At Ease in the Land of Moloch
by R.C. Sproul Jr.
Suppose for a moment that the sky were falling. Now while you have your imagination engaged, imagine that Chicken Little was actively trying to sound the alarm, not that the sky is falling, but that a rat has successfully broken into the feed bin. Rats in the feed bin, that’s not such a good thing. Raising the alarm, all things being equal, would be a good thing. But if the sky were falling, concerns about rats and feed bins would be not just misguided, but dangerous, a genuine distraction of a truly calamitous event. Now suppose that Chicken Little suddenly hatched a bevy of baby Chicken Littles, all of whom became conservative pundits.
There we are. The danger of the day is socialized health care. Last month is was socialized car manufacturing. Nine months ago it was socialized banking, but since it was our guy doing that, we were in favor of it. Talk radio is all abuzz with the awful things the President is doing to our economy. The ghost of inflation future is haunting us. Doom and gloom is everywhere. It is true, terribly true, that the Obama administration is spending us down the river at rates far more rapidly than his predecessor did. Socialism is a dreadfully dangerous and destructive practice, whether it be in medicine, as the President hopes to bring us, or in medications as the former President brought us. It’s dangerous in the car industry, and pernicious in the banking industry. It’s all more horrible than even the pundits know.
There are, however, two things that are far worse. The first is our relative indifference to the second. That is, that Christians, and the radio talkers who lead us, are up in arms, running about like Chicken Little over the President’s handling of the economy is shameful. For we have forgotten the real tragedy of our day. Today, nearly four thousand mothers will murder their own children. Tomorrow it will be the same. Under President Bush, every day four thousand babies were intentionally murdered, even when Republicans controlled both houses of Congress. Murder.
I believe in liberty. I long for limited government. I believe in fiscal wisdom, in hard money. But assaults on these things are so many rats in the feed bin while the sky is falling. Babies are being murdered while I type. Billboards advertise these services. Salesmen visit these offices, hoping to land an account. Landlords rent to these grisly customers. Policemen are standing guard at the door. Nurses are scrubbing implements of infanticide, and medical school graduates are putting on surgical gloves. Moms have paid their cash, and wait.
And Christians are listening to Glenn Beck complain about intrusions into the economy. Sadly, because the sky has been falling for thirty-six years, we no longer seem to notice. We are comfortable with murdered babies, at ease in the land of Moloch. I understand that we cannot look too closely at this horror. It is too terrible. But we need to look more closely, more often, more honestly, and with more repentance. We need to stop allowing ourselves to be distracted and outraged by the rats. The sky is falling, and the blood is rising.
Suppose for a moment that the sky were falling. Now while you have your imagination engaged, imagine that Chicken Little was actively trying to sound the alarm, not that the sky is falling, but that a rat has successfully broken into the feed bin. Rats in the feed bin, that’s not such a good thing. Raising the alarm, all things being equal, would be a good thing. But if the sky were falling, concerns about rats and feed bins would be not just misguided, but dangerous, a genuine distraction of a truly calamitous event. Now suppose that Chicken Little suddenly hatched a bevy of baby Chicken Littles, all of whom became conservative pundits.
There we are. The danger of the day is socialized health care. Last month is was socialized car manufacturing. Nine months ago it was socialized banking, but since it was our guy doing that, we were in favor of it. Talk radio is all abuzz with the awful things the President is doing to our economy. The ghost of inflation future is haunting us. Doom and gloom is everywhere. It is true, terribly true, that the Obama administration is spending us down the river at rates far more rapidly than his predecessor did. Socialism is a dreadfully dangerous and destructive practice, whether it be in medicine, as the President hopes to bring us, or in medications as the former President brought us. It’s dangerous in the car industry, and pernicious in the banking industry. It’s all more horrible than even the pundits know.
There are, however, two things that are far worse. The first is our relative indifference to the second. That is, that Christians, and the radio talkers who lead us, are up in arms, running about like Chicken Little over the President’s handling of the economy is shameful. For we have forgotten the real tragedy of our day. Today, nearly four thousand mothers will murder their own children. Tomorrow it will be the same. Under President Bush, every day four thousand babies were intentionally murdered, even when Republicans controlled both houses of Congress. Murder.
I believe in liberty. I long for limited government. I believe in fiscal wisdom, in hard money. But assaults on these things are so many rats in the feed bin while the sky is falling. Babies are being murdered while I type. Billboards advertise these services. Salesmen visit these offices, hoping to land an account. Landlords rent to these grisly customers. Policemen are standing guard at the door. Nurses are scrubbing implements of infanticide, and medical school graduates are putting on surgical gloves. Moms have paid their cash, and wait.
And Christians are listening to Glenn Beck complain about intrusions into the economy. Sadly, because the sky has been falling for thirty-six years, we no longer seem to notice. We are comfortable with murdered babies, at ease in the land of Moloch. I understand that we cannot look too closely at this horror. It is too terrible. But we need to look more closely, more often, more honestly, and with more repentance. We need to stop allowing ourselves to be distracted and outraged by the rats. The sky is falling, and the blood is rising.
