James Jay Lee’s fifteen minutes of fame, which actually lasted four hours, ended with his death. The entire nation was glued to the news reports as one man set out to make sure people heard what he had to say, regardless of what he had to do. The man who took hostages at Discovery Channel’s headquarters in Maryland this past Wednesday was someone whom the environmental/animal rights movements would perhaps not want to associate with, but whose public web site statements said a great deal about the mentality of those who hold human beings in disdain.
Prior to his death, Lee was making outrageous demands and waving his gun at hostages. Acting like someone whom one might describe as deranged seemed to be his claim to fame. But his philosophy emanated from a theology we know as gnosticism. While it is clear that Lee had a penchant for the absurd, the same could be said of most of those who embrace a gnostic perspective.
Gnostics believe that human procreation is an “evil deed.” They are opposed to babies and subsequently have a disturbing attitude toward human persons. In the framework of gnostic theology, what we might perceive as sexual ethics simply does not exist. It is due to this distorted perspective on human beings that men and women like Lee foster a hatred of human persons that is fundamentally at odds with all we understand about nature, the natural law and, of course, God Himself.
In Lee’s posted “manifesto” dated July 18, he recommended that people get on with their lives without “giving birth to more filthy human children since those new additions continue pollution and are pollution.”
He embraced the tenets preached by Darwin and Malthus and clamored about overpopulation as the worst problem anyone could possibly conceive. Again, for those not fully aware of the population control philosophy, it is grounded on the theory that a baby would be better off never having been born. Lee was simply echoing the babble of those he admired. What is most troubling in this case is that the disdain Lee apparently felt toward his fellow human beings seemed to have no bounds.
He further confirmed my analysis of his mental state by chiming in with the likes of Professor Gary Francione—the animal rights leader who wants the law to recognize animals as persons. Lee opined “nothing is more important than saving animals: The Lions, Tigers, Giraffes, Elephants, Froggies, Turtles, Apes, Raccoons, Beetles, Ants, Sharks, Bears, and, of course, the Squirrels.” He adds: “The planet does not need humans.”
James Jay Lee was not operating in a vacuum. Quite the contrary, individuals with similar viewpoints, though apparently not as radical or physically violent in their behavior as Lee, are making statements that convey this same diabolical hatred toward the human person. One such individual is Professor David Marsland, a sociologist and health expert who is encouraging the sterilization of those who are mentally and morally “unfit.”
According to reports on Marsland’s statements, “He dismissed possible objections based on human rights, saying that, ‘Rights is a grossly overused and fundamentally incoherent concept … Neither philosophers nor political activists can agree on the nature of human rights or on their extent.’”
Clearly, the nature of the human person is of no consequence to these individuals who, along with world-famous physicist Stephen Hawking, conclude that God has nothing to do with man’s existence, the universe or all that has evolved since the beginning of time.
While we find it difficult to understand such attitudes, we are aware that the warped perspective that guides a fellow like Lee toward such dramatic tactics is a vile force that is alive and well in our world. It is powerful and cunning, pervading so much of what we hear and see; it is the influence of the evil one himself. His name is Satan.
The curative antidote is love personified—His name is Jesus Christ.
