Satanic Persecutors

Girard does another favor for us in revealing the power of the gospel in the Earth. Even in our modern, Christian opposing world, Christianity's concern for victims is received. Even the vile practice of abortion is couched in the terms of victimhood. The young mother in a crisis pregnancy is presented to us as a victim. Our concern for the victim is galvanized and the mother is protected against her persecutors.

This narrative is particularly Satanic. It presents the truth of our faith in a twisted and confusing format. Single expectant mothers are victims and so we should protect them. But who are they victims of?

Of course, in extreme cases, and Satan loves the extreme cases, she really may be a victim. She may have been attacked by a rapist, whether in her own family or a stranger. She may be the 'victim' of a rare disorder that causes her life to be in danger in pregnancy.

But in the normal sense of the word, victim, how is a pregnant woman a victim? Is she a victim of bad choices? Well, let's kill those choices. Is she a victim of a rare disorder? Let's do our best to kill that. Is she a victim of a rapist? Let's kill him. Is her dad a rapist? Let's kill him.

But, how on God's green Earth, can we make her a victim of her baby? That just won't do, not even for liberals and god-haters, but I am redundant. A little embryo, a fetus, a babe in utero, won't do as a perp. So, let's change the language when we need to. It is then not about her victimhood but her choice. Oh.

In terms of the Christian principle favoring victims, the choice is easy. Christian martyrs always die to save others. They do not commit terror to save themselves. Set in this context, a mother who aborts her baby is using the means of terror. She is attacking life to save her own. She is not giving up herself to save another. Nietzche would applaud her action. Jesus opposes it.

There is a sense in which our culture of death has sought to categorize embryos as the threat, the one whom a woman must save herself from. And this collective violence against innocent victims is a form of the single victim mechanism in Girard. The babies are the scapegoats. But the Cross reveals the truth of this horrific lie. The martyrdom of the innocents is a ghastly evil.

Aborted babies are the only martyrs in this scenario and the persecution of martyrs is always Satanic.