The Hypocrisy of Selective Outrage
You, Christian, are rightly shocked and distressed by the murder of Charlie Kirk and Iryna Zarutska. The violence done against them was wicked and unlawful, and your sorrow testifies that you still recognize the value of human life when it bears a familiar face and name.
But have you considered that, while you grieve these unlawful deaths, an even greater bloodshed is happening every single day—thousands of preborn children torn apart in the womb under the protection of law? According to the best estimates, over 2,500 innocent babies are legally killed each day in America through surgical abortion, abortion pills, and other means. Their faces are unseen, their cries unheard, yet their humanity is no less real.
The difference between Charlie and Iryna’s deaths and the deaths of these children is not moral, but merely legal. Charlie and Iryna’s killers violated statutes, and the law rightly calls them criminals. The killers of unborn children operate under legal sanction. But legality does not sanctify immorality. God is not mocked by human courts.
And yet — here lies the scandal. Christians, churches, pastors: you will shake your head, shed your tears, and lament the violence that claims two victims in the public square, while offering scarcely a whisper against the legalized extermination of thousands every single day. You assure yourself you would have helped Charlie or Iryna had you been there — but where are you when the voiceless are led to the slaughter?
This selective compassion is not righteousness. It is hypocrisy. It is complicity. Scripture speaks with terrifying clarity:
“When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood.” — Isaiah 1:15
Our nation bleeds. And the Church, by her silence, contributes to the erosion of the very foundation of justice. Do you not hear the psalmist’s cry?
“If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?” — Psalm 11:3
Indifference is not neutrality. Indifference is surrender to the culture of death. The blood of the innocent cries out against us. We cannot wash our hands like Pilate and pretend innocence. We cannot excuse ourselves with prayers while refusing obedience.
William Lloyd Garrison declared against slavery,
“I will not equivocate; I will not excuse; I will not retreat a single inch; and I will be heard.” So must it be with abortion. There can be no peace with child-murder. There can be no reconciliation with laws that sanctify slaughter.
The murder of Charlie and Iryna should awaken us not only to the evil of unlawful violence, but to the far greater atrocity we tolerate every day under color of law. The visible killings on our news screens are but the mirror of the invisible massacre that continues with our tacit consent.
If you would truly honor Charlie and Iryna’s lives, then lift your voice for those who cannot speak. Confront this culture of blood. Repent of your silence. And let the Church of Jesus Christ thunder once more with the abolitionist cry: