The Spring/Summer 2005 issue of Presbyterians Pro-Life News includes a perceptive article by Terry Schlossberg on “What Terri Schiavo Taught Us About Dying.” The most insightful reminder in the Schlossberg’s piece (which is not yet online) hits the weakest link for many contemporary Christians: death is not a happy ending.
Schlossberg writes:
Approving medical means to bring about the deaths of the vulnerable often are rationalized by statements that death is a desirable end to perceived suffering. But Christian faith does not glorify death. It does not welcome death as a friend or as an escape from the burdens of this life. Scripture speaks of death as the “last enemy,” that which is overcome by the Savior.
Schlossberg’s point is much needed. If the culture of death ever seduces Western Christianity, it will not be because it redefined “personhood.” It will be because it twists Christian piety to embrace death as a morally neutral “stairway to heaven.”
Christian pulpits must resound with a full-orbed message about death. Yes, to be absent from the body is to be present with Christ. But this is not the final hope of the Christian. The final hope is to share in Christ’s resurrection, and so to overturn the curse of sin and the reign of death.
