Killing Children

Children have suffered, or have been killed, in conflicts or war in many parts of the world today. We’ve already read of the young and the innocent shot in schools by fools who have no respect for life. Most disturbing, though, are the senseless death of children in the hands of parents or their close relatives.

In the month of July 2014, we read of disturbing news about murdered children.

On July 8, Dayana Valencia, a 5-year-old girl, tried to stop her stepfather from attacking her mother, Facunda Velenzuelaleon, in their home in Kootenai County, Idaho.

The killer confessed to strangling his wife and to killing the child because she hit him as he was attacking his wife.

The crime was committed after the killer learned that his wife confessed to cheating on him during a trip to California. Dayana’s body had cut marks in her neck, throat and chin — and she had an electrical cord wrapped around her neck. The killer spared his two biological children by bringing them to a friend’s house prior to the killing.

On July 9 in Spring, Houston, Ronald Lee Haskell entered the Stay family home looking for Katie Stay’s sister whom he had been divorced. Failing to obtain an answer, Haskell shot Katie, her husband and their five children, aged 4 to 15.

One child, Cassidy, the eldest, whose skull was fractured by a bullet, played dead until the killer left. She immediately called the police to prevent him from killing her grandparents. The police intercepted the man before he could continue his killing spree.

The 15-year-old girl, in an interview, said that she felt as if angels were with her whispering to her to be quiet during the attack.

On July 10, a news item told of the Utah police announcement that Megan Huntsman, 36, admitted that she killed six of her newborns (from 1996 to 2006) and stored their bodies in a garage as “she was high on drugs and didn’t want the babies or the responsibility.”

It is incomprehensible that some people commit such horrendous crimes. Surely the justice system shall give them due punishment.

But what is far worse than the three instances is the institutional murder of children. Governments in a number of countries have allowed abortion, some with conditions, while others unconditionally.

For instance, Great Britain’s Abortion Act of 1967 permits abortion for a variety of reasons if certified by two physicians. In Canada, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that abortion is legal for any reason at any stage of pregnancy.

In Sweden, abortion is legal in all circumstances within the first 18 weeks of pregnancy. Most shocking is Russia, where more babies are aborted than those who live,

and in China, where there is no defined time limits to access to the procedure.

What has become of the world? Do we not realize how precious the children are?

"See that you do not look down on one of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven.” (Matthew 18:10)