The Killing Fields

The Killing Fields.  A very blunt and abrupt name for a very abrupt and blunt place. It is just outside of Phnom Penh.  It is a tomb to almost nine thousand people. There is little fanfare. The government constructed a large monument that stands in the middle of the property.  The monument, pictured here, is really a home.  It is home to the skulls of the people executed here.

Pol Pot, leader of the Khmer Rouge, and his deputies sent over 300 people here daily at the peak of their power. These people came from torture and interrogation centers around Cambodia. Their journey here was for the sole purpose of being executed. Unfortunately, the flow of victims reached too high of volume and the executioners could not keep pace. Consequently, they detained people until their turn came to be executed. Those waiting to be executed lived in inhumane conditions of brutality, squalor, and starvation.Inside the monument - a victim's caved skull

The executions were brutal.  Even though it was the late 1970’s modern weapons were not used.  Instead victims were beaten to death with bamboo canes, gardening hoes and other primitive tools.  The cries of pain and suffering were so loud that the camp hooked up loudspeakers to a tree in the middle of the complex to blare music so nearby villagers could not hear the screams.

Wondering how sadistic dictators come to power often puzzles people. However, most people are not puzzled or concerned by the  forty-two million pre-born children killed each year by abortion. Over a million of those are killed in the United States. This lack of care tells us something about how dictators come to power. Most people care about suffering. However, most don't care about the suffering of others. They only care about the suffering of their own or those close to them. Christians are called to not be "most" people. Christians are called to care like Jesus cared. We are to saturate the world with compassion for the purpose of raising up the glory of Jesus Christ to the world. We care about everyone, especially the defenseless. No one is more defenseless than a pre-born child. Every year abortion wipes out more people than any dictator could in ten years. The culture of abortion is clear evidence of a world that needs Jesus. If you are a Christ-follower, the world needs you.

If you have been part of an abortion in the past, take heart and do not be slowed to the battle. We are all equal in our depravity. We are all crippled sinners made whole only through faith in Christ. We must grab the reality of Christ's righteousness in us to battle the culture of death that has overtaken much of our world and too much of our own thinking. We must move. Prayer, persuasion and participation in the public square are what we must do daily. Not only on abortion but on all life issues which touch every area of life. Where is your thinking? Where do you fit in for the fight? There is a dictator killing millions and his name is abortion. Do you care? Prayerfully find your place and go.