By Judie Brown
Living in a world where parents are lauded for killing their preborn son because he might have Down syndrome reminds me of the enormity of the devil’s grip on mankind.
Last week, we heard the terrible story of YouTuber Jesse Ridgway and his wife who aborted their child because of a prenatal Down syndrome diagnosis. I believe the Ridgways were out of line from the second they decided to end the life of their child. But I also believe that this couple represents a symptom of a culture wildly out of sync with God.
In fact, we might suggest that in this case, as in so many others, the devil has squirmed his way in and become victorious over the bodies of the innocent.
This is why I appreciate this quote from Cornelius a Lapide, a Jesuit writing on “The ape of God”:
Observe, the devil is God’s ape. Hence he imitates God, who is “the Lord of hosts,” that is, of angels. In a like way the devil calls himself legion, because he leads out many companions into line of battle to fight against God and His faithful people. Wherefore men have a right to dread that battle, knowing that their warfare is not with men, but devils, and those many in number, who conspire for their destruction. Therefore they ought to implore the help of God and the holy angels, as Elisha did.
Thinking about this eely devil and his ways, we see a different side of Jesse Ridgway, who recently told an interviewer that he is “normal.”
Taking to the airways with his wife, Ridgway tried to suggest that the decision they made to kill their son because of his suspected condition was typical! And that prompts us to ask ourselves, since when is it normal to kill an innocent person simply because he is diagnosed with an imperfection of some sort?
Has it become routine in America to weed out those we find unacceptable by our skewed standards? Have we become a nation of little gods who take the life and death of others into our own hands? This is truly horrifying.
There isn’t a person alive today who would stand up to Ridgway’s human rulebook of what is normal and what is not. But what we can do is consider the tragedy that has befallen a man who set himself up as judge, jury, and executioner without regard to the truth about the dignity of the human person. We can then pray for him and do our best to dissuade those who agree with him.
The Ridgways’ son has died, but it is our prayer that he did not die in vain. We are grateful for the men and women who have used their talents on social media to underscore the horror of that child’s death.
One of those men is Andrew Daub, the cofounder of Team Iron Will—a nonprofit that champions people with Down syndrome and helps their families obtain therapy and other assistive equipment. He tweeted on X (June 6):
This week served as a powerful reminder that: Evil and ignorance exist and are persistent. The most vulnerable are always in the crosshairs of hate, discrimination and dehumanization. Silence in the face of lies and malice is cowardice, consent or approval, and speaking truth is principled action. A LOT of the best people I’ve ever interacted with are on X, love Iron Will, have our six and want to make a difference!
The ape of God sows the malicious attitudes Daub noted, not to mention deception and detestation of God Himself. We stand against that demon and with heroic leaders like Daub.
For every Ridgway out there, we hope that there are an infinite number of people who echo Daub’s message that, in both principle and practice, we are called to affirm the life of every human being without regard to physical or mental condition. Each of us is perfect in God’s eyes. Period, end of story.