(LifeSiteNews) — Proof that Satan prowls about the world seeking the ruin of souls lies all around us. It is especially evident in two recent news stories.
The first tells the disturbing tale of an 18-year-old mother from Miami, Florida, who allegedly hired a hit man to kill her three-year-old son. Jazmin Paez is now facing charges of “first-degree solicitation of murder and third-degree using a communications device for an unlawful use.”
She apparently found a website – originally created about 20 years ago to help advertise a cyber security company – called rentahitman.com. Thinking she was actually hiring a hit man, she sent a message through the site saying she wanted her son to be “taken away, far, far, far away and possibly be killed but ASAP.” She was willing to pay $3,000 for this and said she wanted “to get something done once and for all.”
The second story is a tragic one of two little boys – seven and nine – who escaped from imprisonment in a filthy house. Police were alerted when a witness saw them running down the street naked and bloody. This witness said the boys were “acting like cavemen, like they had never seen the sun before.” According to the report, police found that “much of the house was piled high with garbage and that the smell of feces was everywhere in the home. The boys’ room was able to be locked from the outside and inside while the walls were smeared with feces.” The little boys can barely communicate and are not potty trained. Their mother and her boyfriend are now facing felony charges.
When we hear appalling stories like this, we can’t help but wonder what happened to our society. How can human beings commit such heinous acts against children?
And while we know that people have done terrible things to others since nearly the dawn of time, we can argue that today some are becoming so desensitized to violence against children that they scream “my body, my choice” just for the ability to do so. Those who advocate for abortion violence do not care about the women they claim to serve. They care only for the “right” to kill that baby. If they truly cared about the women – many of whom are terrified and feel they actually have no choice but abortion – they would help in ways that do not involve assisting in the murder of a child.
But after more than 50 years of telling people that they can kill the most defenseless person in the world, is it any wonder that this hatred for babies extends to after they are born? Is it any wonder that some parents feel so little love for their offspring and so much love for the worthless things of this world that they could hire a hit man or cage a child?
When we allow the indiscriminate slaughter of preborn babies, we send a message that they don’t matter and that this tiny “problem” can be wiped away with a couple little pills or a relatively quick procedure.
If ever we needed evidence of Satan’s presence in the world, it is this mentality. And we can be assured that he watches gleefully as we destroy each other, for destroying is his ultimate goal. Satan is a master at using our selfish human nature against us. He puts events in motion and then watches as humanity allows them to consume and choke us. It has become too easy for humans to go from killing preborn babies to killing and abusing small children to beating and injuring innocent people on the street to destroying cities.
The anarchy we see in major cities today has its roots in the devaluing of human life, for no one who truly cared about another person would beat strangers, loot their businesses, burn someone else’s property, or shoot innocent people.
Yes, Satan is most certainly laughing as many on earth do his bidding.
For too long now, we have elected people soft on crime, we have allowed bullies on the streets to push us around, and we have sat passively while evil has crept ever so slowly into our laws, our classrooms, and our government. The result of all this is a disdain for other human beings. If we cannot love the tiniest of babies, and if we allow our children’s limbs to be torn from their bodies before they are even born, then how do we expect people to love strangers on the street? It’s just not possible.
The antidote to this can only be found in love for our fellow human beings. The antidote requires us to stand up for others, to give voice to the voiceless, to say that acts of violence toward all people – born and pre-born – will not be tolerated, and then to put those beliefs into practice. Words are not enough. If we don’t take action, we will keep getting what we currently have – a country filled with entitled and angry people who kill, hurt, and steal from others because they believe it’s their right to do so.
Yet those who try to impart this truth are silenced or even “canceled” in an attempt to keep the status quo. We see this in all walks of life but most recently in the country music scene. “Try That in a Small Town” is a newly released song by Jason Aldean that addresses the hate and aggression we see today. It has caused many liberals considerable angst as they cry that it incites violence, with one person even saying it is a “dangerous” and “irresponsible” video. But there is a sobering truth in the video’s images, which show the angry and vicious nature of a country that for too long has allowed violent acts – in the womb and on the streets – to persist.
In one line of the song, Aldean sings, “Around here, we take care of our own.” While he is referring to the small-town cohesion of people, if ever we are to make positive changes in our country, we must expand that to mean all of humanity. We will never break the cycle of violence if we do not take care of our own. And that means all of our fellow human beings.
So let us live by this principle. This is the only way to combat the works of Satan and the people who so blindly follow him.
Susan Ciancio is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame and has worked as a writer and editor for over 20 years; 14 of those years have been in the pro-life sector. Currently, she is the editor of American Life League’s Celebrate Life Magazine – the nation’s premier Catholic pro-life magazine. She is also the executive editor of ALL’s Culture of Life Studies Program – a pre-K-12 Catholic pro-life education organization.