There Are Killers Among Us

I returned to work today after a delightful weekend with Mom, Kim, Rebecca and Kevin. Much of the time was spent around the table just talking. It occurred to me that this may, as much as anything, explain why none of us have ever killed someone else. Kevin and I represent two generations that were not called upon to serve in the military, a decided advantage for those who choose not to kill. Three generations of women who have never killed anybody was probably not all that unusual, until one stops to think of what an exception to the global reality they all are. One of the things that Mom and I talked about was how the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible replaces the word “kill” in the Ten Commandments with “murder”. That was about as controversial as anything got about the release of the NRSV in a society that sprouts new translations or paraphrases with regularity. It was an important distinction, however, between killing plants to make food and the premeditated, intentional murder of another human. We have become so jaded in this respect that I’m sure it doesn’t matter much to the majority. Just as all of the “commandments” have morphed into “suggestions”, whether it be a prohibition against killing or murdering it still includes the conditional asterisk which spells out the times when it is acceptable, appropriate, and therefore not a violation. Semantics aside, killing is immoral.