Daily Devotional for Wednesday June 27, 2007
When Murder is Legal
(Psalms 106:38)
"They shed innocent blood, the blood of their sons and their daughters . . . and the land was polluted with blood . . . " - (Psalms 106:38 NIV)
During this past week, the nation followed the disappearance of a young Ohio woman who had a 2-year-old son and was also pregnant, ready to deliver her baby the first week of July. As the days passed by, like in most of these stories, they ended up finding the dead body of Jessie Davis. Charged with her murder is the father of her young child, who is also believed to be the father of the baby she was carrying. Bobby Cutts was a police officer for the city of Canton, Ohio.
As the details came out, Cutts turned out to be married and the father of a child with his wife, as well as the father of a 9-year-old girl with another woman. As sad as this tragic story is, there are two issues that need to be addressed nobody has the courage to talk about. First, are the choices of a young single woman to have sex outside of marriage, the second, why is Bobby Cutts also being charged with the murder of the unborn baby Davis was carrying.
Some people are going to think it is very cruel to talk about the choices the 26-year-old Davis made, but we have to! She is a classic example that the choices you make each day can bless your life or they can literally end your life. Does that mean if you get married, have children with your husband, you never have to worry about your husband killing you? Sadly no, since the most likely person to kill a woman is their husband.
However, what possible good can come from having sex and children with a man who you are not married to, not to mention the fact he is already married! Obviously, this was much more than just a short-term relationship that resulted in her having a child, since 2 years later she was ready to have another baby with this same man. Even if she had not been killed by Cutts, here was a young single woman who was going to be raising two children on her own with virtually no support or help from the man who fathered the children.
*THE CHOICES WE MAKE DETERMINE THE COURSE OUR LIFE TAKES. WHEN WE FOLLOW GOD AND LIVE ACCORDING TO HIS WORD, WE FIND BLESSINGS. WHEN WE CHOOSE TO IGNORE GOD AND LIVE IN REBELLION TO HIS WORD, WE ALWAYS PAY A HUGE PRICE!
The other issue this sad story raises is why is Bobby Cutts being charged with TWO murders. I don't understand. He is being charged with killing Davis AND with killing the unborn baby she was carrying. I am confused because I thought it was legal in this country to kill babies as long as they are still in the mother's womb. After all, every day some "doctors" go to work and kill 4, 5, even 6 unborn babies. After work they play golf, enjoy life, and at the end of the day go home to their families. Why are they allowed to kill babies, AND GET PAID LOTS OF MONEY FOR IT, yet Bobby Cutts is being charged with murder for killing the baby Jessie Davis was carrying.
It brought back to my memory the Scott Peterson case when he was charged with killing his wife Laci AND their baby who was still in the womb. Peterson is currently on California's death row for double murder. So today, I want to deal with the reality that in the United States in the year 2007, it is illegal to kill a newly born baby and it is also illegal to cause the death of a baby who is still in the womb. Oh wait, there is one exception to the crime of intentionally killing a baby in the womb. That exception is if you are a doctor and are performing an abortion!
I am confused how Peterson, who made the choice to kill one unborn baby will spend his life all alone in a tiny cell on death row awaiting the day when the State of California will put him to death while doctors all across this nation who make the choice to kill hundreds and thousands of unborn babies, go home every night to nice comfortable homes and look forward to all of the great things life has to offer.
My question for you today is simply this. If Scott Peterson is going to be put to death for killing his unborn child, one baby, why isn't every abortion doctor in this nation, guilty of killing hundreds, even thousands of babies, also on death row for doing the same thing??? The fact is, several dozen states now have "fetal homicide" statutes on the books. But to get these "fetal homicide" statutes passed, state legislators had to make ONE HUGE exemption. You guessed it. In cases of abortion with the mother's consent, these statutes do not apply to the abortion doctors. Do you see what twisted logic has to be used to accommodate sin?
