By LeRoy Lawson
My Beloved World
Sonia Sotomayor
New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2013
Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela
Nelson Mandela
New York: Little, Brown and Company, 1994, 1995
What Shall We Say? Evil, Suffering, and the Crisis of Faith
Thomas Long
Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 2011
What books do you take along for vacation? Last summer Joy and I had a rare treat. Marshall Hayden invited us to be a part of a group he led for a cruise on the Mediterranean. (You can adjust!) In exchange for a few lectures, our sailing was free. Nothing is more relaxing than cruising””well, at least on the at-sea days. Nothing to do but eat (too much), relax (a lot), and read. So I took along some long-postponed reading.
From Humble Beginnings
My first book was Sonia Sotomayor”s My Beloved World. When this controversial justice of the U.S. Supreme Court published her autobiography, I reacted critically. I wasn”t certain a sitting justice should talk this much about herself. I prefer our exalted jurors to be almost faceless, perched high and lifted up above the rest of us mere mortals, disembodied intellectuals dispassionately studying all sides of an issue and then, with cool objectivity, handing down their long-awaited decisions, uninfluenced by personal history or political persuasion.
Dream on, Macduff!
The truth is Supreme Court jurors are political appointees. The presidents who select them hope their appointees will vote as the appointers would. They are chosen to represent their political parties, their ethnic constituencies, and the right (as their president defines the right) side of whatever the current hot-button issues are.
So maybe we should become a little better acquainted with these powerful persons.
Justice Sotomayor is unlike any Supreme Court justice before her. She is female, American of Puerto Rican descent, Catholic, Democrat, passionate advocate of the poor, and confident proponent of whatever position she holds (in this characteristic she is not at all unique).
She is also an excellent writer. Once into her story you keep turning pages, wanting to learn more about this child of an alcoholic father whose early death left a widowed mother to do what she could to give her children a future. She did very well. Home was an apartment in the Bronx housing projects, breeder of juvenile delinquents, drugs, and hopelessness. Yet Sotomayor was helped to the best education her country has to offer, went on to shine in public and private law practices, and rise as a judge in federal courts, ultimately the Supreme Court. Hers is an inspiring story.
Regardless of your own politics, learning more about Justice Sotomayor”s amazing odyssey will make you proud to be a citizen of a nation that is still, in spite of everything, a land of opportunity.
After Horrible Injustice
And ours is not the only such country. Nelson Mandela”s equally improbable story is set in racist, apartheid-cursed South Africa. It”s about a poor country boy who defeated almost insuperable odds to become father of his country. His own polygamist father, adviser to his Chosa tribal king, died when Nelson was still a child. His life became a struggle””for an education, for freedom, and for his dignity in the Afrikaner-dominated nation that steadily, inexorably tightened the screws on the much larger native population. You know the end of the story. Mandela joined and later led the fight to liberate Africans from virtual slavery to the white minority and finally, after 27 years of prison, became that country”s first freely elected African president.
Long Walk to Freedom is hard to read. That”s not so because Mandela is not a good writer nor because the book is so thick (625 packed pages), but because the suffering inflicted on South Africa”s native population almost defies belief. It”s like reading about the Nazi Holocaust all over again; only the gas chambers are missing.
My goal in reading this memoir was to try to discover how a man could endure so many years of cruelty and then, when finally given the chance that his election gave him to get even, did not get even. How could he forgive, refuse to get even, and evenhandedly serve as president of all South Africans, black and white alike?
There is greatness in the man.
With Inexplicable Suffering
When I selected the books for my vacation reading, I didn”t realize how timely it was to include Thomas Long”s What Shall We Say? Both of the autobiographies raise some of life”s gravest issues: How can “civilized” society be so cruel? Why are there such inequities between the haves and the have-nots? What does it mean to be human? If God is good, why doesn”t God fix things? Since God doesn”t seem to fix things, how can we call God good?
It”s this last question that Long wrestles with. Theodicy is the word theologians use to describe this ages-old issue of suffering in a world created and sustained by a supposedly good God. How can we explain . . .
“¢ Ted Turner”s sister Mary Jane, whose systemic lupus erythematosus””a fatal disease in which the immune system attacks the body”s tissue””tortured and then killed her? Turner, a teenager when she became ill, was going to be a missionary. Not after this. His sister was gone. So was his faith. “I was taught that God was love and God was powerful,” he says, “and I couldn”t understand how someone so innocent should be made or allowed to suffer so.”
