Jacintha Saldahna

When I was a young man, a friend of mine and his wife had their first child. When I saw him a few weeks after the birth, he showed me a picture and asked, “What’d you think?” What I thought was, “This baby looks a lot like an ugly monkey.” I thought that because, that’s exactly what it was. He was showing me the monkey picture as a prank. I didn’t fall for it and say the expected thing: “What a beautiful baby!” Instead I said, “Looks just like you.” We both laughed.

I thought about this harmless prank when I learned of the death of Jacintha Saldahna, the nurse in England who put through a phone call she thought was from the Queen, inquiring about Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge. It now appears that Mrs. Saldahna committed suicide by hanging herself, apparently as a result of this call. The prank raises a number of issues.

First, since her identity had not been made public and all she did was transfer a call, what would have prompted such an extreme reaction? Her brother said she died of shame. But should such shame require death? Second, the Australian DJs who made the call have been fired, vilified, and even received death threats. The question is how responsible are they for Mrs. Saldahna’s actions? Can the ire heaped on them be justified? Third, and the issue I will take up is this: how “harmless” are any pranks?

My friend hoped I would be put in an awkward position and feel uneasy or worse when he showed me the picture. Such a reaction, he must have believed, would be good for a laugh. He liked the idea so much that he showed the picture to others of our mutual friends too. Was his prank “harmless.” I wasn’t harmed. But then I “got it” and I got it quickly. I did watch others of our friends squirm, however, when it was their turn. They didn’t get it. They felt constrained to say something nice, so as to not hurt the proud papa’s feelings. Even if anything nice they might say would, of necessity be something of a lie.

So the question is this: when it is our deliberate intent to embarrass or humiliate someone, to create a situation in which they feel awkward or ill at ease, is that in keeping with Jesus’ teachings? I know, you might think I’m making too much of this. And I have to confess that I’ve “pranked” people before myself with no thought to any negative effect on them. And you may be saying that I’ve fallen over the PC cliff. Feel free. But, since this incident with the nurse, I’ve seriously considered trying to avoid my natural tendency to kid around if that kidding around could reasonable bring discomfort to another.

Jesus did make it very clear that our treatment of others should entail compassion, care and love. He did say that the paradigm for how we act is one in which we gauge how we might like to be treated in a similar situation. If I take that seriously, can I ever justify deliberately creating a situation where another would likely be emotionally uncomfortable? I’ve decided the answer is no.

I don’t think the DJs can be held accountable for the nurse’s death. There was no reasonable expectation that a person who might be embarrassed by an action would react in this extreme way. But, they did intend to trick someone—even though they claim they were surprised the call was put through. And that tricked person could reasonably be expected to be uncomfortable to some degree. It’s a complicated matter and I’m not suggesting that any reader do anything different going forward. I think I’m going to try, though.

Peace, Jerry