Why should it be necessary for human beings to remind themselves of their unique, sacred status, of being God’s greatest creative work?

You might think that Natural Law would inform us all of this most profound dignity without the need for a reminder. Those of us, nearly 4 billion strong, who acknowledge the blessing of Judeo-Christian community, attest to the fact that every human being is born with an immortal soul. Without a soul we cannot be human; that’s the way our Creator designed us.

Why this preamble? It’s because I find myself today longing for an answer to this question, in the face of such a sinful outrage I have to reaffirm the answer though I have always known it. I have to reassure myself of the fact that life is the first and greatest gift of God for all of His human creatures, that every single life is therefore most precious; “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: “... So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth,...” (Genesis, 26-28).

I am haunted by the fact that the glory of human life can be so casually, and ruthlessly snuffed out - especially newborn human life, as it was recently in Oxnard, in a hospital’s maternity ward, by the mother and father of a newborn infant. The parents decided that they didn’t want to keep the infant child, so they agreed to strangle it. The baby had only been permitted to draw its breath for a couple of hours before being murdered by its parents.

As a long-time observer of human history I guess I should not be as surprised as I am over this sacrilege. After all, American Justice has facilitated this sort of human sacrifice at an industrial rate: “... 50 million abortions have been performed in the United States since 1973, when the U.S. Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision made the procedure legal. Mar 6, 2015.”

These observations anger millions of Americans who would rather cover up the bloody facts (like the perpetrators of all genocides) but as a blessed member of the Judeo-Christian community my conscience would not let me rest if I were to ignore this slaughter. It is not possible for me to quietly ignore this hellacious practice and continue to claim to be a member of my Judeo-Christian community. John Donne understood this situation well when he wrote, “Any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.”

Would it have been better to have referred the murderous parents who strangled their newborn child to the tender mercies of a local Planned Parenthood chop shop? They are, after all, the professionals in the abortion business. That way the killing parents would not have had to get their hands dirty.

I picture, sometimes, the doctor, mother, and father deliberating about whether to kill the newborn or let it live. There must be an atmosphere of great anxiety in timing the termination decision before the baby takes its first breath and, God help us - may cry.

If you claim to be in the Judeo-Christian Club, know that the primary condition of membership is love. I know that sounds very liberal, but it comes straight from the Good Book.