Pensees: Let us Not Forget

Thank you for reminding us where we have been, as it has a lot to do with where we are going. The following is an article I wrote last year, which some might still find relevant:

AN OLD, OLD STORY

by brenda taylor,
a witness who can no longer remain silent

In the midst of commemorating the death and resurrection of Christ this Holy Week, the whole world is watching the slow but deliberate execution of an American named Terri Schiavo. Though two thousand years have passed since the Passion of Christ, parallels abound between the two accounts: a Judas betraying innocent blood, a quiet and seemingly insignificant victim, a political agenda overruling the conscience of those expected to administer justice, inhumanity defying belief, and a father’s heart breaking over the death of his child.

Maybe somewhere between the Easter egg hunts and the glazed ham, we will reflect on the words of Jesus, who said, “For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink…” Just maybe, when we get to the part about, “…whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me,” we will finally see with our eyes, hear with our ears, and understand with our hearts. Maybe then, we will begin to connect the dots between what is happening to Terri and what has happened to forty-five million others in America since 1973. Perhaps, we will stop to consider why a just God has allowed our society to come to this defining point in history.

Since abortion on demand became the legal American way to rid our society of one inconvenience, the “unwanted” child, we have closed our eyes and hoped things would get better. We have allowed an unjust justice system to govern our morality. We have played church while the list of casualties increased by 4,000 per day. We have justified our indifference with the rationalization that those children were somehow less human because they could not exist without an umbilical cord. Most of us on the other side of the womb have never bothered to ask whether those children, if they could speak for themselves, would choose life or death. Their blood is on our hands.

Freedom of choice takes on new meaning upon realizing the pendulum has swung in our direction. God forbid that we should ever have to watch our own child dehydrate and starve to death, or that one day our personal existence should hinge on whether or not we get a feeding tube! Those of us who still insist that we would not want to live that way might think twice after missing a meal or two. And, for the record, Terri is brain-damaged, not brain-dead. Hitler’s extermination plan began with people like her.

We know the story well. Pontius Pilate asked the crowd twice what they would have him do with Jesus. Both times, they shouted, “Crucify him!” Pilate washed his hands and said, “I am innocent of this man’s blood. It is your responsibility.” Two thousand years later, we have a CHOICE to make. We can take a stand for the sanctity of human life, or we can answer as the crowd did that day, “Let his blood be on us and on our children!”

“This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him.” Deuteronomy 30:19-20

I really can’t afford the time I’ve been spending posting here at Pensees. However, I decided to post on this thread very quickly because I think it is a shame that the alcohol debate can generate close to 100 replies and this post only generated 1. Protection of inocent lives and defence of all those who bear God’s image is much more important that wine.

Keith