No Respect

In the wake of shootings this week of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile and the five Dallas officers killed and six others wounded, our hearts are broken and our minds left wondering, "how we could come to this as a country?" Events similar in Fergusson, Baltimore, 62 other officers killed in the line of duty this year, or even things like the Orlando or San Bernardino shootings, they testify to the same: the value placed upon human life has been reduced nearly to nothing. There is definitely a racial element to it, but the underlying cause is that life has been eviscerated of its significance. Murders daily in our major cities, and even in the smallest towns of friends and neighbors, we hear of them everyday. Social media and the news media, have reported news, but I fear they've fanned the flames. Life means much less in our country than it ever has in many eyes.

Lots of reasons that we could speculate as causes; terrorism and war that we have been so much more close to than ever before; violence on TV and video games; the degeneration of the family; the declining influence of religion (and its general restraining morality); just to name a few. I definitely think it's an indicator, but maybe even a cause, maybe the most important cause in the last 50 years. The decision to allow abortion on demand, even though it seemed minor among the Vietnam War, racial integration/civil rights movement, the sexual revolution, and rise of the drug culture, was a defining point in our nation for the way that we evaluate a person's life. It said to our country that even the most defenseless of lives is expendable at another's will without repercussion.

Thousands of unborn children are killed in our country daily (75% from minority populations). Even when we are confronted with harvesting body parts for sale, the nation passes by in apathy, more concerned about the 2016 presidential election than the murder of children. God forms every human being, black or white, sick or well, embryo or senior citizen, democrat or republican, christian or muslim, man or woman, rich or poor, officer or welfare recipient, orphaned or widowed, American or European, in his image. We all represent God to creation. We are like him in special ways that all of creation is not. Therefore, since our lives have a unique display of his glory, our worth is inestimable. If only we saw it that way.

God, reveal your glory. Open our eyes to infinite worth, so that we may understand transferred worth. Let the mind of Christ be in us that humility will reign in us. Bring forth beauty from ashes in our land now...we beg you.