Freedom of Conscience

It was reported December 19 that President Bush’s administration granted sweeping new protections to health workers who refuse to provide care that violates their personal beliefs. This allows healthcare workers who have a healthy concern for unborn babies to refuse participating in ending human life through abortion. As a country that believes in freedom of the press and of religion, certainly our citizens should be able to exercise their conscience without harassment from the government.

Thank God for those people who followed their conscience, even though they paid a personal price. People who have the right conscience have done brave things to protect human life and see that justice is done.

There were Hugh Thompson, Lawrence Colburn and Glenn Andreotta, crewmembers of a helicopter that flew a mission over My Lai, Viet Nam, as a massacre was taking place on March 16, 1968. It took them a while to catch on that American troops were killing unarmed civilians. When Thompson, the pilot realized what was happening, he placed his helicopter between 10 Vietnamese civilians and the troops. He approached the officer in charge to let him know that he, Thompson, was going to get those people out of there and his crew was prepared to fire on the Americans if they tried stop him. With the help of another American helicopter, the civilians were lifted to safety.

When he got back to his base, Thompson reported what was happening on the ground (over 400 civilians killed). The report got to headquarters and the four-day operation was ended on the first day. Without his action and report, the unnecessary killing could have gone on for three more days.

There was a price to be paid though. The army was reluctant to give credit to these soldiers and fellow soldiers were very critical of these who are considered heroes today. In 1998, thirty years later, the Army honored the three men with the prestigious Soldier’s Medal, the highest award for bravery not involving conflict with an enemy. It was a posthumous award for Andreotta, who had been killed in battle three weeks after My Lai.

There is another incident from the Viet Nam War that was later made into a movie, Casualties of War, starring Michael J. Fox and Sean Penn. The name of the hero was changed to Sven Eriksson to protect him from those who think he did the wrong thing. The wrong he did was to report what happened on a five-man patrol of which he was a member. The patrol raped and murdered a young Viet Namese woman. Eriksson was the only one who refused to participate though his sergeant threatened him. He later was plagued by doubts that he probably could have done more to save her life. What he did do was to report to his chain of command. He wanted justice done and the young woman remembered. The chain of command was unresponsive until he contacted an Army chaplain who got the investigation going that resulted in the conviction of the other four men of the patrol.

There is a need also for people of conviction in the business field. There was a Christian woman, Sherron Watkins, who was an Enron vice-president. She tried to get it known that the doctoring of the accounting books at Enron would cause serious problems; and indeed, the company, seventh largest in the country, folded, resulting in Enron stockholders and employees losing multiple millions of dollars.

Sherron came to the company in 1993, but by 1996 she saw that the accounting procedures used were not the standard procedures. She reported what she saw to her division’s chain of command, but she got nowhere.

In 2001 she realized that what was happening was a “complex fraudulent accounting scheme” and that officers of the company were making millions off this scheme. She met with Ken Lay, chairman of the company. He didn’t want to hear it and later he tried to find a way to get her fired.

Congress, in its investigation, discovered memos that Sherron had written to Ken Lay about the fraudulent practices. Congress called her to testify to them about what she knew.

Sherron said that if she had falsified her expense accounts, then she would not have been able to confront Ken Lay. She knew that she had to live with integrity in her actions also. She knew, as a Christian, that she couldn’t keep silent about what she knew.

These are just a very few examples of people who have taken a stand for life and what is right, who have a healthy conscience. I find it interesting that in these examples, religion played a significant role in the hero’s life. People of strong convictions will usually stand up, even when the cost can be great. Government action though can help others to stand up and say “No more!”

I think President Bush has taken an important step in helping people of conscience to take a stand. Will incoming President Obama help those who value human life and say no to their participation in taking human life?

[Written and submitted by Kent Matthews of Indiana]