David Hegg | Losing Our National Soul to the Blindness of Selfism

David Hegg
David Hegg is senior pastor of Grace Baptist Church and a Santa Clarita resident. "Ethically Speaking" runs Saturdays in The Signal.
Share on facebook
Share
Share on twitter
Tweet
Share on email
Email

By David Hegg

We’ve all heard it: There are none so blind as those who will not see. Although this cogent statement rises out of Jeremiah 5:21 in the Bible’s Old Testament, the first use of it in the popular form can be traced back to 1546 in the work of one John Heywood. Since then it has appeared from time to time as a means of expressing incredulity in the face of absurdity, as evidenced in the 2nd part of Heywood’s declaration: “The most deluded people are those who choose to ignore what they already know.”

Recently, a Virginia state representative — Kathy Tran — introduced a bill that would … wait for it … allow abortions to take place right up to, and including, the third trimester of the mother’s pregnancy. When asked by a reporter if that meant even up to the time of the actual birth, Tran’s answer was “yes.” 

Just to be clear, she declared her bill, if passed, would allow a mother to abort her baby even as she was fully dilated, and the child was emerging from the birth canal. 

Can you imagine the scene? I can, and I must admit I wish I couldn’t. 

So, here’s the question: What ethical position must one take to offer such a bill, and work for its adoption? And further, what ethical position must one champion in order to feel good about providing a mechanism for disposing of an unwanted human child even as he or she is coming into the world? 

I submit Tran’s bill finally pushes the answer out into the spotlight. While once abortion was advertised as the right of women to rid themselves of an “unviable tissue mass” we now know the pro-abortion crowd largely supports the ending of a child’s life, even when it is a fully developed human being. And the ethic that supports this, and actually demands it, is selfism.

Selfism is the determination that anything the self wants is morally acceptable. We see it all around us, and we even find it in us. We’re a selfish people and our selfish desires are made possible by our wealth and the huge variety of stimuli we’ve amassed in our culture. From fast food that announces you can “have it your way” to myriad products designed to entice and satisfy our every urge and desire, we have become a society addicted to our own convenience, comfort, and titillation. 

On the other end of the spectrum, whatever dares to oppose our selfism, and our ability to satiate our personal desires, must be eliminated. We see it everywhere. When something hinders our pursuit of pleasure, we simply throw it away, even if that something is a someone. And while selfism has taken a wrecking ball to marriages and families, we’ve descended even further into the abyss of blind selfism, thanks to Tran. 

I’m a father and grandfather. I’ve held newborns, seen their perfectly formed little fingers, toes and noses. I’ve marveled at their magnificent form, and teared up often, being humbled by the presence of a new life, filled with great promise. 

Those who support a woman’s right to kill her baby believe they are championing something good and right. But they’re blind. They’re blinded by a monstrous selfism that demands they deny what they actually already know. They know it’s a baby. And if they want to side with science, they know it became a life at conception. Women who have walked the path of abortion also know what they’ve done, and it haunts them, and hurts them for years to come.

Why? Simply because even the blind can feel the truth. Yet, once you have chosen to join the pro-abortion tribe, the only way to move forward is to spin your hurt into a false courage, and smilingly declare you’ve exercised your right, killed your baby, and are ready to get on with your life. 

How do I know this? Simply because I have counseled, cried with, and sought to comfort many who have given in to their selfism and aborted their babies. The great majority wish they had protected their child’s rights, and all understand they’ll be paying the emotional price of their actions for years to come.

Will Kathy Tran’s bill become the law in Virginia? I pray it won’t, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it did. Why? Because we’re losing our national soul. We’re bowing to the god of selfism at breakneck speed. 

The answer, as always, isn’t legislation, but ethical reformation. Life is a good and precious gift, regardless of the inconveniences, challenges and tragedies that befall us. What we need is a return to the light of truth and a re-commitment to what our forefathers believed when they wrote, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”

David Hegg is senior pastor of Grace Baptist Church and a Santa Clarita resident.“Ethically Speaking” appears Sundays. 

Related To This Story

Latest NEWS