Where's the Outcry?

Photo by: luigi diamanti

Seventeen souls were killed in Paris, gunned down in their places of work and shopping. They were unarmed and unaware that such a thing was about to happen.

The world was outraged, and rightly so. In any place, people should be free to work and shop.

Between 1.5 and 3.7 million people marched in Paris. World leaders linked arms. Families and co-workers wept. It was an appropriate reaction to those horrible crimes committed in their city.

That same week, 2,500 people were slaughtered, their villages completely destroyed, and hundreds of women and girls kidnapped in Baga and Dorom Baga (two villages) in Nigeria.*

It was barely mentioned in the news. There was no public outpouring of sympathy. There were no hashtags. There was little public reaction at all to the killing of almost as many people as died in the Twin Towers attack on September 11, 2001.

That same week in Iraq, 434 people lost their lives. The more than one hundred separate attacks didn’t even make the news.**

A few days later, nine died in a roadside bombing in Afghanistan.

We care.

We really do.

We care about life.

We care about the freedom to live without fear.

My question, though, is this: why is it that lives in Paris get more attention than lives in Africa or in war-torn countries like Iraq and Afghanistan? Aren’t their lives just as valuable?

Of course, they are!

Did you know that the number one killer of people in the United States is abortion?*** It is much higher than cancer, AIDS, and heart disease. It’s higher than accidents. The number one killer of human beings in the U.S.A. is abortion.

Thankfully, there is an outcry for the innocents. A lot of people offer help to those young women who find themselves pregnant and with few means to take care of a baby. And, many people adopt babies. That’s wonderful!

But, how about the more than 200—almost 300--young girls that were kidnapped out of their school in Nigeria and forced to become slaves and wives? How about the hundreds of women and girls that were kidnapped a week ago?

Do we really care?

Are our hearts broken? Do we mourn?

I don’t understand why lives in the West seemingly matter—at least to the media—more than those in other parts of the world. I don’t understand the outpouring of solidarity in Paris and almost no reaction at all when over two thousand people in Nigeria lose their lives and homes.

I also don’t comprehend the massacre of the unborn all over the world (125 million each year!) and that adults don't understand that little people are people, too.

Where’s the outcry?

I want it to start with me! I am a little voice, but I am a voice.

The Bible has a few things to say about human life:

• Before birth, a person is a person. Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations (Jeremiah 1:5). And now, saith the LORD that formed me from the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob again to him, Though Israel be not gathered, yet shall I be glorious in the eyes of the LORD, and my God shall be my strength (Isaiah 49:5). For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well. My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them (Psalm 139:13-16).
• God made each person in His image. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them (Genesis 1:27).
• God values us above animals, and He even counts the hairs on our heads. Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings, and not one of them is forgotten before God? But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not therefore: ye are of more value than many sparrows (Luke 12:6-7).
• God is against murder. Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man (Genesis 9:6). Thou shalt not kill (Exodus 20:13).
• God loves the world. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved (John 3:16-17).

Let’s value every human’s life! Each person is precious to God.

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*http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2910580/The-horrific-aftermath-Boko-Haram-attack-Nigerian-villages-satellite-images-reveal-destruction-caused-militants-attack-killed-2-500-people.html

**http://musingsoniraq.blogspot.com.es/2015/01/insurgents-pick-up-attacks-in-iraq-but.html
***National Pro Life Alliance