They Even Sacrificed Their Children

“They even sacrificed their sons and their daughters to the demons, and shed innocent blood, the blood of their sons and their daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan; and the land was polluted with blood.” Psalm 106:37 – 38.

We are a barbaric nation.

Let us not recoil in horror when pondering child sacrifice in other times and places, lest we miss the point that what was once done crudely is now done with scientific, sociological, political, technical, and religious sophistication.

The babes that are spared mutilation in the womb are now mutilated in their souls, and with increasing frequency in their bodies, as they are offered on the altars of this world; and on the high altar of this world, the powerhouse known at the United States of American.

We desecrate the souls of our children by godless entertainment, unbridled sexual images and practices, the worship of fame and money, taking what once was perhaps “sport” and turning it into a god to be worshipped and sacrificed to. On Sundays we teach them that we gather in churches to be entertained and amused rather than to worship the True and Living God and His Son Jesus Christ. We teach our children to feel good rather than to do good.

We train our children to be consumers, and to value money and possessions and the glory of this world above everything else. We manipulate them, and now overtly force them, into rejecting the image of God – pushing them into the abyss of confusion in terms of who they are and who they should be.

We foist on them destructive technology that warps their brains, their critical thinking; deadens their compassion and sympathy.

We often do this because we are cowards. We have not the courage to call insanity “insanity”. We are afraid to say, “Enough is enough”. We do not want to risk our social standing, our jobs, our standard of living. What good is a high standard of material living if we are barbarians in our morality, our ethics, and our religion?

What shall we say of pastors and priests? Are we afraid to lose our jobs or are we really so blind as not to see the havoc in our congregations and society? Is not the essence of Christian discipleship the Cross of Jesus Christ and its self-denial? Are we as drunk on amorality as the rest of society?

And what will history say, should we escape these ruins and there be a history, of the failure of Christian “leaders”, including local pastors and priests, to work together to save their people from godless education, entertainment, manipulation, poverty, sports-worship, and economics? We build our own houses while the House of God lies in ruin (Haggai Chapter One).

The collective church is in a Grand Denial on a par with the Grand Denial of the church in Central Europe between the World Wars. A denial of the insidiousness of theological rot, of the internal rot in our congregations, of the narcissistic economic rot of our society, of the rot in our entertainment, the rot in our education, the rot in government, the rot in technology, the rot in business – yes, we are in a Grant Denial.

We fuel this Grand Denial by sacrificing our sons and daughters on the altars of this world – O what an account we shall all have to give – cowards though we are, we will not find a place to hide on That Day.