What about the 4400?

Murders are so frequent in our country that a single homicide seldom grabs national attention unless the perpetrator or the victim is already a celebrity. Even a double murder is not national news. It takes multiple murders to make the headlines, CNN, and the network evening news.

The Oklahoma bombing of April 19, 1995, which monopolized the news for days, claimed 167 lives and wounded nearly 500. The TWA flight 800 disaster of July 19, 1996 snuffed out the lives of 212 passengers and 17 crew members. Of course, there's also the 3000-plus people who died on Sept. 11, 2001.

When a disaster of this magnitude happens, the entire nation focuses attention on the families of the dead and the hurting. Nothing seems more important than to discover why this occurred and what can be done to stop it from happening again.

Disasters elsewhere in the world can also claim our attention for a few days, provided enough people have suffered death or injury. The Bhopal, India, disaster (Dec. 3, 1984) killed over 4000 and injured thousands more. The Pan Am Flight 103 explosion over Lockerbie, Scotland (Dec. 21, 1988), killed over 200, including 35 U.S. college students. And of course, most recently, there are the hundreds of thousands of victims of the tsunami of December 26, 2004. We hear of such disasters in shocked disbelief. We sympathize, we even weep, we pray for the victims' families.

Yet on each succeeding day in the U.S. alone, 4400 human lives are ended by abortion. Yesterday 4400 died, today another 4400, and tomorrow 4400 more. Any disaster anywhere in the world claiming that many lives in one day would command the center of the media spotlight. It would launch congressional investigations, shut down whole industries for a safety inspection, or prompt relief organizations to launch a massive fund-raising campaign. None of this happens for today's 4400. No one notices, few seem to care.

For each one of the 4400 there is a hurting mother, father, and grandparents. Doctors, nurses, health workers, and others are affected by the tragedy. A host of people are either grieving or becoming calloused to the hurt.

God has commissioned His saints to care for the weak and helpless, to defend those who have no other defender (Ps. 82:3-4; Ezek. 34:4; Acts 20:35). What are we doing for today's 4400? Are we concerned for their families? Does it matter to us what has happened? Tomorrow another 4400 will be killed. What of them?

Copyright ©2005 Steve Singleton, All rights reserved.

Steve Singleton has written and edited several books and numerous articles on subjects of interest to Bible students. He has taught Greek, Bible, and religious studies courses Bible college, university, and adult education programs. He has taught seminars and workshops in 11 states and the Caribbean.

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