Sunday 20th October 2024
‘In the past God overlooked such ignorance,
but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.’
Acts 17:30 (NIV)
The straight line
In January 2018, Larry Nasser went on trial accused of sexually abusing 265 girls over two decades while he was the team doctor for USA Gymnastics. One of his victims was Rachael Denhollander, who was the first victim to go public, and is a committed Christian.
In her victim impact statement she said, ‘Throughout this process, I have clung to a quote by C.S. Lewis, where he says: “My argument against God was that the universe seems so cruel and unjust. But how did I get this idea, unjust? A man does not call a line crooked unless he first has some idea of straight. What was I comparing the universe to when I called it unjust?”
‘Larry, I can call what you did evil and wicked because it was. And I know it was evil and wicked because the straight line exists. The straight line is not measured based on your perception or anyone else’s perception, and this means I can speak the truth about my abuse without minimisation or mitigation. And I call it evil because I know what good is.’
Glen Scrivener comments (Evangelicals Now, Sept 2024): “A world without straight lines is not a world of crooked lines. If no line is straight then no line is crooked either – lines would just be lines. But the moment we call a line crooked we are judging it against a standard of straightness. It’s the same with goodness and wickedness. If there is no categorical goodness then there is also no categorical wickedness either. Life would just be life.
‘But we know this to be false. We know there are some things that are simply Wrong – wrong with a capital W. Chief among these is child sexual abuse. But if that’s ‘crooked’ then we must also be saying that there exists a ‘straight line’: Goodness with a capital G.’
To know that ‘the straight line exists’ can be a fruitful way of engaging with unbelievers. In many conversations of any depth it will not be long before moral judgments are made. We are naturally encouraged to agree (or disagree) with the judgment.
But it would be more useful to steer the conversation towards discussing why we think that something is right or wrong. Whether we recognise it or not, it is because we believe there is a straight line. Otherwise ‘lines would just be lines.’ And then we may be able to ask where the line is to be found, and how it got there… I’m going to give it a try!
Prayer
Lord, thank you for the ‘straight line’ that you have drawn; help me to see it clearly for myself, and help me to be able to point it out to others. Amen.
Yours warmly, in Christ,
Chris Hobbs (Senior Minister)