As reported across the news media, Associate Justice of the US Supreme Court Antonin Scalia died Saturday of a heart attack. According to NPR Justice Scalia was found in a luxury ranch in west Texas. Before the day was over, political opponents and proponents were already jockeying for political position both pushing for a swift nomination and asking for the entire process to stop until after the election. As the weekend wore on, a conspiracy theory even developed that the late Justice Scalia was murdered, since there was no autopsy, as part of a plot to give President Obama a third term.
As the week began, one article came to my mind that I want to talk about. In South Carolina, Glenn Beck, the conservative pundit, is campaigning for Texas Senator Ted Cruz. During a campaign speech, Beck declared that God killed Justice Scalia to ensure a Ted Cruz victory in the primary and general election. He went on to say that it was his personal observation that has now woken up the American electorate to the fact that this is an evil time where we need to right person to nominate our justices. He has been seeing himself as a prophet of conservative correctness for a few years now, but it is the need Beck feels to put a reason to the death of Justice Scalia that bothers me.
Now, in truth, I had some deep moral and philosophical disagreements with Justice Scalia. Not that these were in the public sphere cause I’m not either a lawyer, or a public figure that anyone cares to know my opinion. However, as a Christian, I think we should talk about how these conversations surrounding the death of a person affect the larger conversation of death. As I’ve observed in my own congregation, we don’t like to talk about this very much. There are some who are upset about our church observing Lent and Ash Wednesday. These conversations are clothed in the language of Protestant vs. Catholic, but I think there may be something about looking at our own human mortality that bothers many. If not the main issue, it is definitely a contributing factor.
Back to Beck, what does it say about our understandings of Christianity that he can say “God killed Antonin Scalia,” just so another person could win an election? Brene Brown might say that Glenn Beck has to put events from our lives into a narrative, even if it is a complete fiction, so that he can understand what is happening. There are snarky things we could say, sure. I mean if it were God’s will that Justice Scalia die, then it must have been God’s will that President Obama was elected, twice. If everything is under the control of God, then we have the President that God wants us to have. But this doesn’t get us to the real part of the conversation. Though it is fun to take to theological battles, it doesn’t always help us to see the real life issues we are confronted with.
Is it OK for us to say that Justice Scalia just…died?
It wasn’t homicide, or Justicide, and Leonard Nimoy isn’t the head of an Illuminati plot to imbalance the Court so President Obama gets a third term. Antonin Scalia was a human being, meaning he was mortal. Just like us. And just like the experience that is waiting for all of us, he died.
During this time of Lent, we are called to look deep into our own mortality. That’s scary, especially when we come from a faith that has spent centuries talking about how we can escape death. For many, it may seem fatalistic to talk about death as something that happens to us all. I’m not trying to downplay the tragedy of it all. His family is mourning his loss; that kind of loss that comes when there is a chair empty at the dinner table, and a patriarch who will never tell his stories. His colleagues and co-workers are expressing their own mourning. They will never hear the jokes or share the joy of intellectual pursuits with him, ever again. For some, the sun shines a little less bright these days.
Though he was a unique individual, with experiences most of us will never share, this time of loss is not unique. This dark part of the year, where some of us are intentionally turning our eyes toward our own brokenness, this loss is a place where we can reflect on what it means to be creatures. Lent gives us a language to sit with those who mourn for we all share in the fragility of our perfect brokenness. We may need to make a reason, or see a pattern, but real answers are far from us. Mortality is what reminds us that we are small. It’s something we heard last week as we took the ashes.
Remember that from dust you have come, and to dust you shall return.
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