The New York Times once published a story about how some
geneticists had quietly made a study of the DNA of Adam Lanza, who had killed
20 school children and 7 adults in Newtown, Conn. They were seeking
biological clues to this extreme human violence. Their plan was to look for
some mutations that could be associated with mental illness --- genetic
mutations that might increase the risk of violence.
The idea that our genetic inheritance sets the stage or
strongly influences our behavior, is not new. But, this got me
thinking. If our particular genetic structure and possible mutations
might push us into violent behavior, could another combination of genes and
mutations give us a bias for emulating Jesus and living as Jesus taught?
I wondered ---- if there are such encouraging biological structures among some
of us, perhaps we should be using genetic analysis to identify such gifted
people, and focus our educational and evangelical efforts primarily on them!
As I thought about this question, gradually some other
questions began to surface. Could such research eventually stigmatize people
who had never openly accepted Christ, but turned out to have a genetic
structure similar to known believers in Christ? Did this suggest that something
was wrong with them?
But, what about environmental influences, like family
of origin, teachers, Christian friends, non-Christian friends? And there
are probably hundreds of genes involved, as well as the environmental factors,
and all of them interact in complex and unpredictable ways. Perhaps it
says more about us, that we are seeking some simple, science-based
predictor of receptivity to the Christian faith.
Do we really wish for a scientific explanation of why some
people "get it," and others do not? Suppose scientists did
discover genes that favored easy adoption of the Christian faith ----
increasing a person's chance of becoming a faithful Christian, but not
foreordaining it? Until such gifted persons express their faith and show
that they are living by their Christian faith, isn't that just
conjecture? Indeed, the social environment of such folks may be such
("bad" parents, "unhealthy" friends) that they never
develop in the direction encouraged by their given genetic structure.
And there are folks who purposefully choose to follow a
particular faith, but not because of generic or environmental influences.
For example, perhaps you know of a married couple where each partner grew up in
a different faith tradition, so when they had children of Sunday School
age, they had to make a choice between two Sunday morning destinations.
For the important purpose of family unity, perhaps one spouse agreed to
re-align to the faith of the other spouse, "for the sake of the
kids." (They might also say they are doing it "just to retain family
sanity.") This is certainly a perfectly rational choice ---- and it
might be the accommodating parent's permanent new path of faith!
The rationales and emotions for why each of us chooses a
particular faith, or no faith, are such a unique combination of
factors!!
Ultimately,it might be great if we understood the genetics
of a tendency toward faith in Jesus, so as to enable researchers to find ways
to intervene and particularly encourage such receptive people to
faithfulness. But the pursuit of this goal risks jeopardizing their
personal liberties, and their ability to freely use our God-given free will.
Genetics simply sets the stage for each of us. Then,
on top of that are all kinds of personal environmental factors that impact us
as we grow up. People tell me that if their parents had been brought up
as Christians, that is a strong influence on their becoming Christian
themselves ---- not Hindus or Muslims.
My conclusion is that one's faith must be derived through
our free will, in order to be Truth for each of us.
But, our "free will" seems to be something like a kitchen
cooking pot filled with many savory ingredients, and we control the
timer and the heat under the pot. Sure, many outside factors influence
our faith choices, but I don't believe Jesus ever thought of us as robots!
_______________________________________________________________________
These thoughts are brought to you by CPC's Adult
Spiritual Development Team, hoping to encourage you to pursue some personal
spiritual growth this winter at CPC.
_______________________________________________________________________
No comments:
Post a Comment