Fame, fortune and power are at the top of the heap when it comes to what we call success. The most peculiar of them is fame. It seems that the rule, which is rarely said out loud, is that anyone who is well known didn’t get like that because he did everything wrong. Really! Who has not heard the names of some famous criminals like John Dillinger or Al Capone or John Wayne Gacy? Many of these criminals were even trusted and had hero status in some people’s minds.
Actors, after all, only portray the worst human behavior, so they are above any level of guilt. Ignoring the power of suggestion and the force of example, they are generally considered innocent. It is not supposed to address the fact that thousands of young people, weak-minded individuals, and those with a penchant for criminal activity can be directly influenced by the actors. How easy it is to portray those who denounce this bad influence as extremists, right-wing extremists, Bible thugs, sanctimonious, or some other denominations I cannot mention here. Does fame change standards of morality, unfortunately for many Americans the answer is yes?
Faith in God is, among other things, a call to rid ourselves of the influence exerted on us by the rich, the powerful, or the famous. It is addressed many times throughout the Bible with warnings like this. “You shall not pervert judgment, you shall not be respecter of persons, nor accept a gift; for a gift blinds the eyes of the wise, and perverts the words of the just.” Deuteronomy 16:19 For those deeply influenced by celebrities, much less is required than a gift, but just one glimpse or word from their favorite star can get them involved in some perverted or twisted secular vision or cause in New York’s proverbial minute. York. This is the violation of the mind. These minds are not weak minds but according to the Bible they are blind minds and are easy prey. 2 Corinthians 4:14
In his brash and irreverent style as a political humorist, Bill Maher has captured the attention of millions of American minds. That these minds were largely suspended in the air for absolutely nothing made them easy prey. His “Politically Incorrect” show, which ended in 2002, won multiple Emmys during its run. In the summer of 2006, Mr. Maher appeared on The Jay Leno Show and, in his usual pompous style, expounded a good deal of his liberal hype to the enthusiastic applause of the audience. The most emotional applause came from the audience when Mr. Maher denounced the resistance to stem cell research that Maher attributes largely to the policies of the Bush administration.
He lifted the audience to heights when he said that what stifles the good efforts of stem cell researchers are men like George Bush who have decided for themselves exactly when life begins. He inferred that it was Bush’s religious beliefs that led him to resist the great high priests of the secular world, the scientists. For the average couch potato trying to unwind in his own home, this may have gone unnoticed, but some good people may have wondered how Mr. Maher decided when life does or doesn’t begin. Why should his point of view be more valid than that of the presidents?
If the beginning of life occurs at some unknown point after conception that anyone arbitrarily determines, then how easy it would be to make a mistake. Those who say it is after the first trimester may be wrong by a month, a day, or even a minute. What reasonable person would want to take a chance on such a deadly mistake? Do the math, those who say life begins at conception might be dead wrong, but that still wouldn’t leave anyone dead. Abortion advocates don’t have such a sure result for their beliefs.
According to Mr. Maher and others who are not so sure when life begins, the Chinese who are credited with saying the following proverb must be dead wrong. “The journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step.” I guess if we really want to know if the proverb is true or not, we could start traveling to Hollywood from wherever we are. When we get there we might knock on the door of some celebrity and ask if our journey started on the first mile of the trip or at some other point along the way. Oh no way take off for Washington DC because we already know what that silly old president is going to say. He is going to tell us that our journey began with the first step and with the first mile. Who could trust such nonsense?
The priests of ancient Baalism offered children as sacrifices to appease their gods. The Bible says that these gods were actually nothing more than demons. Is the offering of our unborn to the priests of science and secularism so different? Has the end that justifies the means now become an acceptable substitute for doing what is natural, right, and obviously moral and humane? Human? What would the animal rights activist do if he found out about a group of veterinarians who were removing entire litters of puppies from their mothers’ bodies for some experiment? How many animal hospitals would be picked up, burned or worse?
Mr. Maher and his enthusiastic audience may not be as sure as Mr. Bush about when human life begins, but there is one place they might want to visit to help them with their decision. Instead of the famous Hollywood stars tour, maybe they should travel to Wichita Kansas to see the building that Operation Blessing recently bought. The building was previously used by Central Women’s Services as an abortion clinic. On August 7, 2006, several news agencies reported that the people of Operation Blessing sprayed the walls, ceilings, and floors of the building with a substance known as luminol. They took still photos and videos of the inside of the old clinic that would make anyone’s blood run cold, no matter how ruthless or hardened they may be. The room shimmered like something out of the worst horror movie of the decade. From the floors, walls and even the ceilings, an eerie glow of death filled the room and one photographer got so sick that he had to flee the room before passing out.
Visiting this old clinic may not answer the question of when life begins, but it would go a long way to show how and in what way life ends. After that, the first question may receive much more attention and thought. For most of us with an average measure of common sense, we don’t need the Bible, the president, or Hollywood celebrities to tell us that most things begin…at the beginning.