We are God-dust ...
One of my favorite songs from 1969 was written by Joni Mitchell, but it was really made famous by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young.
If you are a baby boomer, you likely know the song and the festival it memorializes: “Woodstock.”
The chorus goes:
“We are stardust, we are golden; We are billion-year-old carbon; and we got to get ourselves back to the garden.”
The song personified the baby boom generation — a generation of which I was on the cusp, having been born in 1956. I was only 13 when “Woodstock” took place, but within a year or two I began to embrace the countercultural persona. The last photo taken before I left for Navy boot camp shows me in a Wrangler jacket, hair flowing to the shoulders, and a copy of Abbie Hoffman’s “Revolution for the Hell of It” in my hands.
The hair didn’t last long and I have no idea what happened to the book. (If you doubt the hair, thinking I’ve always been this bald, go to http://www.buzztrexler.com/.)
“Woodstock” has run through my head for nearly four decades, but I only recently discovered the second line of the chorus: “We are billion-year-old carbon.” I always mumbled my way through that second line, because I didn’t have the lyrics — they didn’t come with 8-tracks.
What’s more fascinating is that in the last refrain that second line is replaced with these words: “We are caught in the devil’s bargain.”
Are we merely “billion-year-old carbon?”
Are we hopelessly “caught in the devil’s bargain?”
After the 13-year Human Genome Project completed the human DNA sequence — the molecular stuff of life — it didn’t take took long for companies to find a way to make a profit off of everyday consumers through such a discovery.
The New York Times reported that companies are creating services to help consumers interpret information contained in their genomes. The prices range from $985 to $2,500, depending upon the level of services.
Embryo-screening technology has been around for several years, allowing parents to identify embryos that carry serious genetic diseases. The technology is also being used to select children of the desired sex.
What characteristics might we want to propagate? What characteristics might we want to weed out of the gene pool? What about people of certain hair color, height, weight, or intelligence? What if there were a “gay gene?”
Why not make such choices, after all ...
“We are stardust, we are golden; We are billion-year-old carbon ..."
The Associated Press recently reported that scientists in California produced embryos that are clones of two men. The cloning approach involves inserting DNA from a person into an egg, and then growing the egg into an embryo about five days old before extracting the stem cells — thereby destroying the embryos.
After all …
“We are stardust, we are golden; We are billion-year-old carbon ..."
Stop.
We are not merely billion-year-old carbon.
In a sermon that recently led me to think about this “ethical quagmire,” contemporary theologian and author Leonard Sweet suggests “it’s time for Christians to call humans what the Bible calls us: ‘God-dust.’”
In a previous generation, I would say, “Right on!”
We are God-Dust! We are golden! We are far more than merely billion-year-old carbon. And we’ve got to get ourselves back to the Garden!
Certainly, there are monumental benefits that have been gained — and can be gained in the future — from genetic technology, but let us not be “caught in the devil’s bargain” of playing God by cloning humans and manipulating genes to determine an unborn child’s gender.
Let’s find our way back to the garden.
Grace and peace ...
If you are a baby boomer, you likely know the song and the festival it memorializes: “Woodstock.”
The chorus goes:
“We are stardust, we are golden; We are billion-year-old carbon; and we got to get ourselves back to the garden.”
The song personified the baby boom generation — a generation of which I was on the cusp, having been born in 1956. I was only 13 when “Woodstock” took place, but within a year or two I began to embrace the countercultural persona. The last photo taken before I left for Navy boot camp shows me in a Wrangler jacket, hair flowing to the shoulders, and a copy of Abbie Hoffman’s “Revolution for the Hell of It” in my hands.
The hair didn’t last long and I have no idea what happened to the book. (If you doubt the hair, thinking I’ve always been this bald, go to http://www.buzztrexler.com/.)
“Woodstock” has run through my head for nearly four decades, but I only recently discovered the second line of the chorus: “We are billion-year-old carbon.” I always mumbled my way through that second line, because I didn’t have the lyrics — they didn’t come with 8-tracks.
What’s more fascinating is that in the last refrain that second line is replaced with these words: “We are caught in the devil’s bargain.”
Are we merely “billion-year-old carbon?”
Are we hopelessly “caught in the devil’s bargain?”
After the 13-year Human Genome Project completed the human DNA sequence — the molecular stuff of life — it didn’t take took long for companies to find a way to make a profit off of everyday consumers through such a discovery.
The New York Times reported that companies are creating services to help consumers interpret information contained in their genomes. The prices range from $985 to $2,500, depending upon the level of services.
Embryo-screening technology has been around for several years, allowing parents to identify embryos that carry serious genetic diseases. The technology is also being used to select children of the desired sex.
What characteristics might we want to propagate? What characteristics might we want to weed out of the gene pool? What about people of certain hair color, height, weight, or intelligence? What if there were a “gay gene?”
Why not make such choices, after all ...
“We are stardust, we are golden; We are billion-year-old carbon ..."
The Associated Press recently reported that scientists in California produced embryos that are clones of two men. The cloning approach involves inserting DNA from a person into an egg, and then growing the egg into an embryo about five days old before extracting the stem cells — thereby destroying the embryos.
After all …
“We are stardust, we are golden; We are billion-year-old carbon ..."
Stop.
We are not merely billion-year-old carbon.
In a sermon that recently led me to think about this “ethical quagmire,” contemporary theologian and author Leonard Sweet suggests “it’s time for Christians to call humans what the Bible calls us: ‘God-dust.’”
In a previous generation, I would say, “Right on!”
We are God-Dust! We are golden! We are far more than merely billion-year-old carbon. And we’ve got to get ourselves back to the Garden!
Certainly, there are monumental benefits that have been gained — and can be gained in the future — from genetic technology, but let us not be “caught in the devil’s bargain” of playing God by cloning humans and manipulating genes to determine an unborn child’s gender.
Let’s find our way back to the garden.
Grace and peace ...
posted by Pastor Buzz at 11:27 PM
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