When government officials sanction murder
During the 20th century the world witnessed “communist, Nazi, fascist and military dictators who between them killed more than 100 million people.” China’s Mao Zedong murdered 60 million; the Soviet Union’s Joseph Stalin murdered 40 million; and Germany’s Adolf Hitler murdered 30 million.
Today the Taliban is murdering innocent civilians in Afghanistan. This horrific headline a month ago came as no surprise: “As Taliban Captures Major Cities, Reports of Killings and Torture Pour In.”
When these terrorists were handed control of the government, they began going door-to-door murdering Afghans who had assisted the United States military over the past 20 years. The Taliban has also set its sights on Christians and other vulnerable Afghans.
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A poll at the end of August prior to our military withdrawal in Afghanistan revealed these statistics: “More than 8 in 10 (84%) Americans think U.S. troops should remain in the country until all Americans are evacuated, and just over 7 in 10 (71%) think they should stay until all Afghans who helped the United States are evacuated as well.”
Why would 16% of Americans want to leave our fellow Americans behind, and why would 29% of Americans want to leave our Afghan partners behind? Such callousness is mind-boggling.
On another life-and-death issue, a national survey revealed that “vast majorities of Americans reject abortion the day before a child is born (80%), abortion in the third trimester (79%), and removing medical care for a viable child after birth (82%). Once again, the callousness of 20% of Americans is staggering.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has now pledged to bring a bill, H.B. 3755, to the House floor that would “strike down current state restrictions on abortion and prevent states from imposing new restrictions on abortions.”
Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the Susan B. Anthony List, said in a statement: “Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi want to permanently stifle American debate on abortion and instead impose a regime of abortion on demand, up until the moment of birth, paid for by the taxpayer.”
When government officials sanction murder, they carry out the work of Satan. Jesus said, “The devil was a murderer from the beginning” (John 8:44).
Hubert Humphrey was a pro-life Democrat who served as the vice president of the United States in the 1960s.
Humphrey stated in 1976: “The moral test of a government is how it treats those who are at the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the aged; and those who are in the shadow of life, the sick, the needy and the handicapped.”
How many of Humphrey's fellow Democrats in office today are willing to take such a bold and loving stand for unborn babies? It often requires courage to do the right thing, especially when many of your peers have chosen to turn a blind eye to the most vulnerable among us.
A study that came out a couple years ago “confirms that babies in the womb can feel pain as early as 12 weeks old.” Earlier this year Senator Lindsey Graham and other colleagues reintroduced the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act. Graham said, “There are only seven countries that allow wholesale abortions at the 20-week period, including China and North Korea. The United States should not be in that club.”
Gianna Jessen testified against Planned Parenthood during a congressional hearing in 2015, saying that "her biological mother was seven-and-a-half months pregnant when she was advised to undergo an abortion by saline — which 'burns the baby inside and out, blinding and suffocating the child, who is then born dead, usually within 24 hours.’”
“Instead of dying,” Jessen said on Capitol Hill, “after 18 hours of being burned in my mother’s womb, I was delivered alive in an abortion clinic in Los Angeles on April 6, 1977. Doctors did not expect me to live. I did.”
The horror of abortion is ghastly. An estimated 62 million abortions have occurred since the landmark Roe v. Wade decision in 1973.
Jesus said, “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony and slander” (Matthew 15:19).
When a person becomes a Christian, he or she turns away from committing those sins, as well as every other kind of sin. Christ alone can change a dark heart, but it requires repentance and faith in Christ.
Each one of us needs the forgiveness Jesus earned for us through His death on the cross. He rose from the dead on the third day, so that we can rise again and live with Him forever in Heaven (1 Corinthians 15:3-8; John 11:25,26). In the meantime, followers of Christ are called to pray earnestly for the spiritual and physical needs of others. This includes those left behind in Afghanistan, as well as helpless babies being formed by God in their mother’s womb.
“For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well” (Psalm 139:13,14).
Government officials who sanction murder need a new heart. If they turn away from their deadly agenda, they, too, can be delivered from sin and saved by God’s grace. This is what the Apostle Paul meant when he said, “I preached that they should repent and turn to God and prove their repentance by their deeds” (Acts 26:20).
Talk is cheap. Deeds speak volumes. Jesus put it best: “You will know them by their fruit” (Matthew 7:16).
Dan Delzell is the pastor of Redeemer Lutheran Church in Papillion, Nebraska.
