Sanctity of Human Life

Several years ago a preacher friend and I had the privilege of spending a week at Saddleback Baptist Church.  Yes, this is the one where Rick Warren is the pastor.  Dr. Warren and I have a mutual friend, Danny Daniels, who was on staff at Saddleback at that time.  My friend and I were at Saddleback at Danny’s invitation.

I got to meet Rick’s dad, Jimmy Warren.  My friend commented that while everyone was trying to spend time with Rick, that I was talking with Rick’s dad.  Brother Jimmy, Rick’s dad was a pastor also, saw that I was from Alabama and he initiated the conversation.  I found out that Brother Jimmy had a sister in Alabama and that he lived in Alabama before moving to Texas.  We talked for about forty-five minutes.

My I.D. badge started several conversations.  I was standing in front of the church when a lady noticed I was from Alabama.  She asked me why folks in the south had so many guns and killed little animals and had school shootings.

Taken back by her comment I reminded her that the last school shooting at that time was in Oregon.  I told her I might be from Alabama, but according to our geography books that Oregon was north of California and on the West Coast.  I reminded her that just because we talk slow in Alabama does not mean we are stupid.

I told her that for the amount of guns that there in Alabama that the number of people killed from hunting was very low.  That is not to minimize the life of a shooting victim, but that we teach our children that guns were made to kill and never point it at anything unless you intend to kill it, even if it is unloaded.  Guns do not kill, people do.

I told her that my Aaron, who was small at the time, could shoot a rifle with extreme accuracy.  I pointed to a window in the church and told her he could hit any place I pointed.

She asked me why did we kill deer, turkeys, rabbits, quail, and etc.  I told her that we ate them.  This grossed her out.  I guess these Southern delicacies were not on the LA weight lost diet.  I told her that we also killed varmints.  Then I had to explain varmints.

After I explained to her that “a country boy could survive”, she said that the folks in California just shot.  She said that just a few days before the Saddleback Conference that a young man shot at people traveling on the Interstate.  That’s happening everywhere now days.

She agreed with me that the reasons for school shootings and idiots who randomly shoot from Interstates have no respect for human life.  People see movies where people are shot, bombed, and mutilated.  Movies are make-believe and that actor blown to bits is completely well in the next movie.

Abortion, school shootings, euthanasia, child molestation, and all other manners of evil have no regard for human life.

January is the month that our churches observe Sanctity of Human life.

O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! Who hast set thy glory above the heavens.  Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger.  When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; what is man, that thou art mindful of him? And the son of man, that thou visitest him? For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour. Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet: All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field; The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas.  O Lord our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! (Psalm 8)