Hope for a Wounded World

Note: the copy I got from You Tube was not very good, hence the poor scans.

He says he is going to talk about hope since there is so much despair in the world. It's interesting that this was from a 1967 broadcast. The world, at least to me, hasn't really improved; if anything, things have gotten even worse. Notice the amount of hate that is in evidence in our country.

People hate others because they have different skin, they are from another country, they are of another religion or have no religion at all, they are of a different political party, they are homosexuals (lesbians, transgendered, etc), they are young (or old) on and on and on. The political divide in our country is perhaps as wide as it's even been if not wider. Some times it can seem as if there is no hope at all that things will get better and stay that way.

He talks about Pandora's box and how Hope was the only thing left in the box. He then goes to the blackboard to discuss what makes modern despair. He says the first thing is the idea that God is dead. In this approach he says that if there is any hope it is in technology. Under this approach he says there would be no such thing as guilt or sin.

Again, let's look at this. The program was done in 1967. Science has advanced considerably since then. Have the world's problems been solved? No. Have there been some improvements? Yes.

The next despair is violence. Although there are many forms of violence he is going to talk about modern war only. He says the wars touch soldiers less and less and civilians more and more

It's interesting to not how far this back goes in the U.S. During the Civil War for a long time everything violent was army against army. During the battle of Gettysburg, for example, only 1 civilian died. Union army deaths were 3115 and Southern deaths were 4,708 (although those totals differ somewhat depending on who you read.)

Sherman's march to the sea changed things. Although civilians were not target specifically, their houses were raided and things stolen from them. Their houses were sometimes set on fire. Damage to cities was extensive (and no doubt some people died during that.)

It was World War II, though, when killing civilians became accepted. The Nazis target civilians in England and the English and American forces target them in Germany. In the Pacific war the U.S. firebombed many Japanese cities and eventually destroyed most of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Hundreds of thousands of civilians died.

Sorry. I've reviewing this as I go and I just now got to the part when he shows percentages of civilians killed in wars.

He says in WWI the percent of people killed who were civilians was 5%. In WWII the amount rose to 48%. In the Korea war the amount went up to 84%.

Then he says the third form is the despair that comes from a 'secular city.' He doesn't really define this, though.

Then he talks about myths. He says the myth of Faust goes along with the God is dead concept. Faust said in the beginning was the deed, something without moral determinant.

The myth of Prometheus is the next one he talks about. When he brought fire down to earth he brought down violence is what Bishop Sheen says. My own view is that he brought the potential for violence. It's up to humans themselves to decided how to use something like fire for a positive manner (keeping warm, for example) or as a violent manner (firebombing cities, for example.)

The third myth is Circe, the woman who could turn men into animals. He says that which is wicked and base wants to make everyone else the same way. So despair is not anything new at all.

Then he talks about Cain. He says that was the beginning of the despair of the people and nations. Can refused to acknowledge guilt. Then Cain committed violence by killing Abel with a club. The violence now has turned into clubs, ICBMs, etc.

Cain dreaded the wrath that he thought was coming his way.

Cain was given a physical sign by God to protect him from vengeance. Vengeance, God said, belongs to me, not to men. God surrounded Cain with compassion and mercy.

He updates it by going to the assassination of Martin Luther King,

What he goes into next needs some thinking to make sense of it. He goes into the trial of King's assassin and rumors about King being seen alive elsewhere including at the trial. That last part makes no sense to me.

Sense is made when he compares these rumors to the rumors of Jesus being seen elsewhere after he was crucified and killed.

What all this has to do with Hope is a little hard to figure out.