By Judie Brown
Venom, a toxin or poison that can kill or maim, can be contracted from a snake bite. But C.S. Lewis reminds us that there are other ways to be poisoned, including the “evil enchantment of worldliness.” Indeed, when anyone properly considers the disdain so many feel toward the vulnerable, it is easy to see that there is far too much of that kind of venom infecting our world today and too little of the antidote that is readily available if one is humble enough to seek it.
We write, of course, of the love and compassion of Christ—a love and compassion that are readily available to anyone who sincerely desires them. The problem is that too many folks not only do not seek Christ but engage in despicable acts that reject Him and His goodness.
Think about, for instance, the headline that reads “The Toxicity of America’s Restrictive Abortion Laws.” What these few words imply is heartless, for the writer is telling us that efforts to curtail or end the taking of the lives of innocent babies are toxic. This is so because, according to the author of the article, the act of abortion is actually noting but a “divisive political issue.”
In those three words one reads and sees the venom of disdain. The humanity of the baby, not to mention direct assaults that kill her, are totally lost, and what remains is hatred of truth.
This is exemplified in the case of the woman who killed her own baby. At the age of 26, Lizelle Herrera chose to take the life of her preborn child by self-induced abortion. Though Herrera was initially charged with murder, a Texas judge dismissed the allegation. According to reports, “A woman who ends her own pregnancy cannot be charged with a crime under Texas law.”
Even though Herrera killed her preborn baby, her attorneys successfully argued that her act did not meet the “standard for criminal charges.” And this is where the battle becomes very challenging for those of us who strive to defend the innocent. You see, whether Herrera killed her baby or paid someone else to do so, the human being who died is just as dead.
But according to one article, this case does not have to do with the actual act of aborting one’s child but rather with which pro-life organization is “calling the shots.” Lost in such absurd statements is, once again, the actual fact that a baby is not any less a baby because of someone else’s words or what a group happens to say about her.
In my mind, the most outrageous venom could be the headline from MS. online that reads “The Threat of Crisis Pregnancy Centers Will Escalate in a Post-Roe U.S.”
You just can’t make that up! Writer Carrie Baker is serious, opining to her readers that the pro-life centers are actual “fake abortion clinics” that “aggressively promote the deceit that abortion is dangerous.” She claims that if the Supreme Court does overturn Roe v. Wade, these pro-life centers will become tools for the state to surveil expectant mothers and enforce abortion bans. In other words, they will be volunteer pregnancy cops!
If this sort of maniacal rhetoric is not the very essence of the venom of disdain, then we do not know what is.
It is time to take a step back and vow that no matter what the Supreme Court does or does not do this summer, we pro-life Americans will continue to love them both, offering expectant mothers and their babies the very best that is possible for human beings to share with one another.
In this way, the venom of disdain will shrivel and fade away.