The Church gives us this disturbing feast of the martyrdom of the innocent children of Bethlehem and its surrounding region, only three days after Christmas. Pro-lifers naturally connect the feast day with the modern-day massacre of the pre-born innocents. One aspect of the account that is seldom mentioned in modern parallels, however, is the selective nature of the killing. Out of fear of a rival king, Herod ordered the deaths of baby boys just as in earlier times Pharaoh told the midwives to kill all Hebrew sons at birth to ensure their continued enslavement in Egypt.The pagan Roman writer Macrobius...