Regional Synod of Canada - Reformed Church in America

Pioneer Christian Monthly

Date - Oct 16/55

Contributor -Falkenburg

Title - Thou Shall Not Kill

Topic - Sins

Almost every day we turn to our newspaper to find a story about a bad traffic accident, which often results in the death of one or two persons. On week ends like the Labour Day weekend, hundreds of persons lose their lives. We may be inclined to say: "Well this is inevitable for the more cars on the roads the more accidents. The only thing we can do is take some measures to make the accidents less serious: dashboard padding, deep-dish steering wheels, safety belts."

But I think it may be well to give all this some further thought. Do we realize, when we,"take our seat behind the steering wheel of our car, that the slightest mistake we make while driving may result into the injury or death of one or more of our fellow men?

Now, of course, you may say that no matter what we do or say that we will never be able to avoid all mistakes no matter how careful we are. We will never be infallible in anything - no one is free from error.

But so often it is not really a mistake that causes a traffic accident. It is rather some form or other of what is called officially "criminal negligence". The other day I read in the paper that at the beginning of April this year, the law in this regard has been changed, so that now you will get a jail sentence if you are charged with "criminal negligence" while causing a serious accident.

So often while driving you are passed by somebody who just seems to assume that the car coming from the opposite direction will slow down in order to give him the opportunity to get back in his own lane

Quite often one is passed by huge trucks or buses going well over fifty miles per hour although the speed limit is fifty miles per hour.

Many times I have seen drivers speeding in order to get through a yellow light . . . .

Others are driving while more or less drunk . . . .

All this is simply caused by the fact that we have not adjusted ourselves sufficiently to this fast way of moving forward.

We do not realize enough that we are now in a position to cause the most serious bodily harm to anybody on the road by the slightest error or negligence!

Apart from driving a car we would be very uncomfortable indeed by the thought that we may quite easily injure somebody else with the tools we have in our hands. Imagine we had a loaded gun in our hands while talking and working with people!!

Imagine a mother taking care of her baby with a couple of open safety pins on her dress! !

If this for some reason or reasons had to be so, we would certainly take the utmost care to, lessen the dangers as much as possible.

But once we are in a car we tend to act quite differently, paying little if any attention to the dangers involved.

The archbishop of York, England, said some time ago, that it is contradictory to denounce the violation of the basic rights of human life in the totalitarian states on the one hand, and on the other hand to allow the number of victims of fatal traffic accidents to rise steadily

And a cabinet minister in Austria the other day spoke about "the murderers behind the wheel!" This is part of the general problem created by the scientific achievement of the century. The question is: how shall we avoid being the victims instead of the masters of the results of scientific progress arid development? The use of atomic energy has posed this question in all urgency! We see clearly that the discoveries of science tend to drag us along toward very dangerous territory from where no return and no escape seems possible. We are struggling to remain the masters of our fate. We must make every effort to control the work of our hands and not BE controlled by it! There are people, among them scientists, who urge the governments to stop nuclear weapons tests. "The- air may be slowly poisoned by radio-,active dust particles" they say, and this may have a disastrous affect on the mental and physical health of our children's children"!

The human mind has invented the automobile for the sake of convenience. Today we are threatening 'each others lives with it. And yet we do not realize it. We treat it rather as a kind of toy than as a dangerous tool, which it really is. It is about time we should open our eyes and live up to the facts. LOVE DOES NO WRONG TO A NEIGHBOUR!! THOU SHALT NOT KILL! This applies to our conduct on the road too!

Careless driving is a serious sin! It is not only foolishness or negligence but it is a sin! And a very SERIOUS ONE! A careless driver is a potential killer! No, we will not be able to eliminate all dangers and therefore all accidents from the roads. We will always be making errors, and the results of some of these errors will be fatal. This is a horrible thought but it cannot be helped.

But what can be avoided and therefore should be avoided is careless or impaired driving.

This means that:

1. we should never allow ourselves or our children to drive a car under the influence of strong drink

2. we should impress upon our children the dangers of driving while paying more attention to the too close sitting boy or girlfriend than to the road

3. we should urge our governments to build better, safer roads

4. we should awaken our consciences to the SINFULNESS of irresponsible driving

5. we should keep our car in excellent mechanical condition.

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