When we want to describe an event morally we have a certain spectrum to which we refer: at one end of that spectrum stands a so-called little white lie (to cover for a surprise party, say) and at the other end stands the horror of the Holocaust (Nazis, Hitler, Aushwitz, Bergen-Belsen, Dr. Joseph Mengele). In fact, the Holocaust stands as our extreme example of moral evil. If you want to demonize your opponent in any given matter, compare him to Hitler.
There is a reason this stands as our moral example of evil. Within recent human history, a single lifespan ago, six million Jews were systematically annihilated. Add to this the destruction of the Romani people, prisoners of war, those with disabilities, homosexuals, Christians, etc., and the number far more than doubles that unimaginable count. It is right that this serves as our ultimate measure of wrongness.
And yet, what do you do with news like this? China has acknowledged that in the last forty years it has systematically destroyed 336 million unborn children by abortion (and many of these were forced abortions). According to the Gospel Coalition, this is:
• More than the entire population of the world at the time of the Crusades (c. 1100 AD).
• Equal to the entire combined populations of the United States and Australia.
• More deaths than were caused by (in millions): the Bubonic Plague in Europe (100), the Great Chinese Famine (45), the 1918 Influenza Pandemic (40), the HIV/AIDS pandemic (25), the Holocaust (13), the Soviet famine of 1932-1933 (8), the Russian famine of 1921 (3), and the American Civil War (.8).
• More than all the people killed in the 10 ten deadliest wars in human history (Based on highest estimates (in millions): World War II (72), World War I (65), Mongol Conquest (60), An Lushan Rebellion (36), Taiping Rebellion (30), Qing Dynasty conquest of the Ming Dynasty (25), Conquests of Timur (20), Dungan Revolt (12), Russian Civil War (9), Second Congo War (5.4))
• More than all the children that will be born in the world over the next ten years.
We can’t even begin to comprehend numbers such as this. It is a Holocaust repeated time and again, silently. There has been no outcry to speak of, no memorial services for these little lives, no Yad Vashem constructed in their honor.
To bring the matter closer to home, and to put a name of sorts to the numbers, we should consider the case of Baby Boy A. That is the name given to the little fella well past the point of viability who was illegally aborted at 32 gestational weeks, was born alive, and had his spinal cord severed by a monster worthy of the legacy of Mengele – Dr. Kermit Gosnell, a Philadelphia physician.
This character routinely aborted infants past twenty-four weeks and ruthlessly dispatched them; painfully severing their spinal cords, or slitting their throats. He got rich doing it. And until Baby Boy A no one spoke up to stop it. No government oversight over this legal death camp. Try to sell pies at your local township fair and a government official will swoop in to make sure that FDA rules for refrigeration are followed (trust me, this really happened to us!), but murder a baby? No problem. We won’t check up on that.
This is an item in the news at this very moment (or it should be! How much have you heard about it?). Read this article, if you can bear it. It’s not for the squeamish (like me). I had to force myself to read the grizzly details and to look at the pictures of this little man, who should have a name and be running and playing today, who deserves more justice than he’ll ever get in this world’s justice system. Of course his name is known to his Maker and he’ll know perfect justice when the Judge of all men comes in glory.
Where is the moral outrage? Why are Americans and (what really galls) American Christians such moral cowards that we won’t speak out against evils and atrocities of a magnitude every bit as great as any that occurred in a Nazi death camp? Are we so crippled and paralyzed by concerns of political correctness that we are utterly neutered morally? How many other Kermit Gosnells are roaming the earth free of concern thanks to the cowardice of those who ought to speak up but don’t? If a puppy is abused it would be a leading news item and calls for adoption would flood the news station, but a baby boy? Well, we can’t comment on that. Who am I to judge?
We too will stand before the Judge of heaven and earth. Woe be unto us on that day if we are moral cowards and speak not for the least among us in this day.
