Editorial May 4, 1987 Issue

At risk—or at peace?

William E. Moody

Contemporary life would seem fraught with risk, at least that's the picture so often conveyed today. Certainly some of the current technology and scientific research is being devoted to a kind of sophisticated, high-tech risk management.

One new field of investigation, aimed at reducing dangers to people's health, is called ecogenetics. Researchers expect to be able to measure and predict how people would react differently—on the basis of genetic predisposition—to chemicals, drugs, infectious organisms, and other environmental influences. People classified as risk-prone to certain substances might then be kept out of some types of employment or work environments. Other individuals could be forewarned about the possibility of developing a disease or illness from contact with their surroundings.

Yet even as some dangers might seem to be reduced by modern technology, others continue to spring up, even to the point that people may be unconsciously calculating the risk every time they take a breath, or step out of their homes. And the attendant discomfiture is itself surely less than health-producing. Understandably, many people are looking for a different kind of security than merely learning the probabilities of some supposed genetic predisposition to suffering. What many are searching for is really a spiritual answer—an answer of peace from God for a world at risk.

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