Is the Movie Theater Mass Murderer the Only One Who Shows a "Disregard for Human Life"?

James Holmes was charged with 24 counts of murder, two each for the 12 people killed, and 116 counts of attempted murder, two each for the 58 injured. For the murder charges, one count included murder with deliberation, the other murder with extreme indifference. Both carry a maximum death penalty upon conviction.

A former chief deputy district attorney says a conviction under extreme indifference means that any life sentences would have to be served consecutively, not concurrently. In addition, the 24-year-old Holmes was charged with one count of possession of explosives and one count of a crime of violence, which is a gun charge. Authorities say Holmes booby trapped his apartment. --- Internet news release

In a recent court appearance James Holmes, who has a large number of murder and attempted murder charges plus a few other charges beyond murder, was described in part as a person who showed a "disregard for human life."

Probably most people would agree with that statement in light of his actions in killing 12 people and wounding 58 others in a shooting rampage at a movie theater in Colorado some time back.

Now for a troublesome question -- is he the only one showing disregard for human life? There was a more recent incident of a shooting in a Sikh Temple in Wisconsin in which some people were killed. And there are incidents happening all over the world in which human life is violently taken by shootings and by other means. So the same could be said in these incidents as well. But what is not honestly faced is the fact that a number of high profile persons who have been elected to political office and judges who have been appointed to serve in the justice system have demonstrated that they too have a "disregard for human life!"

Here's what is happening each week in the United States -- about 25,000 unborn children every week are intentionally mutilated and murdered in their mothers' (term, mother, is used very loosely here) wombs with the mangled remains disposed of as casually as you would pitch unwanted garbage into a landfill!

We have a president who sanctions this grisly practice and opposes any effort to protect lives of the unborn. In the Illinois legislature he successfully blocked legislation that would have protected the life of a baby which successfully survived an abortion, which a few do on very rare occasions. So far as Obama was concerned let it lie on a table unattended until it dies -- that is how it is in Illinois today for the very few that may survive an abortion attempt.

Not only the president, but many members of the U.S. Congress, governors of our states, members of state legislatures, and judges in the judicial system qualify for taking the position in which it can be said of them that they have a "disregard for human life!"

Tens of millions of unborn children have been destroyed since the infamous Supreme Court decision of 1973 with little serious objection being shown. Even a number of high profile church leaders, including United Methodist bishops, are very silent when it comes to this issue. They are willing to go to great lengths to tell you what is wrong in other areas of our culture -- for instance, just ask them sometime what their position on gambling is and be prepared to listen for a long time to their response about the evils of gambling!

The most tragic thing about this issue is the failure, because of the ignorance and blindness that exists, to recognize that this one single abomination will invoke the wrath of a holy God more quickly than anything else in our culture. We have a lot of collective and personal transgressions of numerous kinds going for us at the present time, but to destroy human life intentionally for which the Creator has a high and holy purpose is an offense that the human mind in its limitations cannot begin to comprehend!

God has been speaking and clearly calling to repentance, but so far the national response has been the commonly used traditional obscene gesture -- we'll just keep on showing our "disregard for human life" and if God doesn't like it, He can go and ________! You fill in the blank, but be aware that God will probably not follow through on your suggestion. He will be making a response to all this -- not a question as to whether He will, but rather WHEN will it happen!

Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying: "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; before you were born I sanctified you; and I ordained you a prophet to the nations." --- Jeremiah 1:4, 5

Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life. --- Galatians 6:7, 8

It’s NOT the Economy, Stupid!

“It’s the economy, stupid!” was a phrase attributed to James Carville during Bill Clinton’s successful campaign for the presidency in 1992. The phrase suggested that Clinton was the superior choice over George H. W. Bush because the sitting president had not effectively addressed the economy which had gone into a recession.

Just about every pair of eyeballs has been focused on the economy in recent months and the issue has whipped up into the intensity of a Cat 5 hurricane raging in toward the U. S. coast from the Atlantic Ocean!

There are probably many who feel that the original phrase, “It’s the economy, stupid!,” which was the brainchild (term brain used carelessly here) of James Carville is applicable to our present condition in the United States.

Certainly President Obama has been attempting to make political hay out of this circumstance and it has given him an “excuse” to go flitting about the country in Air Force One as he attempts to jam his stimulus bill down our throats. Had it not been for the betrayal of 3 Republicans (Senators Snowe and Collins of Maine and Specter of Pennsylvania) it is doubtful we would have gotten bogged down in this financial quagmire which is deceptively called "stimulus!"

