Will 'honor killing,' cannibalism also be justified as religious beliefs?

After almost five decades with about half of that time spent as an attorney and trial judge at every level in the state of North Carolina, I thought that I was close to being immune to being duped. Now I have to admit that I was wrong because I simply did not see the events of the last couple of weeks coming to fruition. It was just beyond my comprehension to think that American culture could slip as far into the abyss as it apparently has.

In all of the stupidity that exists in the logic of our nation, I confess that I simply did not see this coming. In retrospect, I probably should have. But the concept is just so absurd and heinous that I could not conceive it to be possible for any group, much less a court in these United States, to arrive at the conclusion that was reached in the Indiana Court of Appeals last week.

This whole implausible saga had its origins shortly after the United States Supreme Court handed down the Dobbs v. Jackson case on June 24, 2022, which effectively overturned Roe v. Wade and ended its abortion-on-demand provisions on a national basis. Shortly thereafter we started to hear voices in the pro-abortion camp begin to speak of the act of killing babies up to the time of birth and even after as a “family value” or a “religious experience.” 

Many of us heard these nauseating attempts to justify their actions and even labeled them as absurd. I noted at that time “the ‘Oxford Languages’ defines the word absurdity as ‘the quality of being ridiculous or wildly unreasonable’ and that among the synonyms for absurdity, are words like ‘ludicrous,’ ‘illogical,’ ‘insanity,’ and, my favorite, ‘tomfoolery.’” The notion that the concept of killing babies could somehow in the minds of anyone be based on sincerely held religious beliefs and values certainly fits within the confines of all of these words. But the idea that so-called reproductive choice is not just a moral good, but a religious law is so far beyond the pale of credibility so as to amount to nothing more than just “spitting into the wind.”

But notwithstanding, to my great consternation I now must admit that I was bumfuzzled by their chicanery and totally missed the magnitude of their surreptitious attack on not only the children of America but on real truth and real faith as well. That is why I was so taken aback this past week when The Associated Press, as well as other news outlets, reported that a three-judge panel on Indiana’s second-highest court unanimously determined that individuals could be exempted from a recently passed law in that state which effectively placed a ban on many abortions. The reason for this radical judicial exemption? The simple assertion of a sincerely held religious belief by a woman that she should have an abortion. In this case, by invoking an Indiana state law based on prior legislation that was put in place to protect religious freedom, the appellate court has perhaps unwittingly opened up a Pandora’s box filled with great calamity.

In short, the three appellate judges agreed with the original county judge that the plaintiffs’ desire to obtain an abortion was directed by their sincere religious beliefs so that the destruction of their child is nothing more than “their exercise of religion.” Ken Falk, the ACLU of Indiana Legal Director gloating in his victory, proudly explained the basis of his winning argument when he exclaimed, “For many Hoosiers, the ability to obtain an abortion is necessary based on a sincerely held religious belief.” So, there you have it — as far as the Court of Appeals of the State of Indiana is concerned, the practice of killing a child up until the point of birth is now a right as long as you are sincere in your beliefs in a religion that promotes the heinous act.

Thankfully, reason still has another chance to prevail by way of an appeal in this case up to the Supreme Court of Indiana. Nevertheless, up to this point, the courts in that state have been unanimous in their misguided thought process. Also, lest you should think this to be an isolated ruling from an out-of-line jurisdiction, please know that similar cases based on almost identical claims are now pending in both Missouri and Kentucky. You should further be aware that all three of these states are not considered to be legal outliers in terms of their court systems as might be found in more liberal jurisdictions.

There may be some who still do not see the big deal in this regard, or maybe you are one of those who just want abortion rights to not be curtailed in any way and believe that society should go to any lengths to provide for the termination of unwanted life. Nevertheless, the quality of any argument can only be fully understood if it is taken to its logical conclusion. With that in mind, what if someone has a sincerely held religious belief that euthanasia should be allowed under any circumstances? Or maybe we should consider that so-called “honor killings” arise out of sincerely held religious beliefs. What of other gruesome activities, like rape, incest, sodomy, or cannibalism? At the same time, I cannot help but wonder what our culture would say if this ruling was about the ritual sacrificing of dogs, cats or other animals. I guess that I have never understood, and probably never will, why those who are so bound to kill unborn children can seem so intent on saving the baby whales and funding the ASPCA.

The problem in America is we have been taken in by the illusion that there can be satisfaction found in an immoral lifestyle. We have dabbled in sinfulness for so long that our minds have been darkened in our ignorance. Our alienation from the God line that was the basis for the founding of our nation and for its preservation to this point has endured to the point that we now covet the very depths of immorality that we so long fought against. When it comes to this blatant attack on everything that we as Christians hold dear, including real religious freedom, the words of Isaiah the prophet still ring true: “Woe to those who call evil good, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter” (Isaiah 5:20). Out in the country we have another way of saying the same thing: “If it smells like smoke and it looks like it came from the very pits of Hell, it probably did.”

History reveals that it was the Canaanites of old who, based on their “sincerely held religious beliefs,” sacrificed their innocent children to the pagan god Molech. As the precious children were placed in the hands of that inanimate beast to then drop into the fires below, it is said the priests would beat their drums more loudly in order that the parents and the crowds would not hear the agonizing cries of the children as they were being slaughtered. The Canaanites received the wrath of God into their bosom as a result of these hellish atrocities. Now, America is following down the same God-forsaken path straight into that same fierce anger of the one and only true God.

But those of us whose hearts are still tuned to heed the true voice of the Good Shepherd, hear the plaintive cries of the children, and we fully recognize the lostness and desperate condition of our once great nation. Nonetheless, America needs to know that the love of God must always be wrapped in the truth of God. When the light of truth shines in the darkness, it is exposed for what it is, and in this particular case, it is pure evil.

Do not be misled; the evil of this nature will not escape judgment, the kind that we are already beginning to experience in our nation. Whether we have gone so far as a people that God’s final judgment is imminent and irreversible remains to be seen. But rest assured, until that time, or the Lord returns in His Glory, Southern Evangelical Seminary will not be neutral when it comes to the real truth. Though all around us is sinking sand, you will find us still standing steadfast in the realm of God’s veracity because the Gospel of Jesus Christ is, in the final analysis, the only Truth That Matters.