Another horrific and senseless killing of 6 innocent people at Northern Illinois University. It almost is becoming something to expect on the news. For the last 30 years I’ve watched this time and again. The places change, but the tragic and cruel drama stays the same. A disgruntled postal worker shots and kills fellow workers; a factory worker guns down his fellow laborers, someone puts poison in Tylenol bottles and several die, young students come to High School and gun down fellow students, bombs in the mail, a young man randomly shoots people from a hole in the trunk of his car, a massacre at Virginia Tech and now this latest in random murders.
What is the cause of all this? Is there any thread that is common in each of these senseless killings? How can so many people be so cold blooded?
I have a theory that I’ve put to the test for the last 30 years. Even before committing my life to the lordship of Jesus, I knew that the taking of life was wrong. I was taught from as early as I can remember that life, all life, was sacred and precious. Life was valued highly. Something drastically changed in January of 1973. Roe v. Wade now made abortion on demand legal. The change really started much earlier in the 1960’s during the sexual revolution, but culminated in the decision that was made by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1973. How we see life from that time has changed drastically.
As young 16 year old kids in the later part of 1974 my soon to be wife and I were expecting our first child. We now were faced with “a choice” that some were advocating we now legally could make. Even though I had no knowledge of the bible; I had made no allegiance to follow Jesus; my wife and I both knew this to be intrinsically wrong and repulsive. I would do anything in my power to protect this precious life from any who would harm him. Why? Because life is sacred and precious. I am so thankful for all the people in my life who conveyed to me, and my wife, of how dear life is.
When people want to debate this topic they tend toward the the scientific or social issues. What about incest? What about rape? Ectopic pregnancies and various other scenarios. First of all, all of those situations combined do not account for even 1 percent of all abortions in the US. Second of all, no matter what the situation, we need to view life in the womb as sacred and precious and base our actions on that value. The nature of our world is messed up and bad things do happen even in the interest of good. Babies do die. Sometimes even before they are born. That doesn’t mean we should stop trying to save them. I personally have conducted funerals for such miscarriages. Why? Because life is sacred.
Abortion has opened Pandora’s box to the de-valuing of life. Dr. Kevorkian and various others like him base what they do on a new, lowered value, of human life. What we are currently experiencing with increasing random violence is also based on this diminished view of live, even our own, as proved by theses people in the taking of their own life in most cases. I’ve been talking about this for over 30 years. I believe what were are now experiencing, in a variety of ways, is the backlash from the choices we are making about how valuable is life.
Yes! We all do have a choice. We always have. I hope and pray that we will choose life! We also have a choice who to vote for this fall. There are many people, not just the president, who will be on the ballot. These people are to represent us. They will make laws that either support or diminish life. When we go to the polls to vote this year, let’s choose a candidate that supports life, all life.
