Former abortionist Abby Johnson on Lindsay Clancy:
"We have become extraordinarily practiced at looking at a dead child and asking first what his or her mother was going through.
And abortion taught us how to do that.
For decades, the defense of abortion has depended on shifting the moral center of the story away from the human being who dies and toward the human being experiencing the crisis. The mother’s suffering becomes the justification. But suffering does not make killing good,” Johnson wrote....
Johnson argued that culture has spent more than 50 years training itself to begin with a mother’s fear, financial stress, lack of support or depression until the child’s humanity nearly disappears—first in abortion and now in cases like this one."
@FabrizioRomano Guys he defined what a “star” is in his statement. “Someone that people want to take photos with” it’s not about abilities on the pitch! And he does have a point there. That level of attention boosts your pride/ego.
I think a lot of what we're seeing in the Lindsay Clancy case (and MANY others...) comes down to a particular worldview about human nature:
People are inherently good.
The reasoning seems to go something like this: Lindsay is fundamentally good on the inside. So how do we explain the evil that she did? Cuz it can't ultimately be explained by something morally wrong within her. The blame has to be pushed outward. Mental illness. Social pressures. Inadequate systems. A society that didn’t give her what she needed. A demon. Anything but *her.* This helps explain why we see the coddling of horrendous evil.
But there's a major problem with this reasoning. Because if human beings are inherently good, then who created all of these supposedly corrupt, oppressive, and dysfunctional systems?
That would be humans.
The biggest hindrance to repentance and salvation is understanding our need for a savior because we're *not* good. Jesus saved his harshest words for the Pharisees, not because they were religious. But because they were self-righteous hypocrites. They thought they were "good people".
But the one who is justified before God is the one who won't even show their face to Him, and instead begs God for mercy because they are a sinner.
John leaned on Jesus' chest at supper.
Stayed at the cross when every other man ran.
Outlived all twelve. Beaten. Boiled in oil. Exiled to a rock in the ocean.
Thirty years later, Jesus appeared to him in glory.
John didn't worship. Didn't kneel. Didn't lift his hands.
He fell at His feet as dead.
As dead.
Peter did the same thing. After the miraculous catch - boats sinking under the weight - Peter didn't celebrate.
He said: "Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord."
Isaiah saw the Lord high and lifted up. Seraphim crying, Holy. And the prophet said: "Woe is me! for I am undone."
Job argued with God for 37 chapters. Then God showed up. Job said: "I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes."
Every tough man in the Bible who saw the living God had the same reaction.
Not awe. Not worship.
Collapse.
Now look at us.
Walking into church with coffee. Nodding at sermons. Shaking hands in the lobby. Forgetting it by Tuesday.
We think we've been in God's presence.
If you'd been in God's presence, you wouldn't walk out the same way you walked in.
The men who saw Him couldn't stand.
We can barely be bothered to sit.
When Jesus returns, there will be no more heroes. No more performers. The hero and the villain will stand equal at last - empty-handed, bare-faced, finally free to be merely beloved...
“You have kept count of my tossings;
put my tears in your bottle.
Are they not in your book?” Psalm 56:8
God does not answer only the prayers that we remember we prayed. We don’t remember a fraction of what we prayed five hours ago, let alone five days or decades ago.
But they are in a bottle in heaven.
If everyone followed God's commands about sexual immorality by no longer:
- Committing adultery
- Watching porn
- Lusting
- Having sex outside of marriage
STDs would be gone, millions of hearts would be healed, and countless families would be strengthened.
God's ways are best.