Mikhail Kalashnikov and his AK-47 angst
Sins Known and Unknown,
Careful. If you have an eternal soul, your eternal soul is in the balance.
Have mercy upon us, most merciful Father;
in your compassion forgive us our sins,
known and unknown,
things done and left undone;
and so uphold us by your Spirit
that we may live and serve you in newness of life,
to the honor and glory of your Name;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Things Done and Left Undone
MOSCOW -- In a regretful letter penned a few months before his death, Mikhail Kalashnikov, the designer of the AK-47 assault rifle, asked the head of the Russian Orthodox Church if he was to blame for the deaths of those killed by his weapon.
The Russian daily Izvestia on Monday published the letter, in which Kalashnikov, who died last month at 94, told Patriarch Kirill that he kept asking himself if he was responsible. The AK-47 is the world's most popular firearm, with an estimated 100 million spread around the world.
"The pain in my soul is unbearable. I keep asking myself the same unsolvable question: If my assault rifle took people's lives, it means that I, Mikhail Kalashnikov, ... son of a farmer and Orthodox Christian am responsible for people's deaths," he said in the letter.
Kalashnikov also shared his bitter thoughts about humankind.
"The longer I live, the more often that question gets into my brain, the deeper I go in my thoughts and guesses about why the Almighty allowed humans to have devilish desires of envy, greed and aggression," Kalashnikov continued. "Everything changes, only a man and his thinking remain unchanged: he's just as greedy, evil, heartless and restless as before!"
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Kalashnikov’s angst provides an excellent case study for group exploration of ethics, moral responsibility, and perhaps especially theology. Being the real anguish of a real human being, Kalashnikov’s is better than the hypothetical proposition that over the years I’ve often presented to groups during Lenten discussions of sin and our prayer phrase, "sins known and unknown" (BCP 393). Response to my proposition has always started with members of the group staring at me blankly and then to my question saying, “No, of course not.”
But they are not suffering like Mikhail Kalashnikov, they are oblivious.
How responsible are we for our actions? Where is Kalashnikov now? He was worried about his eternal soul, where is he now?
Generally, my hypothetical scenario begins with a driver in a car. He has an angry argument with his colleague A, rushes out to his car, and drives away in a rage. I call him Driver B. At the first intersection, B still furious, recklessly drives out in front of Driver C, who slams on brakes in a panic and swerves violently, narrowly avoiding collision and nearly overturning. Driver B speeds on away. Totally rattled, shaking and cursing or crying, or even in shock, Driver C is so upset that at the next intersection he fails to see an oncoming car and has a collision in which D, a passenger in the other car, is killed.
My college degrees are BSBA UFla and MBA UMichigan and at least in a university business school, that’s the end of the case, no questions are asked. The students take it from there. Why? Because when you face a situation in real life there's nobody standing there asking questions, you have to identify the questions yourself, it's about learning to perceive problems, then addressing them.
The folks I have worked with obviously have had no experience doing case studies, because invariably when I’m done talking they stare at me blankly. This is the first frustrating sign that nobody gets it and the discussion will not go well. So I ignite the conversation with a question. We have prayed to be forgiven for "sins unknown" -- is Driver B responsible for the death of D, whom Driver C killed? To be clear, for us this is not a legal issue, we are not interested in what the law says because, as Mr. Bumble said, “the law’s an ass.” Neither are we interested in what Ujax Insurance Company says, because the insurance company’s business is avoiding liability. Our concern is moral responsibility.
What is Driver B’s responsibility? I am not saying Driver B is morally to blame, I am saying that you must figure it out. If for no other reason than that you are B.
What about A? What about WA, the spouse of A, who threw a screaming tantrum at A as A left the house in a terrible mood this morning? At the last judgment, will WA go to hell for the death of D? How responsible are we as Christians when an action of ours leads to disastrous results of which we never know, i.e., sins unknown? Take it theological for those who believe in an afterlife: on Judgment Day will Driver B go to Hell for the death of passenger D, of which B knew nothing?
By the way, this is not about your typically Episcopal view that there is no hell and "all dogs go to heaven," we are trying to identify sins unknown to make sense of our prayer.
By the way, this is not about your typically Episcopal view that there is no hell and "all dogs go to heaven," we are trying to identify sins unknown to make sense of our prayer.
The case continues, the web tangles. Following the death of D, D’s parent Y becomes so distraught with grief that Y commits suicide. On Judgment Day who is morally responsible for Y’s death? What about B’s responsibility for HY, the spouse of Y, whose life was destroyed by D's death and Y’s suicide?
We may be oblivious, but we are not -- innocent.
We may be oblivious, but we are not -- innocent.
Anyone who forthwith absolves A and B has failed to grasp a sense of moral culpability for sins unknown. If I were hearing your confession, your penance would be to read Mitch Alborn, The Five People You Meet In Heaven, and I would withhold pronouncing your absolution until you had read it and we had discussed the book together.
Kalashnikov was agonizing about his eternal soul because his invention led to the deaths of thousands, hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of people. What is the answer? It isn’t adequate to dismiss saying, “well, Mikhail K was repentant, so no, he’s not going to hell,” because in this process there is no provision for sins forgiven without due penance. If you come to me with confession and I pronounce absolution I will still assign you penance; and as I said above if you don't get it I will assign the penance before the absolution, that’s the deal. At the last judgment where the Almighty is assigning the penance, might it be hellfire? Or purgatory -- purgatory is for purging a soul of sin, guilt, filth before being admitted to God's presence.
BTW, it also does not do to scroll down the online responses to the Kalashnikov article and agree with the imbeciles who don’t get it, who say that if Kalashnikov hadn’t invented the firearm someone else would have so K is not responsible: a stupid response that entirely begs the question.
BTW, it also does not do to scroll down the online responses to the Kalashnikov article and agree with the imbeciles who don’t get it, who say that if Kalashnikov hadn’t invented the firearm someone else would have so K is not responsible: a stupid response that entirely begs the question.
Sometimes the discussion goes here: are Stalin and Hitler in Hell? I’ve watched Jerry Falwell say, “If we could get Hitler out of hell for ten minutes, he would ...” Is there Hell, does Hell exist? Is there punishment in an afterlife? Is it Dante’s fiery inferno? Or do selfish, oblivious, ignorant, blind souls recede farther and farther from God into the outer darkness a la C.S. Lewis and The Great Divorce? Is there moral responsibility? If so, how is moral responsibility fixed and settled? Or is it? In that regard, I once knew a church official, a contemptible creature who on realizing he had made a bad decision would say, “I apologize and take full responsibility,” and that was the end of it. What a schlemiel, what the hell is that worth? Without consequence, it’s a crock, a bunch of smug, self-satisfying BS. How is responsibility settled? Or does moral responsibility simply evaporate in the ether?
Sins unknown. Our lack of a sense of moral responsibility for the damage we cause others by what we do or do not do brings judgment crashing down upon us. Perhaps we should pray that there is no final judgment after all? That we simply die into oblivion? Or that all dogs go to heaven.
How morally culpable are we for the harm that our actions cause others to do? How morally culpable are we for the harm, the sins, that we -- enable?
By our anger. Or our ballot. Or our taxes.
By our anger. Or our ballot. Or our taxes.
Careful. If you have an eternal soul, your eternal soul is in the balance.
Have mercy upon us, most merciful Father;
in your compassion forgive us our sins,
known and unknown,
things done and left undone;
and so uphold us by your Spirit
that we may live and serve you in newness of life,
to the honor and glory of your Name;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
TW+