LAUREN'S TRAGIC STORY

By Debbie O'Hara
August 28, 2004
NewsWithViews.com

A recent news story in my area disclosed the gruesome details of the death of little four-year-old Lauren Key. The biggest tragedy of this heartbreaking story, next to the fact that the little girl lost her life, was that it was not a stranger who abducted and murdered her, but it appears that it was Lauren's own father. After a grand jury hearing in July 2004, evidence revealed that Lauren's plunge down a 125-foot rocky cliff on Nov. 8, 2000, was not an accident like the father had initially reported. In fact evidence seems to reveal that the father, Cameron Brown, intentionally hurled his daughter to her death in the hopes of avoiding child support payments. We wouldn't even want to imagine what terror was in the little girl's heart that day. What kind of a monster could do such a thing? Unfortunately these types of tragic stories where parents murder their own children have become too commonplace in our nation. How is it that the hearts of parents can become murderously hardened toward their own children?

The August 15, "Daily Breeze" news article quoted Deputy District Attorney Craig Hum stating that Brown "never wanted to be a father" and that "he never wanted Lauren in the first place". We might respond that as a grown man, Brown knew the risks of having casual sex and should have thought of that before having intimate relations with Lauren's mother. Obviously the mother is equally culpable in having relations with a man who had not committed himself to providing emotional and financial support for any possible children that might result from their intimate union.

We are reaping the whirlwind of the "sexual revolution" that begun in the 1960's. This amoral revolution has been embraced by our culture and taught to American children in government schools for decades. Casual sex is not taught as wrong, but as a "personal choice". It appears that the only rule for sexual conduct is to have "safe" sex, which means merely to use a condom. In many cases condoms fail to protect against disease or pregnancy. The sexual revolution has caused a hardening of parent's hearts toward their own offspring because in the real world, when the sex act is separated from our emotional being and from deep personal commitment, it can't help but make many people feel unattached and irresponsible.

In most cases of out-of-wedlock pregnancy, a man has no lawful say over what happens to his offspring. Brown wanted Lauren aborted, but the mother refused. The fact that killing the child is even a legal option leads to the hardening of a mom's or dad's heart. We call it a woman's "choice" as to whether the child she carries in her womb is a piece of garbage to be tossed out or a precious life to be cherished. The father has to accept whatever decision the mother makes.

It was interesting that at my local sheriff's station where Brown was questioned about his daughter's death, adjectives like "emotionless" and "almost unattached" were used to describe Brown. Why should that be any surprise? Isn't that what we ask of our men? We expect them to be unemotional and unattached to the child for a whole nine months until they finally know for sure whether the mother is tossing out a piece of trash or whether a precious child is to be born. Then we suddenly expect men to become emotionally attached, caring fathers if that is what the mother demands. At that point the mother can force child support payments by court order, which in Brown's case took 40% of his pay.

While I'm not here to make excuses for Brown, (in my mind if the guy is guilty of Lauren's murder he doesn't deserve to live - he deserves the same mercy Lauren received) those who are silent about the amoral sex education being promoted in our government schools, which includes the "choice" of abortion, are equally responsible for such tragedies. This moral climate of casual sex and abortion is creating the monsters that are capable of killing their own innocent children.

I can't imagine a more important duty we have as a society than to protect innocent life, yet we are led to believe that morality has no place in public discourse. In fact we are told that biblical morality is evil and oppressive, when in truth it is quite the opposite. Sexual morality is what frees us from the threat of many physical and mental illnesses and quite possibly even from an early death. Most importantly it protects the most innocent among us - the children.

Our nation's founding document, "The Declaration of Independence" declares that we are "endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights", the first and foremost among those rights being the "right to life". Our more "enlightened" culture does not believe that our Creator endows us with a right to life, but that our humanity is decided by human will. And then we feign surprise when we hear about a mom throwing her newly born child into a trash bin to die, or pushing the family car off a bridge with her youngsters still inside, or of a dad throwing his child over a cliff. If a child can be subjected to excruciating pain and killed up to the very moment before birth because the parent finds that child "inconvenient", how can we then demand respect for the life of a child who is alive only because it happened to have been "convenient" for his parents? And what if later that child becomes a burden?

I am amazed at the silence of so many pulpits on this critical issue. Many pastors don't want to "offend" anyone in their congregation so they don't speak out. It should therefore be no surprise that many "Christians", even those who attend church regularly, find nothing wrong with abortion. I heard a pastor say about someone in his congregation "she is biblical on every issue except abortion so I just leave it alone". How can a church be called "Christian" if it avoids this issue so central to Christian doctrine? How can a person call himself or herself a Christian if they are on the wrong side of this issue? The dignity of life is almost at the very center of the Judeo-Christian ethic, God Himself being the center. If the life issue is not important to you, I strongly suggest that you re-examine yourself in light of Scripture to find out whether you are a true follower of Christ.

If we don't soon see a mass movement to repent of this grievous sin against both God and man, America is doomed to self-destruct. A country that is not willing to protect its most vulnerable and innocent members is neither deserving nor capable of surviving. There is no question but that mainstream America is responsible for creating the environment by which millions of innocents have lost their lives, both in and out of the womb. We hear so much rhetoric about children's rights, but isn't it meaningless when their most basic right, the right to life, has been denied them? Let's not let Lauren's death be in vain. Instead let's make it a turning point where we decide to make things right. While it's too late to help Lauren, it's not too late to help many more innocents like her.

There are many things that every one of us can do. We can vote for a real pro-life president like the Constitution Party's Michael Anthony Peroutka. Even more importantly, we can make our voices heard in Congress. If your Congressmen aren't interested in protecting the innocent, then vote them out of office. Don't just listen to what they say - look at their voting records. And read the bills or talk to someone you trust who has. Evil bills oftentimes have nice sounding titles. Congress has the ability (Article III, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution) and the duty before God to rein in our pro-sodomite, pro-abortion justices. Our Republican-controlled Congress has chosen not to fulfill that obligation. The American people have the ability and the duty before God to rein in our pro-sodomite, pro-abortion Congressmen by voting them out of office. Will we neglect our duty also?

We have within our power the capability of voting in a completely new House of Representatives and one-third of the Senate every two years. Congress is the most powerful branch of government and it is not any accident that our country's founders made it the closest and most accountable to the people. Stop voting to keep people of poor character in office who lie to you! If enough people were to hold Congress' feet to the fire come election time in November, we could make some tremendous life-saving changes! Let's change the tide for the innocent of America. We are their only hope for receiving the justice and the protection they deserve. It's up to us, for we are the only voice that they have.

� 2004 Debbie O'Hara - All Rights Reserved