Human dignity is defined as “deserving of respect and value.” Have you noticed the use of the word dignity more and more lately? Interestingly, it seems to be the war cry of the liberal left as the passport of their agendas—many of which have admirable motives, but are usually counterproductive to the very goals of the stated purpose (or at least what they report to be promoting).
In its pure and simple application, dignity is placing value on someone—not from the standard of their contribution or production, but just because they are human. This, of course, would destroy the very foundation and velocity of any kind of prejudice due to class, gender, or color and would be consistent with the Bible. It would seem that those who embrace the doctrine of dignity would be repulsed by any kind of prejudice, especially institutional prejudice that demands the weak to suffer and be subject to empowering the strong. Thus, these advocates of dignity would be the ultimate resistors of the “might vs. right doctrine,” where the rich stemmed from ideologues, corporations, philosophers, political ideologies, greed, or just downright human selfishness and self-promotion.
What if a large amount of the voices have conspired—not only in secret, but publicly—to leave one group of women out of their protection, ultimately denying them the right of dignity? What if they decided that in order for others to have dignity, there must be one group that was denied liberty liberty so that a “preferred” group could enjoy liberty to its fullest?
Let's say, for instance, that for women from Israel to be worthy of dignity, women of Arabic descent would have to suffer. Or that for uneducated women to have dignity, educated women would have to suffer (as in the Chinese Revolution). Or that women of position would need to suffer in order for women of low standing to be promoted (as in the French Revolution).
Actually, in each of these cases, the “solution” brought more than suffering—it actually required death! The “solution” was that one class of women was sentenced to death for the promotion of another class of women! One group demanded the extinction of another group as the only way for women to be liberated. To put it mildly, this is incredibly inconsistent with dignity or justice in any form.
Today, we look back on those occurrences as historical miscarriages—fueled more by envy and anger than by love and compassion. Now imagine that same scenario in reverse; i.e., the weak, the less educated, the less esteemed women are now the ones who must suffer and die for the existence of the others. Imagine that now the accepted norm or status quo was the sacrifice of these weak individuals for the benefit of the more powerful. Imagine that those that wield power did so without regret, even rejoicing, at the subjugation of the weak or lower class. Imagine that the new orthodoxy justified crushing the weak to preserve the strong.
Unborn women is the class that is being subjugated, crushed, destroyed, and dissected as laboratory animals. Their parts are being sold as a commodity for the benefit of the rich and the powerful to those who can afford the tissue and its benefits to their vanity. The doctrine of dignity applies to them because they are human, even though they are unable to defend themselves.
The guise used to permit this total and seemingly obvious trampling of the dignity of these human people people is to dehumanize them in the eyes of the public. Their only “crime” is being a small human who is dependent on another human to protect them. All they desire and all that they need is a place to live and some nourishment for a few months until they can be acknowledged as being worthy of dignity and justice.
Jesus taught us in Matthew 25 that to the degree we protect and help the "least of these” is the degree that we actually follow his teachings. In our current climate, what group could qualify more clearly as the “least of these” than an unborn little girl and unborn little boy desperately needing a voice before they died at the hands of a paid executioner? In the face of Jesus’ clear teaching, there are those who shamelessly advocate for the voice of the strong and the powerful against those who have no voice at all, except for the voice that cries from the ultrasound, pleading with us for life, for the right to live, just for the opportunity to breathe. But even that fundamental right is discarded by those who have more power and control over them. Those who masquerade behind "choice” deny “choice” to those women who need it the most—those still in their mother’s womb.
Those in the Me Too movement have denied their weakest sisters! The Black Lives Matter movement, in reality, only affirms that “some lives matter.” Dignity is not ours to give, to decide upon by a vote, to debate; but dignity, rather is to recognize, receive and, honor. Dignity, by its very nature, is not about performance or ability, production or contribution. It's not even about being wanted or needed, but dignity is about “being”—it’s about being a human being. That is the true qualification for dignity, and that is the story history will eventually tell. What side of history will we be on? The side that wrapped itself in silence while the slaughter continued, or will it be the side that intervened to stop the madness?
True dignity is not earned, and it's not learned; it's inherent. Its status is created by God and cannot be taken away by anyone for any reason at any time. Without a design, there is no real dignity. Without a creator, there is no design. Without the acknowledgment of the creator, man grasps for his opportunity to be God and to redefine what dignity is and what a person is—just as in the days of slavery, when being deemed less than fully human made way for the stronger and those with political might to lord it over the weak and needy in order to push their agenda forward.
Today people are living in denial, as the body parts of the massacred little ones testify against them. We cannot intellectually justify the torture and death of one class, even if their sins were deserving of censure and recompense.
The concept of taking the dignity from one group of women in order to give it to another, defies dignity itself. That type of so-called justice demands that those in power treat those less powerful as though they are property. Let us not be silent! Let us shed light upon and stop this travesty!