A nineteenth-century philologist (Richard Chevenix [a delightful name!] Trench, in his book Synonyms of the New Testament) called “Hell is paved with good intentions” the “queen of proverbs.”
That came to mind about halfway through R.R. Reno’s “Say ‘No’ to Death’s Dominion,” in First Things.
Reno begins by quoting New York Governor Andrew Cuomo: “I want to be able to say to the people of New York—I did everything we could do. And if everything we do saves just one life, I’ll be happy. “
Think hard on that. “If everything we do saves just one life, I’ll be happy.”
I won’t. Everything we do is costing trillions—not thousands, not millions, not even billions, but trillions—of dollars. And if all we do with those trillions of dollars is save one life, we’ve done something very evil.
Why? Because by doing something else with those same dollars, we could have “saved” (really just prolonged—it’s appointed to everyone once to die and after that the judgment, according to Hebrews 9:27) thousands of other lives. Recently I’ve reviewed four major studies trying to ascertain how much loss to an economy results in a statistical premature death. The answers range from about $5 million to about $130 million. None of them rises to $1 trillion, let alone the $10 trillion or more the American economy is likely to fail to produce this year because of the “shelter-in-place” rulings that are closing millions of businesses, making tens of thousands of them go belly up, and depriving millions of workers of incomes. Even at the highest estimate, $1 trillion lost to the economy would bring almost 7,700 deaths—and $10 trillion 77,000. At the lowest—you don’t want to know.
What we spend on A we can’t spend on B. That’s called “opportunity cost,” a basic concept of economics that too many decision makers today seem not to grasp in the least when it comes to fighting the coronavirus pandemic.
Ah, but I sound way too much like an economist. (I once heard that an economist is someone who doesn’t have enough personality to be an accountant.) Reno handles this more poetically, more beautifully, more theologically—calling on fields of thought and passion far more powerful than economic analysis.
He doesn’t pull punches, though. After quoting Cuomo, he says, “This statement reflects a disastrous sentimentalism.” Absolutely right.
But then comes the beauty in Reno’s post:
Everything for the sake of physical life? What about justice, beauty, and honor? There are many things more precious than life.
Patrick Henry would have understood that: “Give me liberty, or give me death!” So would Benjamin Franklin: “Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety. ” And Jesus: “… do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell” (Matthew 10:28).
There is a demonic side to the sentimentalism of saving lives at any cost. Satan rules a kingdom in which the ultimate power of death is announced morning, noon, and night. But Satan cannot rule directly. God alone has the power of life and death, and thus Satan can only rule indirectly. He must rely on our fear of death.
In our simple-minded picture of things, we imagine a powerful fear of death arises because of the brutal deeds of cruel dictators and bloodthirsty executioners. But in truth, Satan prefers sentimental humanists. We resent the hard boot of oppression on our necks, and given a chance, most will resist. How much better, therefore, to spread fear of death under moralistic pretexts.
Reno is absolutely right. And with this, too:
… the mass shutdown of society to fight the spread of COVID-19 creates a perverse, even demonic atmosphere. Governor Cuomo and other officials insist that death’s power must rule our actions. Religious leaders have accepted this decree, suspending the proclamation of the gospel and the distribution of the Bread of Life. They signal by their actions that they, too, accept death’s dominion.
More than one hundred years ago, Americans were struck by a terrible flu pandemic that affected the entire world. Their reaction was vastly different from ours. They continued to worship, go to musical performances, clash on football fields, and gather with friends.
We tell ourselves a fairy tale about that reaction: Those old-fashioned people were superstitious and ignorant about medical science. They abandoned the weak to the slaughter of the disease for no good reason. We, by contrast, are scientific and pro-active, meeting the threat of disease with much greater intelligence and moral rectitude. We suspend worship and postpone concerts. I’m sure we’ll cancel family reunions as well. We know best what is most important—saving lives!
That older generation that endured the Spanish flu, now long gone, was not ill-informed. People in that era were attended by medical professionals who fully understood the spread of disease and methods of quarantine. Unlike us, however, that generation did not want to live under Satan’s rule, not even for a season. They insisted that man was made for life, not death. They bowed their head before the storm of disease and endured its punishing blows, but they otherwise stood firm and continued to work, worship, and play, insisting that fear of death would not govern their societies or their lives.
We, by contrast, are collectively required to cower in fear—fear that we’ll die redoubled by the fear that we’ll cause others to die. We are stripped of whatever courage we might be capable of.
Where do we start to recover our senses, to put behind us sloppy sentimentality with its disastrous consequences? We could start by praying for this to apply to ourselves: “God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control” (2 Timothy 1:7).
(P.S.: No doubt someone will say, “No, the proverb is ‘The road to hell is paved with good intentions’.” Sorry. Trench says the original was ‘Hell is paved with good intentions.)
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