What the Gorilla's Death Teaches Us About Our Culture

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A mom's mishap brought a tsunami of public shame over social media.
A mom's mishap brought a tsunami of public shame over social media. (Rob Schreckhise)

But sadly, it doesn't stop here.

Forty years ago, we chose to diminish the value of human life even further when we began rationalizing away the immorality of taking human life.

  • Abortion
  • Euthanasia
  • Doctor-assisted suicide

Ironically, many who support these issues when it comes to human life are radically against the same practices being done to animals.

And here we've come to a time when, for many, human life has lesser value than animal life.

The worst comment I read about this issue was on this Facebook thread:

"The silverback gorillas are an endangered species. 4 year old boys are not."

Jesus warned of this when He said: "Because iniquity will abound, the love of many will grow cold" (Matt. 24:12).

As we have legalized increasingly more methods of murder in our society, the love of many has grown cold. In the Greek "grown cold" literally means that rigor mortis has set in.

The honor and respect we would naturally and instinctively have for human life has quite literally died in many, and rigor mortis has set in, as they have elevated the value of animal life above human life, being willing to sacrifice an innocent child to save an endangered gorilla.

This is a clear and demonic distortion of God's order.

In the Old Testament, the Israelites were commanded to sacrifice animals as a temporary way to cover their sin so that God could at least look upon fallen man, until Christ came and offered Himself as the final sacrifice.

Yes, God actually commanded the sacrifice of animals to save mankind from God's wrath.

And yet now the cry goes out by many that sacrificing this endangered gorilla to save the life of a 3-year-old boy was wrong and immoral.

The lesson we have learned from the death of this gorilla is that when we erase God from society, there is no end to how Satan distort the thinking of man.

We have been given over to such depravity that we have:

  • Legalized mothers murdering their babies
  • Refused to make illegal in all States the neglect of babies who survive abortion
  • Legalized the murder of the elderly and terminally ill in some states

And now many even rationalize sacrificing the life of a preschooler to save the life of an animal.

If there ever was a time that the church needed to repent for having lost her salt and light, it is now!

"If My people, who are called by My name, will humble themselves and pray, and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and will heal their land" (2 Chr. 7:14).

Rosilind Jukic, a Pacific Northwest native, is a missionary living in Croatia and married to her Bosnian hero. Together they live with their two active boys where she enjoys fruity candles, good coffee and a hot cup of herbal tea on a blustery fall evening. Her passion for writing led her to author her best-selling book The Missional Handbook. At A Little R & R she encourages women to find contentment in what God created them to be. You can also find her at Missional Call where she shares her passion for local and global missions. She can also be found at on a regular basis. You can follow her on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google +.


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