“¢ Aaron Kushner, the rabbi”s son, who died of progeria at the age of 14? Why? Rabbi Kushner decided God is loving but not powerful enough to prevent Aaron”s suffering. Is this the right answer?
“¢ And what about ______? You can fill in the blank from your own experience. The author brings his best thinking to bear on the maddening subject. His best thinking””but he produces no easy answers.
He believes today”s thoughtful Christian would pose the theodicy question, with its contradictory propositions, as follows:
“¢ There is a God.
“¢ God is all-powerful.
“¢ God is loving and good.
“¢ There is innocent suffering.
What kind of world is it, then, in which all four statements are presumed to be true?
Long finds the solution he is seeking in the cross of Jesus. “God is indeed all-
powerful, but God”s power is not like raw human power but is instead a love that takes the form of weakness, a power expressed most dramatically on the cross. We think we want God to plunge into creation with a machete and to slash away at evil. It is not that this is somehow out of God”s range of power; it is that this kind of use of power is out of God”s range of character.”
The author presents four logical possibilities to “explain” how evil got mixed into a good creation:
1. God is the author of both good and evil.
2. There are two “creators,” a good one and a bad one. God is the good one.
3. God didn”t fashion the world ex nihilo“”out of nothing””but started with some raw materials already at hand, and the potential for evil was already in them.
4. God is the one and only creator, and the creation was made “very good.” But something happened afterward that introduced evil into the goodness.
He is convinced No. 4 is the right choice. Jesus” parable of the wheat and the weeds teaches that good and evil will coexist until the final harvest, when God””so much wiser than we are””will do the separating of the weeds from the wheat and good will once and for all prevail.
We haven”t yet, then, heard the rest of the story, with its paradoxical conclusion: “The love of God, seemingly so weak on the cross, ends up victorious and ultimately destroys the power of evil.”
Does the author convince? I”m thinking, I”m thinking.
LeRoy Lawson is international consultant with CMF International and professor of Christian ministries at Emmanuel Christian Seminary. He also serves as a CHRISTIAN STANDARD contributing editor and member of Standard Publishing”s Publishing Committee.
We received the following as a letter to the editor, and have chosen to post it in the comments section.
________
Regarding Leroy Lawson”™s “Power, Forgiveness, and Suffering” piece (January 2014 CS).
In recommending books through a Christian publication one would hope the focus would be to enlighten believers about noteworthy subjects that reflect an orthodox Christian worldview and have, at minimum, specific redeeming values applicable to believers. That is not to say secular topics have no value and cannot be utilized to teach and instruct. But, when heaping praise on individuals as symbols of what we are to look to as believers, Christian publications ought to choose from the myriad examples of excellent Christian role models whose lives manifest the beliefs and virtues of our faith. And there are many such examples.
Sadly, Leroy Lawson”™s recent review of two books misses the mark entirely, not only in terms of its subject matter, (notably not orthodox Christian) but, moreover, in its lack of objectivity about the lives and beliefs of those who were the subject of those books; Supreme Court Justice Sonya Sotomayor and the late Nelson Mandela of South African fame.
While recommending her book, “My Beloved World” Lawson rather tongue-and-cheekily states he “reacted critically” to the idea of a sitting Supreme Court judge (Sotomayor) penning an autobiography because he wrongly believed justices of America”™s Supreme Court ought to be above such things and reside in relative obscurity until such time as they “objectively hand down their long awaited decisions.” He then remembers, almost thankfully, members of the High Court are immune from such constraints as stare decisis and the requirements of impartiality underscoring the judicial oath, (which they swear to uphold upon taking office), because they are political appointees. In Lawson”™s view, Sotomayor”™s “amazing odyssey” relinquishes her from those outmoded shackles; leftovers of an obviously prejudiced judiciary ruled by long-ago dead white men. According to Lawson, her gender and ethnicity make her “unlike any Supreme Court Justice before her.” That may be true, but not for the reasons he cites, after all there have been other women, blacks, and members of both ethnic and religious minorities on the Court.
In a spring 2002 issue of Berkeley La Raza Law Journal, Sotomayor made this statement, “Whether born from experience or inherent physiological or cultural differences “¦ our gender and national origins may and will make a difference in our judging. Justice O”™Connor has often been cited as saying that a wise old man and wise old woman will reach the same conclusion in deciding cases. I am also not so sure that I agree with the statement. “¦ I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn”™t lived that life.” (Emphasis mine) An incredible statement for anyone, let alone a judge whose impartiality is what is supposed to be rendered unto Caesar while adjudicating cases brought before her. Sotomayor made this statement on numerous occasions so one can infer she means it.
