From News Week
Common Cup or Common Liability?
Q: Polls show a majority of Americans are concerned about the H1N1 virus (swine flu), but also about the safety and efficacy of the swine flu vaccine. Is it ethical to say no to this or any vaccine? Are there valid religious reasons to accept or decline a vaccine? Will you get a swine flu shot? Will your children?
I don't know about vaccines. We have similar questions in the UK. But I am fascinated (if I may use this question to raise a related matter) about the way churches here in the U.S. (where I am staying at the moment) have addressed the question of the common cup, the Peace, and so on.
In the UK we had a great panic a few months ago, and a decree went out from the highest authorities in the Church of England at least that it was better for the moment for everyone simply to receive Communion in one kind only. This has caused a considerable uproar, of people saying we're going back to mediaevalism and so on. But here in America I find the cup shared in the normal way. Indeed, the practice of 'intinction' seems to be dying out, too, as people realize that the chance of dipping a fingernail in the wine is quite high, and the chance of infection by that route higher than normal drinking. And in England we were encouraged to have a non-tactile 'peace' (not just 'air-kissing' but 'air-hugging' too!), which some arch-traditionalists have quietly celebrated (they never like the Peace anyway) but which, again, seems to be completely ignored here in the U.S.
I suspect all that this means is that England has become a society of neurotics, where every slight problem that arises brings new rules and regulations, driven not so much by real safety fears as by the desire not to be sued if something goes wrong... not that anyone in the U.S. thinks like that, do they?
http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/panelists/nicholas_t_wright/2009/10/common_cup_or_common_liability.html
No comments:
Post a Comment