As I watched the Peterson case unfold, I watched the coverage on the various networks like FOX, MSNBC, CNN, and Court TV. I was particularly interested in the passion and conviction of people like Court TV anchors, Nancy Grace, Lisa Bloom, Catherine Crier, and the attorney for Amber Frey, Gloria Allred, as well as other commentators as they shared their belief not only in Peterson's guilt but the fact he deserved to be put to death for his crimes. The key to their arguments was always the fact that he not only killed his wife but also his baby. Sadly, too many men kill their wives but at most they receive a sentence of life in prison. Many of these commentators made the point over and over that the fact he also killed his baby was justification to sentence him to death. By the way, I agreed with them.
However, the hypocrisy is that most of those same commentators also support a woman's right to kill her baby. They are PRO CHOICE, or calling it what it really is, PRO DEATH! I have to admit that I am very confused. How can it be such a heinous crime for Scott Peterson to kill his baby, yet perfectly acceptable for a woman to make the choice to kill her baby? I am absolutely lost at how one is a crime worthy of death and the other is an acceptable choice.
For those of you who support a woman's right to slaughter her innocent baby, please save the emails with your tortured arguments. The fact is life comes from God. At the moment of conception there is a living person with an eternal soul. To kill that life for any reason is murder. PERIOD!
IF SCOTT PETERSON CAN BE PUT TO DEATH FOR KILLING ONE BABY, IF BOBBY CUTTS IS BEING CHARGED WITH MURDER FOR KILLING THE BABY JESSIE DAVIS WAS CARRYING, THEN EVERY DOCTOR WHO PERFORMS AN ABORTION SHOULD ALSO BE CHARGED WITH MURDER!!!
I love you and care about you so much. I want to speak directly today to anyone who may be contemplating having an abortion. Just remember this. No matter what anyone tells you, it is MURDER. There is simply no justification for it at all. You have only two options; have and raise the child or put the child up for adoption. If you are thinking about having an abortion, please, I beg you, go watch the clips below. One is a 55 second clip of an actual abortion, the other is a powerful testimony of a woman who was at the same place as you are today. God allowed her to watch the Liveprayer TV program the night before she was going to kill her baby, she came under conviction, changed her mind, and you will see her precious 10 month old baby girl!
http://www.liveprayer.com/abortion.cfm
Also, let me say a word to those men and women who have the scar of abortion in their lives. Sadly, I deal with hundreds of women daily AND men who have made this sad choice at some point in their life. Some of them did this 40 years ago and are still dealing with the hurt, pain, and guilt. You can't go back and change what you have done but 1 John 1:9 says, "If we confess our sins, God forgives us and cleanses us of all unrighteousness." The Bible also tells us that God not only forgives our sins but forgets them. It is satan who reminds you of your past sins to keep you paralyzed from serving God. HE IS A LIAR!!! Now is the time to trust God's Word and put it behind you once and for all. God still has much for you to do with your life.
I am thankful for high-profile cases like Peterson's that made the clear statement killing an innocent baby is MURDER! We need to, once and for all, take our Federal Government out of the business of legally sanctioning the daily slaughter of 4,000 of innocent lives! How can we expect God to bless our nation when we allow this to happen? How long can we mock God without feeling His wrath? How far can we push God's grace?
I read in the Old Testament how God's very own chosen people lived in blatant rebellion to Him. God tried to warn them. He sent messages through the events of their day. They ignored the messages. He sent His prophets to warn the people to repent and turn back to God. They wouldn't listen to His messengers. Eventually, God punished His people for their rebellion.
Our nation is less than 300 years old. We have been richly blessed with incredible wealth and power, but we are not immune from God's wrath. God is speaking to us through the events of our day and through those He has called to warn the people. I pray that we will listen, repent of our sins, and turn our hearts back to Him before it is too late. Killing an unborn baby in or out of the womb IS murder whether it happens in an act of violence or by a doctor in a legal clinic!