In light of recent news, some things have been on my mind lately.
Several days ago, the CBC reported that Canada Post employees in Saskatoon refused to deliver fliers containing graphic images of aborted babies, which many people would find disturbing. And so, these employees took a stand. Eventually it was agreed that others would deliver the fliers instead.
I remember quite vividly being shocked and sickened when I saw pictures of aborted children for the first time. Indeed, I don’t think I have recovered from this encounter with those graphic videos that showed an actual abortion and the merciless killing of an innocent unborn child, whose only “crime” was that she was unwanted.
This also brings to mind an incident at the end of World War II. When the allied forces first liberated the concentration camps of the Nazi regime, General Dwight Eisenhower actually ordered German citizens from the nearby towns and villages to walk through the camps. By doing so, they would be forced to look at what had been going on among them, and what they chose to ignore. Eisenhower wanted the Germans to understand that even if they weren’t directly part of the atrocities, the guilt still lay on them because they allowed it to happen.
Recently, I watched the first leaders debate for the upcoming elections in our country. Addressing the theme of national security, our Prime Minister made the point that as we have seen, Canada is not immune from the threat of international terror. True enough.
But I was still thinking of the employees at Canada Post who thought it was too disturbing to show Canadians what is actually going on in our “abortuaries.” I wondered whether the debate among our political leaders would have been as sanguine if 300 Canadians were killed by terrorists in this country every day.
Yet that is exactly what is happening in terms of abortions. And we think it’s too “disturbing” to know or see what’s going on. “Let’s speak about more pleasant things,” we say. So while political leaders talked about national security in the debate, I couldn’t help but notice the callous disregard for the security of the most vulnerable members of our society – the unborn.
Did you know that there are (as far as I know) only three countries in the world that do not have any laws restricting abortion whatsoever? These three countries are North Korea, China and Canada. I am ashamed!
In the U.S., Planned Parenthood has recently been exposed for teaching doctors to crush unborn children, but to be careful to spare those organs that can be used to sell as profit. That is illegal. But in this country, that is being done with abandon! In the U.S., partial birth abortions are prohibited; in Canada, a fully developed child can be legally killed provided one toe is still left in the mother.
But we never – hardly ever – mention this matter at all!
Finally, I have been thinking about Jesus’ words in Mark 10:14: “Let the children come to me.” And I have been thinking about David’s reflection and wonder in Psalm 139:13, where he writes, “For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.” There was for David, a deep sense of wonder at what God had done in the secret place of his mother’s womb. I wonder what David might have written, were he to see an ultra sound or an MRI of the absolute, stunning wonder of God’s care for the unborn.
And with all of these thoughts, I have been reflecting about Moses’ words in Deuteronomy 30:19: “I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live.”
I am overwhelmed that I live in a culture and in a country that has actively chosen death. May God see and respond in mercy. If not, the price we will bear for this warfare against the least of these is more than we will be able to bear.
