As usual I have been involved in more things than I should be. I’m currently reading Kurt Vonnegut’s Welcome to the Monkey House for fun – it is a great collection of short stories and a good, wry sense of humor. One story has been bouncing in my mind is “All the King’s Horses.” This one is not a comedy. It is a story of a group of soldiers who have been captured by a Communist dictatorship in the height of the Cold War. The Colonel of the group has to play the head of the government in game of chess in order for him and his company to be set free. The first twist is that the Colonel’s wife and two children are with them. The second twist is that the prisoners are to be the chess pieces. If a piece is taken than that soldier (or civilian) is killed. Diabolical!
Spoiler Alert! As the game continues the Colonel finds himself in a position to make a difficult decision. If he sacrifices one of his sons then he will ultimately win the game and his wife, other son and the few soldiers left will be allowed to live and gain their freedom. If he doesn’t sacrifice his son then he will most likely lose the game and all with die. The Colonel makes the decision to sacrifice his son and through a bizarre turn of events his son is spared and the Colonel ends up winning the game.
Some may read this and say that everything worked out and it was a happy ending. Yet I wonder what that one boy who was sacrificed will think of his father. That boy and the Colonel’s wife will have the haunting memory that the Colonel was willing to sacrifice one of his children. The Colonel will live always with the guilt of what he was willing to do. If you take all of these things into account, I would say that the Colonel did not win.
I have recently re-read the Niebuhr brothers’ classic argument over the U.S. involvement in war (Christian Century, March 1932 and on). H. Richard argues in his article, "The Grace of Doing Nothing," that the U.S. should not be involved in war but should hold to the higher ground, trust in God, and not be complicit in a sinful act. Reinhold countered that doing nothing would be a greater sin than to get involved and attempt to make something good out of the political and global mess they were facing. Taking a pragmatist stance Reinhold argued that to do nothing would be to allow a greater evil to continue. It is a fallen world and we have to live in it.
Think about this with Vonnegut’s story. What if the Colonel did nothing and all in his company as well as his wife and sons were killed? Would this have been the better action? What if the Colonel did not sacrifice his son, lost the game, and all were sacrificed? Would this have been the better action? Christians are called to a higher ethic, but can we say the Colonel did the wrong thing? Either way the Colonel will lose.
1 comment:
I agree. My only question is: does prayer and fasting equal nothing? If the story held true, the son would have died (reminds me of Isaac). If the man trusted God, prayed but took no physical action, would there be an entirely different story? The same could be said about war. Acts of God are always not what we think He would do, in fact, it's against our nature to know what he would do. I wonder if Jesus were president in the 20s what would He have done.
Thought provoking post. I may have to read more of his works.
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