Kill and Make a Good Excuse: Holy Innocents Today

by C.J. Williams, Social Media Director

Go ahead -- killing deserves an excuse.  Make it a good one.

The Holy Innocents died because of one man -- Herod.  His excuse was excellent.  A man with power and pleasure, he didn’t want to risk losing either when he received news of this “newborn king”.  Before even asking what gift or grace this child might offer him, looking only at what it could take from him, he rampaged across Palestine massacring one and two-year old boys -- and he had a good excuse.

He was afraid.  He wanted the right to power and pleasure and privacy.  He wanted to be king.

So in a single stroke, he cut himself off from the unfathomable gift of life and grace offered in that one small new life.  In a single stroke, he fled the deepest  longing of his own heart; he was human after all, and the only saving power humans have is the ability to receive love, and give it.

The Holy Innocents died, but Herod had a good excuse.  He was afraid.  He needed that power.

So go ahead -- make a great excuse.  Can’t you kill with a good enough reason?

I have two aunts who died for the same reason:  my grandfather was angry and afraid and wanted to keep his power.

The abortion clinics in Europe were extremely convenient.  He never had to go on a country-wide massacre; he only needed a lame-duck doctor, and a clinic with the properly sharp medical tools.

The problem is, whatever the excuse, killing doesn’t give a man what he really wants:  Herod’s rampage couldn’t stop time, and it couldn’t stop death.  He died powerless, worms burrowing into his skin, and Jesus lived.  He couldn’t retain constant pleasure or happiness by murdering.

The Holy Innocents died because of an excuse; the Holy Innocents died because of a lie.

Abortion is the same lie, the lie that power and pleasure and fulfillment can be attained by denying and subjugating those more vulnerable -- and that power must be retained at any cost.

We are called to demand that the massacre end.  But more than that, we are called to expose the selfish deceptions buried in legalized abortion: that any man or woman can take another human life because they are afraid, that any man or woman is served by selfish violence; that dignity is gained at the price of murder; that power is a right.

Power is not a right.  Neither is pleasure.  Both are heinous abuses when gained at the cost of the innocent.

But Life is right.

The whole world loses by abortion, just as Palestine lost thousands of small lives to Herod’s lust for power, and fear of losing it.

Jesus survived that first massacre.

I survived Roe v. Wade, and if you were born after 1973, so have you.

In this New Year, I want you to ask your peers, ask your parents, ask your community:

            ABORTION -- Would you

                ABORT JOY?

                ABORT HOPE?

                ...Is there ever an excuse for murder?

The answer is no.