A few days ago, I read about an English slave-trading captain’s voyage to West Africa to the court of the King of Dahomey, an African slave-trading kingdom in the 18th century. There, utterly appalled, the Englishman noticed an 18-month old baby boy chained to a pole. Upon inquiring why this child was being held in this manner, he recounts, “it was to be sacrificed that night to the god Egbo, for his prosperity.”
Sacrificing a child for the prosperity of the one we worship. Does that sound familiar at all? In our hedonistic age that is driven by self-fulfillment, self-realization, self-advancement, and the unashamed prioritization of individualism, whom do we worship? Take a minute to look at yourself in the mirror and ask yourself: "whom do I worship?" For most people, the answer will not be “God.” On the contrary, for many, the honest, self-reflecting, self-aware answer will be “some form of material wealth” or “myself.” Even if it is the former – material wealth – can we not ultimately tie this desire for and worship of material things back to our deep, personal longing to enrich our own lives, our own selves? For whose sake do we desire wealth? In most cases, it is for our own. Why do we want that new pair of sneakers? Why do we so desperately need that new iPhone? Why do we desire a fancy new car? Because we believe that these material things will make us more desirable and bring us pleasure. Inextricably linked with the pleasure-seeking love of material wealth and the rejection of God is the adulation of the means through which we acquire this wealth: our own talents, our intellectual capacities, our reputations, and our individual achievements. Realizing this, can we then conclude that, in reality, if we are not worshiping God, we are most likely worshiping our own self and all of its attendant parts? I believe that we can and I believe that we are. Which leads me to my main point. The overwhelming majority of abortions happen because we decide that a child would be inconvenient, would interfere with our own aspirations, or would be unsustainable at this point in our lives. In short, we decide for abortion because we are concerned, first and foremost, with how a child would detrimentally affect our lives (or we convince ourselves that we are not at a point in our lives where we could offer a child much in the way of material comforts and that therefore, it is better for the child that it is never born in the first place – in this instance of warped moral reasoning, death triumphs over life and opportunity). This begs the question: are we not opting for abortion in order to enrich our own lives? Are we not sacrificing our own children for our own prosperity? You see, we in the West tend to think that our sense of morality and our level of civilization are superior to that of past cultures and societies. We subscribe to a notion of inevitable “progress,” and so we believe that whatever is new and “progressive” is moral and good. Plus, after all, peoples as civilized as we are would never engage in something as barbarically evil as sacrificing an innocent child in the name of the individual or public good. Yet that line of thinking serves to obscure a fundamental and immutable truth: the human capacity for evil. As the English journalist Malcolm Muggeridge said: “The depravity of man is at once the most empirically verifiable reality but at the same time the most intellectually resisted fact.” Our redefinition of infanticide and child sacrifice as “abortion” or somehow meaning that one is “in favor of women’s reproductive rights” demonstrates the deeply engrained selfishness, deviousness, and callousness of our human nature. This should compel us to question the rationales and the euphemisms we routinely employ to veil and yet justify our own wickedness. If we do not, like the King of Dahomey, we recklessly rationalize ourselves into hopeless delusion, ultimately convincing ourselves in our self-worship that to kill our own children will bring us prosperity and that it is therefore morally justifiable. __________________________________________________________________________________ Note: This post is not intended to demean, insult, condemn, or shame anyone. Its goal is to compel the assumption of an alternative perspective and to serve as a reminder that the everyday things we take for granted may not be so self-evident after all. We have all made mistakes in our lives that would comprise a list too long for any human hand to complete in a lifetime. Fortunately, we serve a merciful God whose grace is inexhaustible and readily available to each and every one of us. 1 John 1:9 - If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
7 Comments
Gene Burton
10/24/2014 11:14:39 pm
Fantastic post, Chris. This is the start of something great!
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Jordan Kirk
10/24/2014 11:21:25 pm
Love it! Very true
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Benjamin Bowles
10/25/2014 06:30:08 am
I like this, great post.
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Candace Townsley
10/26/2014 12:36:03 am
Great first post! I am so glad you started a blog! (Much better venue than FB!) Blog on!!
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Alexander Reese
10/27/2014 07:11:28 am
Interesting blog. Looking forward to more from you.
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Vdawg
11/20/2014 12:30:51 pm
Wow. What sound logic. Pagan practice = to racist, degrading, evil. Your association of what is most likely a corrupted source, to abortion is not only a tribute to the practice you worship but also a testament to the ignorance of anyone like you. You should be deeply ashamed of yourself. Flowery language does not hide a deeply hateful person, such as yourself.
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Chris
11/22/2014 04:47:28 am
Regardless, thanks for your comment. ;)
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AuthorChristopher is a student in the Ph.D. program in History at the University of North Carolina. He enjoys following sports, going to church on Sundays, and discussing contemporary issues in American society. Archives
Mai 2015
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