In a 1996 Suffolk University Law Review article, Sotomayor wrote: “Yet law must be more or less impermanent, experimental and therefore not nicely calculable. Much of the uncertainty of law is not an unfortunate accident: it is of immense social value.” Really? In our country, the rule of law, the bedrock of our very freedom, stands in stark contrast to the pronouncements of Sotomayor who elevates social experiments and individual preference to a higher judicial standard than administering justice without respect to persons.
Mr. Lawson is impressed with the rags to riches story of Justice Sotomayor and tells us her story should make us all proud to be part of this nation, especially since she was the recipient of “the best education her country has to offer.” For many Christians, however, the Ivy League schools (and I attended one) and the so-called education they inflict on students is at the heart of many of the most compelling issues facing the church today. Unconstrained abortion and the radical homosexual agenda come immediately to mind. The “richness of her experience” will, as she said, determine the outcome of her decisions regardless of the permanency and clarity of the teachings of Scripture on these two nation-defining issues and, one supposes, other issues that come before her.
My purpose is not to argue again the qualifications of Sotomayor to sit on the bench of the Supreme Court, but rather to challenge a flattering review of a book in a Christian publication that leaves out some very important facts as it draws some interesting, albeit suspect, conclusions. As Lawson points out, rising from the social environment Sotomayor did is noteworthy, but it would be far more interesting if her “Beloved World” included embracing the essentials of orthodox Christianity, included impartial justice, as her guide when she was tempted to adjudicate based on her “physiology.” Paul wrote in Galatians, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus” A Justice of the Supreme Court who held that view would be worth reading on vacation.
Regarding Nelson Mandela”™s “Long Walk to Freedom” Mr. Lawson again leaves out much that would have made his review more thorough and compelling, choosing, instead, to write a one-dimensional adoration piece about a very controversial figure. He interjects his opinion about life in South Africa with absolutely no historical context or understanding of the social and political complexities of that beautiful country.
In the 1980s the African National Congress (ANC) was put on terrorist watch lists in both Britain and the United States owing to its alignment with the Soviet Union, and there is no question Mandela was a leader of that group and its armed subgroup Umkhonto we Sizwe (Spear of the Nation). He also had very close ties to the Communist Party at a time when the Soviet Union was expanding its influence in the region in a direct threat to the United States”™ vital interests. It was not only “racist-apartheid South Africans” that opposed Mandela, but the leaders of the largest black South African tribes who opposed the ANC”™s continuing calls for the violent overthrow of the government; men like Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi and Bishop Isaac Mokoena wanted a peaceful settlement and transition from apartheid to a South Africa representing all its people, black and white alike. Mr. Lawson”™s picture of Nelson Mandela leading all black South Africans out of slavery is misleading and not at all historically accurate.
Lawson says his goal was to “discover how a man could endure so many years of cruelty and then, when given a chance that his election gave him to get even, did not get even … and evenhandedly serve as president of all South Africans, black and white alike.” (Emphasis in original) This is ambiguous to say the least. The ANC was an organization entirely bent on getting even as was Mr. Mandela”™s wife during much of his time at the ANC. She, without any condemnation from him, was a zealous and open advocate for one of the most brutal murder tactics ever devised. Pioneered by the ANC, “necklacing” involved filling a tire with gasoline before putting it around the victim”™s neck, lighting it on fire, and watching the victim writhe in horrifying agony before eventual death. Most of the ANC”™s “necklace” victims were fellow blacks who were actual or perceived opponents of the Mandela”™s ANC.
By appearing in a Christian publication, Mr. Lawson”™s reviews gain instant legitimacy and that is a great responsibility. In drawing moral lessons from the scrubbed autobiographies of Justice Sotomayor, and Nelson Mandela, without a rigorous analysis of their belief systems in light of the Christian worldview, he fails in his responsibility to his readers. By merely lauding the virtues of these very controversial individuals Mr. Lawson missed an opportunity to point believers toward inspiring books about individuals whose lives not only exhibit the best this country has to offer, but did so in thoroughly orthodox Christian ways. Dr. Ben Carlson is one such fellow; an almost identical story to Sotomayor, but one bathed in the glorious redemptive power of Christ and its concomitant worldview and practices.
“”Sean McKeon, Oriental, NC