Atrocities? Mention the word and not a few people just aren't real sure as to what you have in mind when you speak of it, especially if you indicate we have a monumental problem with it in our culture. Sad thing is that it's pretty much swept under the rug as though it doesn't exist with powerful and influential people in our culture making sure it stays that way!
The Webster's New Universal Unabridged Dictionary (Deluxe Second Edition) lays out these definitions:
Atrocity: 1. Enormous wickedness; extreme cruelty 2. A specific act of extreme cruelty
Atrocious: 1. Extremely brutal or cruel; outrageously wicked; evil 2. Very bad; in bad taste; abominable 3. Very grievous; violent
Historically the trail of blood runs wide and deep on many occasions as one group of people of all ages became the target of a violent extermination process initiated by another group which reasoned that the former no longer had any claim on the right to live and exist!
The 20th Century witnessed numerous events which qualify as atrocious acts of mass murder involving helpless and defenseless human beings.
One of the most notorious would be the atrocities committed during the dominant years of Nazi Germany's Third Reich under the leadership of Adolph Hitler. Total number of victims during the Reich years before its defeat totaled in the range of 14 million or more. Six million of these were Jews whom the Nazis regarded as less than human. In the warped and twisted logic of the Nazi mind Jews and other undesirables were to be exterminated in order to establish a pure race and to insure the establishment of a thousand year Reich!
However, atrocities have not been limited to the Third Reich of WW II era. In recent years other parts of this chaotic world have been settings for violent atrocious acts.
The area of former Yugoslavia underwent violent conflict and our diligent media people gave gruesome details of what came to be known as a policy of "ethnic cleansing" -- a sort of updated Nazi logic and applied to certain people whom ruling authorities felt needed to be eradicated!
Certain areas of Africa have likewise experienced conflicts with atrocities taking place in which thousands of men, women and children have been brutally murdered. Same old story in which one group with diabolical leadership decided that another group should not live.
Christians have been violently persecuted in Muslin dominated countries and often put to death because they refuse to deny their faith
in Jesus Christ and become a Muslim! I saw a picture posted a couple years back that showed about eight Christian men on their knees about to be shot to death by
Muslims. This happened on Christmas Day! Something seems to be out of joint here - I have heard many times that Islam is the "religion of peace," have you?
One thing is certain -- rare would be the individual who would not agree upon hearing details and/or viewing photos of the aforementioned events that indeed these more than meet the criteria of what constitutes atrocious acts against certain groups of human beings!
One can visit the Holocaust Museum in Washington DC and discover that there are viewing areas which are restricted to adults only where an extensive record of Nazi atrocities can be viewed on film and still photos. Having made two visits to the Holocaust Museum I can say that one doesn't feel like eating for a while after the visit! Further, one can find oneself intensely disturbed upon the realization that atrocities continue without restraint in this world even now in the opening years of the 21st Century!
But let's look at an area of activity which very few would label as being atrocious acts of the most heinous type -- take a close
look at the photos just below -- do they in some ways seem to resemble photos which have been associated with happenings involving the violent murders of adults
and children -- the defining term to be applied is "atrocities" -- do you agree?
Is it not strange that in a society professing to be "civilized" and which proudly proclaims that all
should have the right to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness," we have instituted a policy in which atrocities are committed at an annual rate ranging
from 750,000 to 850,000 victims! By the way did you notice above that one of dismembered victims is seen clasping a U.S. coin that has the word, "LIBERTY,"
prominently displayed on the face side? And do you remember that the coin also has the words, "In God We Trust," inscribed on it? Do you in at least a small way
sense that something is amiss here?
Further, is it not strange that the president and his wife, members of the administration, the U.S. Congress,
the U.S. Supreme Court, a host of church leaders and members of their churches, print and broadcast mass media people, and influential professionals have yet to
come up with even a whisper of a protest! This is in stark contrast to the outrage expressed over atrocities taking place in other areas of the world in the recent
past, the terrorists' attacks on the U.S. on 01-09-11, and even national outrage expressed upon learning of the brutal death of journalist Daniel Pearl in Pakistan
during the 3rd week of February 2002. Officials gave limited details of seeing on video the moment that Mr. Pearl was murdered by knife! But there is THE
haunting question which is like a black cloud hanging over our culture -- why no outrage over atrocities taking place within our borders at the rate of over
1,600 or more and up each week of the year?
Mid December 2003 - Excitement and jubilation spread throughout the world upon the announcement that Saddam Hussein had been captured
or "caught like a rat in a hole" as some enthusiastically phrased it! It is well documented that under Hussein's rule an extremely large number of atrocities
were committed. President Bush had some comments to make including this one -- "...there needs to be a public trial, and all the atrocities need to come out." But
don't hold your breath until he makes a similar issue about the atrocities being committed by the thousands each week on U.S. soil -- it amounts to about
70,000 per month!
And could it be in the view of Almighty God, atrocities involve not only the violent murder of adults and children outside the
womb, but the millions who have been violently dismembered and destroyed within the womb as well?
Obviously there is a vast chasm existing between God's definition of the extent of atrocities and where the boundary lines are
established as opposed to the badly distorted mindset of U.S. society -- U.S. citizens and their leaders make a grand exception in their definition of
atrocities -- that exception is millions of unborn children!
None of us will want to be around when Almighty God corrects our limited definition of what atrocities include by way of human
carnage!
In the meantime, may Almighty God, Who has a beautiful plan for every conceived human being (Psalm 139), do in His infinite power
and wisdom whatever is necessary to bring ALL elected officials, church leaders, business and community leaders, the powerful and influential in the news
media and entertainment industries, the professional fields of medicine, education, law, sociology, psychology, and all of us citizens to our knees in
acknowledgement of our collective guilt in sanctioning atrocities on U.S. soil which have resulted in tens of millions of victims since January of 1973, and the
urgent need to fully repent of further violent crimes committed against the unborn!
UPDATE > October 25, 2022 During January 2021 Joe Biden became president of the United States. Along with his Vice President,
Kamela Harris, he is on public record in supporting abortion on demand. He really went on a rant when the SCOTUS handed down its decision on Roe v. Wade which basically
placed the states in the position as to whether abortions would be legal within their borders. Joe vowed to do everything in his power to ensure that a pregnant female
can have her unborn child mutilated and murdered, if that is her choice! And who can forget Joe's outrage about Putin and his Russian army invading Ukraine and again,
tirades about the fact that thousands of Ukranian citizens have been killed as a result of this invasion! While he is very upset about Putin and the Russian army
invading the country of Ukraine with heavy casualties and property destruction, Joe gives ardent support to the killing of unborn children! Isn't there a word about
this kind of thing that starts with hypo something or other?
NOTE: You can see recent U.S. numbers as well as world wide numbers of unborn victims at
U.S. & World Number of Abortions
February 2002
Clayton D. Harriger
Elder in Full Connection
Western PA Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church
and presently serving as pastor of
Gipsy Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
Gipsy PA
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copyrighted by The Center for Bio-Ethical Reform and are used with these folks' permission. The complete poster on moral wrong vs. constitutional right is also theirs and used with their permission. You can visit them at Center for Bio-Ethical Reform to better inform yourself of the significant work they are doing in the Genocide Awareness Project.
