‘The third stage of syphilis includes the most serious of all complications. The vascular system can be affected significantly through the effects of the earlier arteritis. Aneurysm of the ascending aorta, left ventricular hypertrophy, and congestive heart failure may occur. Involvement of the central nervous system may result in tabes dorsalis, psychosis, dementia, paresis, and death… granulomatous inflammation, known as a gumma, appears as an indurated, nodular, or ulcerated lesion that may produce extensive tissue destruction… When the palate is involved, the ulceration frequently perforates through to the nasal cavity… antibiotic therapy may not always result in a total cure… but may arrest only the clinical presentations of the infections.’ [Neville B.W, Damm D.D, Allen C.M & Bouquot J.E, Oral & Maxillofacial Pathology, Philadelphia, PN: Saunders, 2002, 169, 172]
That was what I read while studying oral pathology on Sunday. Sounds bad? I read this only five minutes later…
‘The Guatemala syphilis research involved 696 subjects who came from the Guatemala National Penitentiary, army barracks and the National Mental Health Hospital, according to Reverby’s research. These subjects did not give direct permission to participate. Instead, the authorities signed them up… “The doctors used prostitutes with the disease to pass it to the prisoners (sexual visits were allowed by law in Guatemalan prisons) and then did direct inoculations made from syphilis bacteria poured onto the men’s penises or on forearms and faces that were slightly abraded when the ‘normal exposure’ produced little disease, or in a few cases through spinal punctures,” Reverby wrote’ [Lauden, E., Studies show 'dark chapter' of medical research. CNN 2010, October 1, Retrieved from http://edition.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/10/01/guatemala.syphilis.tuskegee/?hpt=Mid on 2010, October 3]
I’m not sure what’s more terrifying, Treponemal pallidum or Homo sapiens?
As bystanders, we baulk at such an atrocity. It seems almost insane that one would even think of committing such a crime. We thought that such things only happened in Nuremberg, and only the Nazis would be inhumane enough to think of such an ‘experiment’. Afterall, we weren’t involved in it.
The people did not volunteer to be inoculated, rather they were chosen from those among the Guatemala National Penitentiary, army barracks and the National Mental Health Hospital. The people assumed they were being cared for, yet their trust was very much betrayed by those who promised to keep them safe. At Tuskegee, African Americans assumed they were being cared for ‘bad blood’ by the Public Health Services, yet the standard treatment for Syphilis was intentionally held back from them.
How do we make sense of the atrocity of such an insanity? How can those who have been exploited and abused find any reason to trust or have hope in anyone?
It seems that human nature is on a downward spiral. As we continue to look at the world around us, there are lesser reasons for us to have any faith in any human being at all. We could turn a blind eye to it and get on with life. But would it come a day when we are so numbed to such atrocities that we become perpetrators of such atrocities ourselves?
Such atrocities occur when we set ourselves up on the throne our life. We value our judgments and needs more than others. Others become dispensable, but not our ambitions. Others are deemed lesser beings who can be sacrificed, but certainly not our own, our kind or what we belief in. Those people and things cannot be sacrificed, yet. We are the center of the world we live in.
Perhaps we cannot make much out of such atrocities. We could perhaps only raise our white flags, surrender and say ‘This is life’. Perhaps we should all submit our lives to its insanities, acknowledging that it is part of life to be betrayed by those whom you trust, those whom were supposed to protect you. For even spiritual leaders have betrayed the trust of their parishioners by feeding their perverse lust at the expense of young boys.
Yet all these does make sense, when I look at the Gospel. When I look at the Gospel, I see the dire need of humanity. I see the dethronement of God, and the enthronement of self. I see the grave depravity of mankind and how we are culpable of such atrocities. What I see in life and world are only theaters of the usurpation of God’s throne. Life, with all its atrocities only make sense when I look at it through the Gospel.
It does make sense as it shows us that things I see today is not as how it should be. It shows the broken reality which I live in. It shows me how things are not in order.
It is this Gospel that also gives me hope. It gives me hope because I know that things will not continue to be the way it is. It gives me home because I know that God Himself will put all things in order, the way He intended it to be, by uniting all things in Christ. It gives me hope because I know that my fate, or the fate of the world, lies not in the hands of another human being in authority, who will like all others, betray me one day. It gives me hope because it is God Himself who will rescue. God himself will put all things in order. God Himself will take His rightful place on the throne.
It gives me hope not in the sense that all things would be made well according to my desires the next day, months or even years to come. For how can I trust even in my own desires, and to do so would be to usurp the throne on which God rightfully has the place. To do so would be nothing short of having God only to serve my needs, having Him as a periphery to my world and universe, of which I am the center of.
Rather, my hope rests firm on Jesus Christ. My hope rests firm in the knowledge that He is working and redeeming the world this present moment by the work of His Spirit. My hope rests firm that the Day will come when He will come again, reigning in power, might and glory. My hope rests firm that on that day, no one else will be sitting on that throne, but only my Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.
My hope rests firm on Jesus Christ,
He is my only plea.
Though all the world should point and scorn,
His ransom leaves me free;
His ransom leaves me free.
My hope sustains me as I strive
And strain towards the goal;
Though still I stumble into sin,
His death paid for it all;
His death paid for it all.
My hope provides me with a spur
To help me run this race:
I know my tears will turn to joy
The day I see his face;
The day I see his face.
My hope is to be with my Lord,
To know as I am known;
To serve Him gladly all my days
In praise before His throne;
In praise before His throne.
Words and Music by Keith Getty and Richard Creighton
