Of Lions and Babies

When was the last time a lion dominated the news?  And a dead lion at that?  Wow!  The death of Cecil the Lion has heralded the front pages of newspapers around the country.  His death has been the topic of investigative reports from all the major mainstream news sources.  The life of the Minneapolis dentist, who shot the lion legally while on a hunt in Africa, has been threatened.  His business has been shattered; his home vandalized; his name has become tarnished.  And what was his crime: he went on a big game hunt and shot a lion.  This lion, although protected within a national reserve in Zimbabwe, was, nonetheless, free to roam wherever he wished.  Once he crossed the boundaries of that protected reserve, he was subject to the hunt.  We must remember that this lion, although he had a name, was nonetheless, not a pet of someone, but a wild beast.  And so the lion died. 


Let me ask you: one lion was shot - how many black teenagers have been murdered on the streets of Chicago just this past week?  How many murders have occurred in the city of Baltimore this past year?  There is little outrage when our teens kill one another.  There is little outrage when black gang members in Chicago kill one another in gang warfare, and if a small child is caught in the cross-fire, well, it is just a casualty of the gang violence.  Hardly major news.  But kill a lion - and the world becomes over-wrought with anger.


Let me ask you another question: one lion was shot - how many babies are aborted every day?  And now we are learning of the awful details of how the abortions are done so as to create a profit for those who market in aborted body parts.  Just yesterday another video was released where a discussion was held that declared that fully-intact aborted babies bring a higher price than those whose bodies are crushed.  And yet there is hardly any outrage expressed by the mainstream media.  Certainly not worthy of the front page - as was the death of Cecil the lion.  Certainly not worthy of any special investigative reporting; in fact, the mainstream media has greatly maligned the nonprofit organization that has exposed the practices of Planned Parenthood.  Now, if it were a lion, instead of a baby, that was being killed - perhaps more attention would be given. 


Now I am not a hunter nor ever aspired to be a hunter.  And I have a very strong aversion to those who poach any animal for profit - whether it is killing deer illegally here in Minnesota or elephants in Africa.  But those who choose to hunt legally should not be threatened.  They have a right to hunt - whether it is pheasants, deer, moose, or lions. 


Finally, I want to share an article that I read yesterday, written by Bob Unruh, and posted at: www.wnd.com/2015/08/gays-demand-irreversible-harm-to-Christian.  I was not surprised at the details that emerged within this article.  I have stated often that the push of the gay-rights organization was not the freedom to marry whomever they wanted, but to destroy the Christian teachings that opposed them.  The article concerns a lawsuit filed against a Christian county employee in Kentucky for declining to issue a marriage license for a same-sex couple.  "Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis has declined to issues the licenses because it would violate her First Amendment rights to practice her faith. ... Mat Staver, founder of Liberty Counsel, which is representing Davis, said that despite, 'the opinion of five black-robed lawyers, the Constitution still governs the United States, and the First Amendment guarantees Kim and every American the free exercise of religion.' ... In a response brief to the ACLU's request for an order targeting the clerk's religious rights, Liberty Counsel said the case is 'a thinly veiled attempt at deeming her religious conscience meaningless and punishing her for even asserting a religious objection to authorizing SSM.  In fact, these plaintiffs sought licenses from Davis only after learning of her religious objections to SSM, and they refuse to obtain a license elsewhere.' ... They want, the court filing explains, 'to induce irreversible and substantial harm to the religious conscience of Davis.'  'If Davis' religious objection cannot be accommodated under the circumstances of this case, then elected officials have no real religious freedom when they take public office,' Staver warned."  The article concludes with a quote from Justice Samuel Alito, made after the Court's decision in favor of same-sex marriage: "Alito said it 'usurps the constitutional right of the people to decide whether to keep or alter the traditional understanding of marriage.  The decision will also have other important consequences.  It will be used to vilify Americans who are unwilling to assent to the new orthodoxy.  In the course of its opinion, the majority compares traditional marriage laws to laws that denied equal treatment for African-Americans and women. The implications of this analogy will be exploited by those who are determined to stamp out every vestige of dissent.'" 


Friends, those who strongly support the gay-rights agenda, have to attack Christians, the Church, and the Scriptures.  Every Christian reminds them that their decision to be gay is a wrong choice.  The only way to avoid the guilt is to either humiliate or eliminate those who oppose that position you have chosen.  And the attack upon Christians in the public place, whether in business, the school, or in government, is going to increase. 


Friends, on so many fronts, it is time for the followers of Jesus Christ to rise up and stand united upon the truths found within the Word of God.  Dialogue - yes; compromise - never!  Those words of Jude 3 still grab my heart: We are to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.  That is what God desires of us.  May we do this well.