AS A COLLEGE STUDENT, I loved backpacking and learning about how to get along in the great outdoors, so I took a university course from a former Green Beret who had honed his survival skills in Vietnam. As you might imagine, he was unusually adept at surviving under difficult circumstances—and had a lot to teach us. But his philosophy regarding the preciousness of life was a bit different from mine.
This instructor believed that everyone has the capacity to brutally kill, and that he could draw out that instinct at will. To that end, he brought several crates of chickens on a group camping trip. And rather than teaching people to kill the chickens mercifully, he chose the most cruel way imaginable. Class member after class member stepped up to do the deed.
But I objected to this heinous behavior. Instead of taking part, I found myself affirming the power and presence of God, divine Love. Despite the picture in front of me, I chose to see that man and woman are created in the image and likeness of this Love. I acknowledged prayerfully that it is intelligent to see this Love as all-powerful, rather than subscribing to the idea that brutal killing is necessary for survival. And I recognized that since we're all governed by a benevolent God who is the source of all intelligence, no human will or despotism could gain control of anyone's thinking and lead that one awry, nor could one of God's ideas gain pleasure or satisfaction from harming another. The interesting thing is that I didn't feel critical either of the instructor or my classmates. I simply recognized that I was seeing a mesmerized state of consciousness, not the truth of anyone's nature. And I continued to pray until I was convinced of each person's capacity for intelligent reasoning and behavior.
