—G.K. Chesterton
10-Jan-03
Essay: Step Into 'The Twilight Zone'
Some of the most thought-provoking television ever (an oxymoron) appeared on the weekly installments of Rod Serling's "The Twilight Zone." The black-and-white program, introduced and concluded by Serling himself—wearing a dark suit and skinny tie and holding a smoldering cigarette—would explore the strange, the curious, the unexplainable, and the what-ifs of modern life in its own inimitable way. None of its later reincarnations have quite been able to capture the original's punch and flavor.
Fortunately, the new shows are unnecessary. These days, we have straight news reporting that conveys us into the shadowy and weird world of "The Twilight Zone." All we have to do is open a newspaper, turn on the TV news, or surf to our favorite news portal on the Internet to enter it. Sadly, it is all too real, confirming the old saw, "The truth is stranger than fiction."
When you see the Raelians—the religious sect that funds Clonaid, which claims to have successfully cloned a human being—on the news, don't you have a funny feeling that you caught that episode of the original "Star Trek?" Or, is Rael himself, a former French journalist once known as Claude Vorilhon, a clone of George Carlin? And what is the significance of the strange clothes and the ponytail? These people believe that extraterrestrials called "Elohim" came to this earth thousands of years ago and cloned humanity from their own genetic material (thus, the Genesis account of creation is a garbling of what really happened). With this background, we are to believe that the Raelians have what it takes to clone a healthy human baby girl named—of all things!—Eve.
And it gets better! They believe that their mission is to perfect cloning so that they can bring a kind of demented eternal life to humanity. This is the Raelian plan: Once they get this cloning technique down pat, they intend to figure out some way to "download" a dying person's personality, knowledge, memories, and other necessary data into the blank-slate clone. With a new, healthy, young body, the person can inhabit one body after another in perpetuity. Personally, I think God's idea of a new, spiritual, incorruptible, and immortal body in the resurrection from the dead to be a superior plan (I Corinthians 15:35-54).
Another "Twilight Zone" episode is playing out in the American system of "justice." Since 1966, it has been necessary for police to read the Miranda rights to anyone they arrest. Now a Montana court has decided that if the arrestee is schizophrenic, he and all his personalities must be read their Miranda rights, and if the lawbreaking personality does not have his rights read to him, he can have his case or certain pieces of evidence thrown out of court!
It seems that multiple-personalitied Tessa Haley stabbed her longtime roommate under one personality—Martha—who called 911 to report the crime. When police arrived, Tessa was back, wearing a surgical mask and working at her computer with bloodstained hands. They read Tessa her rights and handcuffed her. Then she switched to the murderous Martha personality and several times admitted to the stabbing. However, police did not read this more violent personality her rights, and District Judge Thomas Honzel suppressed the incriminating remarks on those grounds. Obviously, this sets a dangerous precedent, and prosecutors fear that this will join "innocent by reason of insanity" as defense tactics to avoid criminal punishment.
Perhaps the saddest part of both of these stories is that so many among the media and the public give enough credence them to give them a forum. The apostle Paul, referring to a perverse sexual arrangement, says that some things should not even be named among us much less done (I Corinthians 5:1). In our free and open society, we have lost the ability to discriminate between good and evil—or even between what is worthwhile and what is worthless.
In fact, many will no longer admit to good and evil but hold to an everything-is-relative philosophy; all of life is a "gray area." What a pity, for its opposite is not an equally dull black and white but the whole spectrum of light and color! The land of gray shadows is a murky place to live because all the clarity that standards provide is absent. In such a twilight world, it is easy to stumble and fall and suffer grave consequences, and the only solution is to allow the light to dispel the darkness and illuminate the way forward (Psalm 119:105; John 8:12).
- Richard T. Ritenbaugh
From the Archives: Featured Sermon
Vanity (Part 1)
by John W. Ritenbaugh
John Ritenbaugh explores the different nuances of this huge, sprawling negative concept, ranging from transitoriness, futility, profitlessness, confusion, falseness, conceit, vainglory, denial, and idolatry. Moses encapsulates the Old Testament's understanding of vanity, comparing the eternality of God to the brevity of man—a mere breath or puff of wind. Solomon, in Ecclesiastes, adds the poignant insight that despite all of man's accomplishments, at our very best, we are worthless. Even so, God has placed eternity in our hearts, obligating us to meet the challenges of life, with all its anxiety, frustration, and inconclusiveness, redeeming the time, waiting for God to reveal the big picture later.
From the Archives: Featured Article
Right? Wrong?
by Richard T. Ritenbaugh
In many respects, America has lost its moral and ethical foundation. Richard Ritenbaugh presents evidence from the fields of medicine, politics and religion that the slide into immorality is quickening.
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