Manassas Church of Christ -

TWO ITEMS ABOUT CHIMPS

            Following are two items about chimps.  The first illustrates how we are not like chimps.  The second illustrates how we are not like God.  Both are offered in the belief that we need to have a clear view of our place in God’s scheme.

            1:  In December 2003 the complete genome for chimpanzees was read. * Chimps were found to be so closely related to humans, genetically, that many taxonomists thought they should be classified in the genus Homo, along with humans.  Others argued, with linguist Noam Chomsky, that human language is a result of genetics, and is such a distinguishing characteristic that humans must be thought of as unique.  We shall leave this discussion of how to classify chimps to the disciples of Linnaeus, while asserting that humans are most definitely not like chimps (except, perhaps, for pre-school boys), and language is a perfect example of our differences.  Researchers have been able to teach chimps and gorillas some basic sign language.  They rejoice when one asks for a red ball, and another says she is hungry.  But a chimp cannot sign a sentence with a semi-colon in it.  Only humans can do that.  A chimp cannot compare abstract concepts, contrast the past with the present, or project hopes into the distant future.  A chimp cannot sign a story with the wit of Odysseus, or Anansi, or even a Bazooka-Joe Bubble Gum wrapper.

            And we know why.  We humans have the sophisticated self-awareness to communicate with such nuance and complexity because we have souls.  Genesis 1-2 tells us clearly that we are unique in all creation.  Whereas God spoke everything from groundhogs to galaxies into existence – He formed us personally, from preexisting matter.  He also breathed his own breath into us – invested us with something of himself, something that make us “living souls,” something independent of matter, something that “returns to God who gave it” (Ecclesiastes 12.7) when the material part of us ceases to live.  We have that in us from God himself that makes us significant in a way that chimps and gorillas, planets and stars are not.

            2:  In 1957 the United States Air Force “acquired” 65 juvenile chimpanzees for testing in the space program.  By “acquired” we mean that their mothers were slaughtered in Africa, so that they could be harvested as orphaned babies.  Here in the states they were spun in a giant centrifuge to the point of unconsciousness to gauge the effect of G force on potential astronauts, and to find which of the chimps were best suited for space travel.  Two were chosen: Ham and Enos.  Ham was the first chimp rocketed into space on January 31, 1961.  Enos was launched into space on November 29 that same year.  Enos had been trained to do a number of tasks.  Because of a malfunction in his capsule, every time he performed a task properly he received a violent electrical shock.  Realizing he would perform his tasks despite being shocked for them, he was ordered to perform them all, and barely survived his orbit of the earth.  After making space travel safe for Alan Shepherd and John Glenn, Ham and Enos were transferred to “Hazardous Environments” research where they tested seatbelt safety, and were slammed into walls going 30, 50, and 100 miles per hour.  By the early 1970s the Air Force closed down its chimpanzee program.  Ham and Enos were donated to Biomedical research laboratories where they were both killed by the testing. 

            That is the way we treat chimps.

            It is not the way God treats us. 

We have established that we are not like chimps – that there is a vast qualitative difference between us and them.  So also is there a vast, qualitative difference between us and God – in substantial ways that difference is much more vast.  And yet God loved us so much that He sent His only son to die for us (John 3.16).  God has given us every good and perfect thing that we have (James 1.17).

            It is a delicate balance, almost too precarious a knife point upon which to maintain ourselves – that point that is just the right distance between our humility before God and our confidence because of His love for us.  It is so easy to slide on the one side into arrogance, and on the other side into despair.  I hope these two items about chimps (and these several Bible verses) will help us balance a little better.

*Chimp information taken from The American Scholar, Summer 2005, pp.28-34

DUCK SEASON

            Last year, for my fiftieth birthday, you gave me a Kindle Fire.  I have made it my constant companion.  A book is a better text delivery system, but you can’t carry 800 books in one hand (or even two).  When I carry my Kindle I carry 800+ texts, most of them downloaded for free.  Amazing.  I also carry a video library with me.  If I want to watch Barney Fife buy his first car, Steve McGarrett nab a rogue cop, or John Wayne fight the Mescaleros I can watch that on my Kindle too.  If I had had this in High School I would never have graduated. 

            I have four Bugs Bunny cartoons on my Kindle.  Bugs is one of the formative influences of my life, and you really can’t find him on television anywhere anymore.  I have wondered why, these past few years, he has disappeared.  But after watching the Wascally Wabbit wecently (excuse me – “recently”), having not seen him for a few years, I understand.  Two of the cartoons I have are the Duck Season/Rabbit Season cartoons.  The premise of both is that it is actually Duck Season, but Daffy Duck has gone out of his way to convince Elmer Fudd that it is Rabbit Season.  Both cartoons turn on Bugs besting both Daffy and Elmer by winning a war of words.  In the first he keeps getting Daffy to say: “Shoot the Duck! Shoot the Duck!”  In the second Daffy is goaded into saying “Shoot me now!  Shoot me now!”  In both cartoons Daffy is shot in the face repeatedly at point blank range with a double-barreled shotgun.  Hilarious.

            Or at least it was forty years ago - and so it is to me still.  But it makes me nervous too.  Watching someone be shot in the face with a shotgun is probably not the best entertainment to provide a child.  Of course, those cartoons were originally intended for adults, but I consumed them after school and on Saturday mornings during children’s programming hours.  I would also like to add that I have never shot anyone in the face with a shotgun – not even a duck.  But those cartoons don’t quite seem appropriate anymore, after Columbine and Newtown.  Even the phrase “wascally wabbit” pokes fun at Elmer Fudd’s speech impediment.  That isn’t cool anymore either.  It should never have been cool.

            Then again, kids today play first person, shoot-to-kill videogames that are frighteningly realistic.  I remember seeing a kid play Mortal Kombat years ago, and being shocked when their combatant ripped the spinal cord out of an opponent.  I thought at the time, “What kind of psychopaths will this game turn out?”  Now Mortal Kombat seems as quaint as Bugs Bunny.

            Pondering these notions I thought about going on to talk about the changing values of our culture, or the comparative merits of Johnny Quest and Call of Duty, or perhaps take a moment to bemoan the coarsening of our entertainment.  But I think a more important point would be to assert that it matters to God what we allow into our heads through our eyes and ears.

Finally brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Philippians 4.8

            It only makes sense that what I store in my brain stays there, and that once there it has its effect.  So much bombards our senses that we are often without a choice.  We see and hear things we would rather not have seen and heard.  Often, however, we do have a choice.  God expects that we will exercise that choice for good – that we exercise discretion and discernment when we download something into our consciousness.  We are responsible for managing brain-intake, and cultivating goodness.  This must be done deliberately, or it will not be done at all – which the verse above asserts.

            Perhaps the most important thing Paul says in the passage above is: “Think.”  Unfortunately, we often pay as much attention to what goes in through the ears and eyes, as Elmer Fudd pays to whether it’s Rabbit Season or Duck Season.