Daily Readings 05/18/2013: Lovers of Violence and Dr. Kermit Gosnell

Daily Readings: 05/18/2013


"The LORD searches the just and the wicked;the lover of violence he hates." Ps. 11:5


Earlier this week, Kermit Gosnell, a true monster, was convicted and sentenced to life in prison for killing a baby born alive in a botched abortion in his facility in Philadelphia. Nobody knows how many times this happened in his 'clinic' over the decades that he was in business. Now I am not going into how many times this probably happens each day that we never hear about it because it's in a facility that's cleaner than Dr. Gosnell's was. And I won't mention that every day babies are injected with drugs to stop their hearts while en-utero before they are dismembered and 'properly' disposed of as 'post-abortive tissue', a process which is, apparently, perfectly acceptable.

The plain truth is, abortion is killing, bottom line, at any stage, and killing should not be tolerated. Which brings me to my point. Kermit Gosnell could have been subject to the death penalty, but through some sort of plea deal, ended up with life in prison. I saw posts on the Facebook stating that, given the chance, he chose life for himself. But what scared me more were the people I know are Christian that were calling for his death, if not his torture and painful, agonizing death. I ask, how do we prove our commitment to life, by sentencing someone to death? During Moses' time the thought was 'eye for an eye' because there was really no effective way to separate dangerous people from society, and as Jesus said, there were things Moses allowed because of the hardness of their hearts. Jesus does not preach this. He taught us to pray for our enemies, not seek vengeance. It was the same feeling I got when I saw the celebrations in the street when Osama Bin Laden was killed. We looked like the people we were angry at just a few years before for celebrating in their streets when 3000 Americans were dead. Jesus does not teach vengeance. And we do not line in a society where we cannot effectively separate these monsters from society.

It's not easy to walk the line between justice and vengeance for these monsters, but as Christians. we are called to a very high standard. So let's pray for each other that we have the strength to pray that Kermit Gosnell, during his life of incarceration, while contemplating the horrific things he has done, can turn to the Lord and seek forgiveness. As the Psalmist writes, "those who love violence, he hates"

If Dr. Gosnell does not seek and acceptance His forgiveness, he will suffer a death far worse than we could ever have given him. And if we give in to anger and vengeance, then we too become those who love violence.

God Bless,

P.D.O.