“Revenge of the Conscience”

Tim Challies is correct, this is a must read.  What is?  Today’s commentary by Dr. Mohler titled “Revenge of the Conscience”.  Dr. Mohler takes a quick look at some recent articles in some mainsteam media mega-outlets, The L.A. Times, NY Times, and Washington Post. 

Profound mega-snippet:

Have we now reached a point of no moral return?  Mundy’s article forces us to face the fact that we have become a society that considers “selective reduction” just part of what is necessary, given the power of new reproductive technologies.  We will become killers even as we become givers of life.  A needle is inserted into one baby in order to kill, another needle in yet another baby in order to save. 

The cold, clinical, calculating nature of the decisions reported by Liza Mundy takes us to the heart of the human problem.  The essence of sin is the ambition to be as God.

The appearance of these articles, published in major American newspapers in a span of mere days, tells us something important.  So does the fact that each of these articles reflects a sense of moral disquiet.  Mundy reports that many women develop intense moral disquiet and persistent depression after undergoing the procedure.  A source cited by Mundy explained that “psychoanalytic interviews with women who underwent [selective reduction] describe severe bereavement reactions including ambivalence, guilt, and a sense of narcissistic injury, all of which increased the complexity of their attachment to the remaining babies.”

Professor J. Budziszewski of the University of Texas describes this pattern as “the revenge of conscience.”  God has made us so that conscience emerges even when we attempt to shut it out and hide from it.  As Budziszewski explains, “We do not lack moral knowledge; we hold it down.”  It does not stay down.

I think we need to continue to push this issue, that these “prenatal executions” are not about choice, or women’s reproductive systems, but about the life and death of human beings.  Let us appeal to the human conscience.  If it does stay down, let it stay down in spite of our strongest attempts to pry it up.

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