Last Week's Biggest Story - You Need to Pay Attention to This
Despite my abstemious practice of restricting contact with the media, I do peruse headlines to see if, perchance, some event or story is worth the attention. No, it's not the one about North and South Korea. It's the story of Alfie Evans. If you're not familiar with it, you should be. It's important.
So when this appeared over one of my feeds last week, I was riveted - and immediately began to pray as I read:
“My gladiator lay down his shield and gained his wings at 02:30 absolutely heartbroken,” the boy’s father Tom Evans wrote on Facebook.
Once my prayers finished, I seethed. British courts aggressively denied the parents their desire to seek help for their son. While it may be true that the lad's condition was hopeless, why did the courts prevent the parents from taking him to Rome, where a hospital there offered help? The only possible explanation is that they had a need to assert their power. They had the power to stop the boy from receiving treatment, and they did so.
And, by the way, the treatment they did allow was basically de minimis. I'm no medical expert, but, as an example of their lack of charity, they denied the boy a feeding tube, a pretty basic option when a patient can't digest food normally. They also decided the kid was a vegetable and therefore not worth any medical treatment whatsoever, finally demanding and succeeding in the removal of his assisted respiration. This despite the many stories of people considered to be in an unalterable vegetative state who then - even after many years - suddenly "wake up" and return to normal. You'd think they'd have given the baby the benefit of the doubt. They didn't.
This can't be the result of ignorance. It can only be the result of their need to show everyone who's in charge. It's the result of people in authority not understanding that a) any authority they hold comes to them ultimately from God, the source of all legitimate authority; b) they serve others.
Yes, I realize it's a rare "public servant" who actually takes the "servant" part seriously. Most prefer focusing on the "public" part - the part that entails the public - us - paying them to wield power over others. They'll use the term "service" to describe what they do, but the "serve" part is essentially moot.
If you know Alfie's story, or become familiar with it now, post mortem, I hope you seeth as I did. But more than seeth, I hope you wake up to what our "rulers" are all about - not all of them, to be sure, but many, if not most. Their interests are not ours. They rule, rather than serve. As a result they can and should be considered a clear and present danger to our lives and well-being.
As a man of faith, I believe Alfie's soul now resides in Heaven with God. As the pope tweeted:
“I am deeply moved by the death of little Alfie. Today I pray especially for his parents, as God the Father receives him in his tender embrace.”
So when this appeared over one of my feeds last week, I was riveted - and immediately began to pray as I read:
“My gladiator lay down his shield and gained his wings at 02:30 absolutely heartbroken,” the boy’s father Tom Evans wrote on Facebook.
Once my prayers finished, I seethed. British courts aggressively denied the parents their desire to seek help for their son. While it may be true that the lad's condition was hopeless, why did the courts prevent the parents from taking him to Rome, where a hospital there offered help? The only possible explanation is that they had a need to assert their power. They had the power to stop the boy from receiving treatment, and they did so.
And, by the way, the treatment they did allow was basically de minimis. I'm no medical expert, but, as an example of their lack of charity, they denied the boy a feeding tube, a pretty basic option when a patient can't digest food normally. They also decided the kid was a vegetable and therefore not worth any medical treatment whatsoever, finally demanding and succeeding in the removal of his assisted respiration. This despite the many stories of people considered to be in an unalterable vegetative state who then - even after many years - suddenly "wake up" and return to normal. You'd think they'd have given the baby the benefit of the doubt. They didn't.
This can't be the result of ignorance. It can only be the result of their need to show everyone who's in charge. It's the result of people in authority not understanding that a) any authority they hold comes to them ultimately from God, the source of all legitimate authority; b) they serve others.
Yes, I realize it's a rare "public servant" who actually takes the "servant" part seriously. Most prefer focusing on the "public" part - the part that entails the public - us - paying them to wield power over others. They'll use the term "service" to describe what they do, but the "serve" part is essentially moot.
If you know Alfie's story, or become familiar with it now, post mortem, I hope you seeth as I did. But more than seeth, I hope you wake up to what our "rulers" are all about - not all of them, to be sure, but many, if not most. Their interests are not ours. They rule, rather than serve. As a result they can and should be considered a clear and present danger to our lives and well-being.
As a man of faith, I believe Alfie's soul now resides in Heaven with God. As the pope tweeted:
“I am deeply moved by the death of little Alfie. Today I pray especially for his parents, as God the Father receives him in his tender embrace.”
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