The 2014 Person of the Year according to Time magazine is “the Ebola fighters.” Do you agree? It’s hard to argue with recognizing the men and women who have fought, and continue to battle, this terrible disease for which there’s no established cure.
These people genuinely put their lives on the line. They run into the burning building, so to speak, as most others are running out. And if that isn’t worthy of recognition, what is? And yes, that praise also extends to firefighters, cops and all first responders who do the same every day.
We all know that, technically, the Ebola fighters are a group, not a person – but does that really matter? While it’s easier to wrap our minds around the impact of a single figure than the efforts of a group, this selection might speak to the absence of any one dominant figure who is currently shaping world events. The honor is really for the achievement, not the person, so why would anyone quibble?
My issue, really, is not one person vs. many, but that in naming the Ebola fighters the Person of the Year, Time magazine missed recognizing this within their own reporting: There certainly does seem to be a significant “person” behind a good number of people chosen by the editors for this honor. That individual is God.
Four out of the five Ebola fighters profiled in ‘Time’ tell their stories as rooted in God, and God’s plan for them.
It’s not that some of these healthcare heroes talk in passing about God’s role in their lives (as Time casually mentions deep in their coverage). Four out of the five “Ebola fighters” profiled tell their stories as rooted in God, and God’s plan for them.
- Ambulance driver Foday Gallah, who cradled infected children and ultimately contracted Ebola himself, describes God’s plan for him.
- Heroic nurse and fellow survivor Salome’ Karwah speaks of her survival, and subsequent work, as having divine purpose.
- Dr. Jerry Brown describes praying before going onto the wards to care for the infected.
- Dr. Kent Brantley says he served as a physician in Africa as an expression of his own deep faith and commitment to religious mission.
(Among the featured five, only Doctors Without Borders’ Ella Watson-Stryker describes her work in exclusively secular terms.)
Based on those featured stories, it seems entirely reasonable, this year at least, to name God as the “person” of the year. Imagine that!
This isn’t a God vs. no God debate; my point is that God, as specifically cited by so many people, fuels their capacity to do good. With that fact in mind, I believe acknowledging God as the “person” of the year simply acknowledges the shared importance that faith plays in the lives of these heroic Ebola fighters, and so many people who are heroic with the lives God gave them.
Of course, people can be “good without God”, as many atheists would say. The list of heroic people who have served humanity well, without crediting a higher power or religious faith, is long – including Nobel Peace Prize winners like Andrei Sakharov and social activist/musician Bob Geldoff, just to name two.
Ultimately though, if we want to better understand those we deem heroic, and if we hope to emulate them in any way, it behooves us to appreciate not only what these heroes do, but how they believe they’re enabled to do what they do. In this case, that means noting the influence of faith in the lives of these particular people as we celebrate their work. It means that, this year, based on the words of these role models, we could consider God the “Person of the Year.”
Listed for many years in Newsweek as one of America’s “50 Most Influential Rabbis” and recognized as one of our nation’s leading “Preachers and Teachers,” by Beliefnet.com, Rabbi Brad Hirschfield serves as the President of Clal–The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, a training institute, think tank, and resource center nurturing religious and intellectual pluralism within the Jewish community, and the wider world, preparing people to meet the biggest challenges we face in our increasingly polarized world.
An ordained Orthodox rabbi who studied for his PhD and taught at The Jewish Theological Seminary, he has also taught the University of Pennsylvania, where he directs an ongoing seminar, and American Jewish University. Rabbi Brad regularly teaches and consults for the US Army and United States Department of Defense, religious organizations — Jewish and Christian — including United Seminary (Methodist), Yeshivat Chovevei Torah (Modern Orthodox) Luther Seminary (Lutheran), and The Jewish Theological Seminary (Conservative) — civic organizations including No Labels, Odyssey Impact, and The Aspen Institute, numerous Jewish Federations, and a variety of communal and family foundations.
Hirschfield is the author and editor of numerous books, including You Don’t Have To Be Wrong For Me To Be Right: Finding Faith Without Fanaticism, writes a column for Religion News Service, and appears regularly on TV and radio in outlets ranging from The Washington Post to Fox News Channel. He is also the founder of the Stand and See Fellowship, which brings hundreds of Christian religious leaders to Israel, preparing them to address the increasing polarization around Middle East issues — and really all currently polarizing issues at home and abroad — with six words, “It’s more complicated than we know.”