No Longer My Trusted Source...

…for news. OK, I can’t claim to have surrendered absolute, implicit trust here to begin with; but I have made a near-daily habit of checking www.cnn.com for my news. I have not been so naïve as to presume I read news coverage that even purports to be objective anymore.

Afterall, it was the Previous Century when I was in “J-School”, pursuing a degree in news-editorial journalism. Back In the Day, “lack of bias” and objectivity were actual concepts taught in my reporting classes. Even in the “Opinions Writing” course, we were regularly admonished to build our perspective on a foundation devoid of any ‘slant.’ These values have gone the way of the IBM Selectric and clattering AP wire machine.

Still, I can’t say I was prepared to log on this afternoon and see “The Abortionist and His #1 Foe” front and center on the CNN home page. I got through about three-quarters of the story before I had to look away. The abortion issue itself, the vast and vile social permutations, the sound and fury billowing out of the Reader Comment section—all are old news. [Clearly, the consequent human devastation of men, women, and children touched by abortion is not diminished just because the US is in its fourth decade of “choice.” ]

Even the pro-abortion bias that characterizes the vast majority of mainstream media coverage of this issue is old news. So why do I take note of it here?

I think because this story seemed, to me, to exhibit a new level of flagrancy. Wayne Drash, whose byline appears at the top of this story, managed to sneak in a shot to my emotional solar plexus. For a moment, a wave of despair and futility lapped around the edges of my mind. Evil and annihilation just seem to go on and on and on until it feels hard to take a breath.

Then the needed moment of insight arrived, fresh from the only Source:

“When I tried to understand all this,
It was oppressive to me
Till I entered the sanctuary of God;
Then I understood their final destiny.” [Psalm l 73:16-17]

“He who is pregnant with evil…falls into the pit he has made. The trouble he causes recoils on himself; his violence comes down on his own head.” [Psalm 7: 14-16, selected]

The answer is to look up and remember that the final righteous reckoning is still to come. Make no mistake.

According to the CNN story, both Dr. Carhart, the ‘heroic’ abortionist, and Mr. Newman, a not-winsomely-portrayed pro-life activist, claim that “God is on their side.” This is completely inverted.

Anyone who has even a pale conception of Who God really is would not dare to make such a claim. I don’t know who they mean by ‘god’, but He Who made the heavens and the earth, and before Whom every knee will one day bow, does not settle down on anyone’s team bench. How much less does He grant favor to those who willfully destroy precious eternal beings?

No, the truth is both awesome and awful: every one of us will stand before Him to give account of ourselves as our earthly life expires.

Dr. Carhart still has a chance to make a 180-degree turn in his life and escape the condemnation that he--and we all--deserve, apart from Christ. And Mr. Newman still has a chance to evaluate his words, attitudes, and actions against the Jesus Whose name he invokes.

But those chances, too, will come to an end. Until then, we who belong to Christ can know unswervingly that God’s perfect justice and mercy are definitive and sure.

None of us ‘gets away’ with anything, unless we surrender to Him.

And I have no doubt we would turn away in horror if we were to see the “the final destiny” of those who do not.