a brilliant article Surprised by Lewis in Christianity Today Sept 1998, writes:

'The Abolition of Man was the waving of a red flag at an oncoming juggernaut that would reduce education to the learning of techniques and so dehumanize and destroy it, tearing out of it that which is its true heart.

The attempt was ignored, and today we reap the bitter fruits... The inner desolation and desperation that young people experience as subjectivist relativism and nihilism are wished upon them in schools and universities is a tragedy. (If you do not know what I am referring to, listen to the pop singers; they will tell you.)'

Three visionaries each with a message for us today. We justly remember and value the great sayings of Jack Kennedy. Huxley's Brave New World has become a part of our lexicon and the threat of genetic manipulation is now inside our doorstep. Jack, as in Lewis, is now better known than ever before and his writings more significant. Lewis' fiction is about the encouragement of men with chests and the consequences of the destruction of moral law. The Narnia Chronicles are about the development of ethical, moral and spiritual values in children so they will grow chests. I commend the writings of this most significant thinker, visionary, teacher and prophet to you at this remembrance time.