No, I’m not referring to a celebration of anyone’s wedding anniversary. I’m not even alluding to any celebration. The killing of children—even unborn children—is no cause for celebration. This Tuesday (January 22nd)  is the 40th anniversary of the infamous Roe v Wade declaration of abortion as a “constitutional right.” This day calls for mourning, not for rejoicing over the loss of some 55 million innocent children who have since been subjected to a torturous death. It calls for weeping, not only for the children, but also for the nation. We have since become a nation that has lost its soul.

During these 40 years we have been shocked by the callous disregard for human life as we have experienced incidents of a number of shootings by crazed gunmen. Politicians seize this as an opportunity to attempt to disarm American citizens rather than to call our society to repentance. We cannot seek, as a nation, to insulate our children from Christian influences, while at the same time subjecting them to violent movies and video games, and expect them to have a respect for human life. They have grown up in a generation that has, for four decades, shown them by example that life is expendable for profit and convenience. By taxation we have even forced all taxpayers to support Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider. Tennessee Representative Marsha Blackburn has stated that Planned Parenthood’s most recent annual report shows the receiving of $542 million of taxpayer funds (or funds we have borrowed from China.) Companies are being forced into providing health insurance to cover abortion-inducing pills for lascivious employees. With all the political jargon on trying to cut back on our nation’s trillion-dollar budget deficit, I have not heard any suggestion of even reducing the flow of funds to the baby-butchering mills. We may blame the politicians, but they represent us. Some of us put them into office, and we keep them there.

Lest I sound too negative, permit me to add a positive note. A recent issue of Time Magazine featured a cover story declaring, “40 years ago abortion-rights activists won an epic victory with Roe v Wade: They’ve been losing ever since.” Slowly, it seems, Americans may be waking up to the reality that a baby is a human person regardless of environment—whether in or out of his/her mother’s womb. Planned Parenthood fights against requiring those seeking abortions to first see an ultrasound of the contents of their wombs, for they know they will see a little human being, not a lifeless blob of flesh. May our moral senses be awakened out of the darkness of indifference and willingness to tolerate such evil. We have been 40 years wandering in the wilderness of rebellion against the Author of life. That’s 40 years too long!

-Ron Bartanen lives in  Sullivan, IL and  preaches  for the  Arthur Church of Christ