Terri’s torment has served to reveal the truth about the hearts of many people.
It has unmasked those who claim to act out of love and a respect for truth and justice, but whose hearts, when exposed, reveal something entirely different -- a dark, penetrating ugliness. We know that, unless they learn to comprehend the malevolence of their actions and earnestly seek His forgiveness, they will one day stand before Him and know that their eternity has been sealed by their own self-serving treachery, and the evil it has wrought on an innocent woman.
Terri’s ordeal has unmasked those who claim to be leaders and teachers of men, but who have been found wanting in occupying those exalted positions. (Not many of you should presume to be teachers … because you know that those who teach will be judged more strictly … Jas 3:1). Obeying unjust laws, or turning away from gross injustice, is not the mark of a leader or teacher of men. Not one of our national leaders did more than offer public lip service during Terri’s entire ordeal. (Watch out for the teachers of the law. They like to walk around in flowing robes and be greeted in the marketplaces, and have the most important seats … and places of honor. They devour widows’ houses and for a show make lengthy prayers. Such men will be punished most severely … Mark 12:38-40).
Public oratory often serves as a subterfuge that disguises the fact that the speaker lacks the courage to move beyond words and into action. I don’t believe we have ever witnessed more ‘brave words’ in combination with a sickening lack of comensurate ‘brave actions’ than we have over the past two weeks of symbolic outrage on the part of our national leadership. The special session of congress that was called two weekends ago may go down in history as one of the most appalling examples of meaningless political theatrics ever concocted by leaders whose outrage is skin deep, at best, and who value charisma and facade infinitely more than character.
Cleverly crafted words are also among the most powerful tools capable of shaping public policy and public opinion. This morning’s FoxNews opinion poll revealed that a majority of Americans believe that the removal of Terri’s source of food and hydration was ‘an act of mercy’. Terri’s murder has also separated those who seek to inform themselves about issues of substance and consequence by poring over all of what passes for ‘information’ from those who are unwilling to expend the time and energy to separate truth from lies of convenience, often formulated in order to further an insidious ideology. I truly believe that this morning’s poll, and most others regarding Terri Schiavo’s fate, rather than exhibiting the fact that the large majority of Americans favored killing Terri, instead illustrate that a large majority of Americans are ignorant of many of the basic facts that caused, colored, and finalized her planned demise.
Scripture tells us that a faithful remnant will continue to remain true to His original truths and laws, despite ever-increasing apostasy and opposition to truth. That they will be a people of unshakable integrity who value truth more than that which poses as truth. I believe that Terri Schiavo’s plight has brought many of those faithful out from the shadows, while also shining an unflattering light on many who claim to value truth, justice, and life itself, but whose agenda in fact often precludes all three.
As marron so beautifully observed more than a week ago:
I am sick at my stomach, to be frank. I'm not afraid for her, death isn't the end, and death isn't to be feared. I am more afraid for what this means, for what this case reveals about the moral state of affairs among the living … Its odd, the attack on 9/11 was a kind of watershed, an event that forced people to choose where they stood on some very key issues. People who I had previously admired, or tolerated, who chose wrong I have been unable to ever again see in the same light, I have lost respect for individuals and institutions and whole countries because of it.
This is another such event. People are forced to choose, to defend her, or to be complicit in her death, and those who choose wrong, and those who have refused to choose, are marked in my eyes, I will not be able to look at them in the same light again.
There is something almost biblical in the way the entire world stands by to watch this woman's death as we approach Easter, as men in suits studiously wash their hands of her and turn away.
Those who are determined to cling steadfastly to God’s truths cannot allow Terri’s murder, and the identities of those who were either actively or passively complicit in it, to fade from our memories. We need to remember who Terri’s enemies were -- both those who actively sought her demise, and those who had the power to save her and yet did not choose to venture far from their own emotional comfort zones. Terri’s death is a watershed event that portends dark, perilous times for our republic, unless we now begin to work to unmask the evil and the indolent among the ranks of our ‘leadership’, and work to remove them from their positions of power. Unless Terri’s death serves as a wake-up call, it will set a precedent for future life-ending, and life-demeaning, judicial decisions, and continued legislative cowardice and impotence. And it will embolden those who believe that man’s self-absorbed caprice has a right to decide, cavalierly, which lives (especially the unborn, the infirm, and the elderly) are of value and which deserve to be extinguished.
Praying daily for Terri’s faithful, courageous, beleaguered family – that they might find refuge in the wisdom, comfort and strength that only He can provide.
~ joanie
Hi, joanie -- thanks for your post.
// Terri’s torment has served to reveal the truth about the hearts of many people. //
That it has, at all levels of gov't and in all branches. And of ordinary people, including those here on FR, some who were willing to hurt for Terri as they did all they could to free her, and on the other hand, some who inexplicably felt free to rip Terri's supporters beyond simple debate of concerns.
*bump*
joanie-f,Thank you for the ping.
I will be posting your thoughts as an article on my nobody visits web site, once I upgrade my server. Hope that is OK.
This is a beautiful post, well written. Thank you for taking time to compose it. Pray for our country!
We have become a Nation where life is considered 'cheap'. A Nation where it is a 'good thing'....(after all...to some idiots..the mantra of 'quality of life' supersedes all.) to end life that is not perfect...maybe not even life as we consider it.
We (and we are all in the mix together..wether we like it or not)...kill unborn children. We put the elderly into warehouses...and call it good.
How soon before we start to hear calls for Euthanasia of the mentally handicapped??? (after all...is there really any difference between Terry Sciavo and someone severly retarted??)
How long before we hear the calls for the death of those with Alzheimer's or other elderly diseases???
We need to take a good long look at how we value life...and how we treat death.
Before it's too late.
redrock
Amen, joanie! But just because we can't get justice out of the courts doesn't mean there is no Justice. A day of reckoning lies ahead for all those complicit in the death of this innocent who was manifestly entitled to their protection.
On the one hand, we must leave them to the Judgment of God. On the other, in light of the profound insult to our republic occasioned by this hideous affair, I find these words of yours spot-on:
Those who are determined to cling steadfastly to God’s truths cannot allow Terri’s murder, and the identities of those who were either actively or passively complicit in it, to fade from our memories. We need to remember who Terri’s enemies were -- both those who actively sought her demise, and those who had the power to save her and yet did not choose to venture far from their own emotional comfort zones. Terri’s death is a watershed event that portends dark, perilous times for our republic, unless we now begin to work to unmask the evil and the indolent among the ranks of our ‘leadership’, and work to remove them from their positions of power.
May God bless Terri and comfort her agonized, traumatized, and cruelly insulted family; and may He have mercy on all the rest of us.
Well said.
O-U-T-S-T-A-N-D-I-N-G!!!!!!!!!
http://www.radiocity.dynip.com/RadioCity/HtmlPages/Vault/1328.htm
I wouldn't change a word.
Beautifully stated, joanie.