Master and Commander of My Soul

Defiant Narcissism 

A member in high standing within the Commentariat has written the following:

If you believe life is sacred as long as you have breath in your body, I accept that. But as far as I'm concerned, my life is over when I no longer have the ability to appreciate life around me.  Once I've lost joy and wonder in the world, then I want to be able to quit my place and make room for someone else. And surely that's my right to decide. [NZ Herald]

Kerre McIvor bats for Unbelief.  Her statement above effectively uncloaks what Unbelief is all about.  It is about Me.  "As far as I'm concerned . . . "; "Once I've lost joy . . . then I want to be able to quit my place . . . "

Remember the lines of Invictus:

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

William Ernest Henley

This poem represents the nearest our modern apostasy will get to a confession of faith.  Kerre McIvor is a true believer in Unbelief.  Its essence is to hold the ultimate decisions in one's hands, for Oneself, and Oneself alone.

There is nothing remarkable in this.  It is the new normal.
  Euthanasia or aided suicide is the cause d'jour.  There is no doubt that New Zealand will move to adopt euthanasia as public policy, just as it has aggressively promoted abortion and homosexual "marriage".  These, too, are an ultimate expression of Unbelief's dogma--the ultimacy of I, me, and mine.  One result has been murder on an industrial scale.  Being the master of one's fate and the captain of one's soul is a bloody business.  The Scriptures say, "those who hate divine wisdom, love death" [Proverbs 8:32-36] and so it has come to pass.

But as McIvor faces down the menace of the years with a resolve to "do it her way", she needs to address some questions.  Let's imagine her sixteen year old child saying to her, in a time of trouble:

Once I've lost joy and wonder in the world, then I want to be able to quit my place and make room for someone else. And surely that's my right to decide.

What would McIvor say?  No doubt she would appeal to the teenager about the wonder of life and the bright future ahead of her.  She would want to persuade her that things are never that bad--they only seem that way.  She would protest her love for her daughter.  But imagine her daughter is resolute.  She continues to  insist that she has lost the joy and wonder of being alive; all is dark ahead.  She presses her mother to agree that she has a inalienable right to decide.  Moreover, because of the sovereignty of her will, others must not just give way, but have a duty to assist her.  The family and state must provide the means for her suicide. Respect and love require it.

What then would McIvor say?  If her religion of Unbelief were to be taken seriously, she would rise to the occasion and agree, defending her daughter's right to take her own life.  It's her daughters right to decide.  The ultimate honour she can pay to her is to agree that her daughter be respected as the master of her fate and the captain of her own soul.  She, the mother, is consequently duty bound to assist her dying.

If McIvor were to demur or draw back then her erstwhile principled assertions fall to the ground--empty, vain, untrue.  The religion of Me, Mine, and Myself reflects the universal narcissism of the age.  It is the religion of death.