Cecil the lion:Murder of the Innocent

Over the past few days unless you live under a rock you will have no doubt heard of Cecil the lion. He was killed on July sixth but the entire world has become outraged at the slaughter of the animal only this past weekend. According to the reports Cecil was a much loved lion even fitted with a tracking collar for scientific study. This would be a bigger deal to me under other circumstances. I’m one who is fascinated by the wolves of Yellowstone and thanks to my brother Kyle and sister-in-law Kristy have gotten a more intimate look at the reintroduction of the beautiful creatures to Yellowstone in The Killing of Wolf Number 10:By Thomas McNamee. I am a hunter, I eat meat. That being said I’ve never understood killing for sport. If you don’t plan on eating it, the creature is not physically harming you or being a detriment to your home, don’t shoot it. The killing of Cecil should have angered me beyond belief; the man who killed Cecil certainly didn’t eat him.  The lion wasn’t harming him or his home, the lion was living in a national park in Zimbabwe. He was lured out and then killed, for sport. While this makes me mad it doesn’t do much more than that.

Strangers and even friends who read this blog might find me heartless for not expressing vehement anger at Cecil’s killer. Now allow me to tell you why. Two weeks ago a video was released of people inside Planned Parenthood discussing the selling of baby parts. The world at large has said nothing of this travesty, and it is a travesty. A gross injustice that is both bone-chilling and blood-curdling. When I first found out I had to fight the urge not to vomit. Mind you, they were discussing the selling of human body parts, for profit. We do this at butcher shops or markets, sell cuts of meat of animals, but this was not the selling of a lamb shank. This was the sale of parts of a human baby who had been forcibly mutilated and removed from its mother’s womb.

Planned Parenthood should be stopped. But it won’t be. People care more about the life of a single lion than they do the sickening practice of abortion and selling of baby parts. These same people are probably aware of human trafficking and could even be staunch supporters of ending the trading of human slaves. However, abortions are different, if you say abortions shouldn’t happen you are saying a woman has no right to choose what to do with her own body. I’m not Pro-Choice. There is the matter of Pro-Choice not being a real choice at all. When you say you are Pro-Choice you are essentially saying this: I’m for giving a woman (and more often than not man) the right to ‘choose’ to not take responsibility for their actions. That ‘choice’ results in killing a human because they aren’t ready for that yet.  By the time this article is finished and posted on my blog more than 103,000 humans will have been killed by abortion today alone.  That should stop you in your tracks. The sheer magnitude of that number should cause you to grieve, not only for the lives lost but for a nation and a world that truly has no compassion for human life. Kill an animal and you’re a murderer kill a baby and you’re just choosing to make your life easier. Backward logic but the logic of people who are fallen and sinful.

Human life is a precious thing. Beyond the normal argument of ‘what if you just killed the person who was going to cure cancer or the next Einstein’ there is a much stronger reason as to why abortion is murder and should be seen as such. Every life no matter the circumstance it was conceived in matters. God creates each life personally and intricately for a purpose that we cannot know. A life that was never given the chance to discover the love of the God who created everything who deserves the praise of every human on this planet. A God who even if we don’t give Him that and we often don’t is praised by the very world He created.

Don’t misunderstand me; grace is most certainly extended to the very people who work in Planned Parenthood. Grace is extended to mothers and fathers who decide that getting an abortion is their only option. They need grace just like I do. That is not the easiest thing to admit but it is true. I’m no better a person than they are. The truth is there are no good people. People are alive in Christ or dead in sin. There are no good or bad. You are dead or you are alive. Loving these people isn’t easy, but that is why I’m not God. It is hard for me to love people who so flippantly destroy and throw away human life and then sale body parts. But God does and because He does, I should as well. Even if the thought of abortion makes me sick, makes me vehemently angry, I have to love these people.

I do not agree with them. I do not understand them. I do not shout from the rooftops for the head of a man who killed a lion rather than justice for the millions of humans killed by abortion since 1973. But I do have to love them.

(Authors Note: I am well aware that those who read this may see only an angry man who is sickened by the actions of a world and nation who have such a low view of human life. But, I pray and hope that you see much more than that. I hope you see that there is love here. Even amidst anger and pain, there is love and grace, because I am a sinner saved by grace and I need it daily just like everyone else.)