But to get to the point – the root problem is not the economy, which is a distraction away from the real problem that is causing us to be on the fast lane to disaster! That real problem is a terminal illness which is ethical, moral and spiritual in nature.

A brief summary:

• Deadly love focused on self, money and pleasure!
  
• Compromised truth and principles within churches claiming to be Christian in faith!
  
• Government at all levels that is riddled with contradiction and hypocrisy!
  
• Widespread practice of idolatry in a plethora of expressions!
  
• Fast spreading malignancy of sexual immorality in virtually unlimited patterns!
  
• Intense desecration of the day in which Almighty God is to be honored and worshipped!
  
• Indoctrinating our children and youth with the false and very deadly teaching that we humans have evolved over eons of time from lower life forms – there is no need for teaching the involvement of a divine Creator when it comes to origins!
  
• And worst of all – a professed “civilized nation” implementing by judicial ruling a policy which has resulted in the mutilation and murders of over 50 million unborn children since January 1973!
  

Extensive details on this issue, which makes the subject of the economy have as much impact and significance as a gnat trying to stop a loaded 18 wheeler rolling down Interstate 95 out of Washington DC, are found at Driving the Final Nails! -- use reverse feature on your web browser to come back to this place.

There will be a majority who would vehemently disagree and say, “No, it’s the economy!” And that would include most of the politicians. But that response is because they are part of one or more, maybe ALL the problems as given above!

It's NOT the economy, stupid!

A PS: I don't believe it's fair that Pennsylvania should be saddled with an Arlen Specter and a John Murtha (my rep in Congress from 12th District) and the other 49 states having never experienced this pair -- the other 49 should have them for a few years and then they would appreciate what we Pennsylvanians have to endure by way of political shenanigans!

"And as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man: They ate, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. Likewise as it was also in the days of Lot: They ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built; but on the day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. Even so will it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed." --- Jesus speaking in Luke 17:26-30

Chosen Before the Universe Existed and Time Began!

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He has made us accepted in the Beloved. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth; in Him, in whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory. --- Ephesians 1:3-12

Intense debate has focused on the issue of when human life begins. The position a person takes on this matter will be reflected when it comes to one’s support of OR opposition to the intentional mutilation and murder of children while they are still in their mothers’ wombs.

However to attempt to debate the issue of when human life begins is really an exercise in futility for the following reasons:

• The fundamental fact that God gives to all life, breath, and all things. Further, it is in God that we live, move and have our being. (Acts 17:24-28).
  
  
• God’s claim to ownership of this world and all that is within it, including its human population! (Psalm 24:1).
  
  
• God’s explicit claim to being involved in the process of the formation of each human being. (Jeremiah 1:5; Psalm 139:13-17).
  

All this is confirmed by the most mind boggling truth we will ever encounter during this lifetime in the statement, “…just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world…”

Before this universe existed or time began, we were known and fully identified by our Creator! But there is more than identity and “personhood” involved here – being “chosen” means God has a purpose for each human being.

It is God’s passionate desire that we:

• Be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth (1 Timothy 2:1-4)
  
  
• Totally repent of our sins – in fact, this is a specific commandment (Acts 17:30, 31: 2 Peter 3:9)
  
  
• Believe on His Son as Savior and Lord of our lives (1 John 3:23)
  
  
• Be His channels through which He works out His purposes (Philippians 2:12, 13)
  
  
• Do all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and for His glory alone (Colossians 3:17; 1 Corinthians 6:19, 20)
  
  
• Serve Him in the glory of our resurrection throughout the countless eons of eternity (Revelation 22:3, 4)
  

So then, in light of what God has revealed about the significance of human life and the fact that He knew us and identified us before the universe existed or time began, what is your position – standing with the vast majority (including a number who profess to be “Christian”) which views human life as a commodity of little significant value and to be dispatched efficiently on numerous occasions because it is the “convenient” thing to do when pregnancy brings “distress” to the potential “mother” (term used very loosely) OR with a rather small minority which finds itself in full agreement with our Creator’s statements about human life and its inestimable value in His sight?

"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; before you were born I sanctified you; and I ordained you a prophet to the nations." --- Jeremiah 1:5