Our Young Are Being Sacrificed To Molech

Moloch sacrifices were performed at Jerusalem's
Valley of Hinnom according to 2 Kings 23:10.

Historians disagree on details, but it is generally believed that the sacrifice of babies and children was a key feature of the worship of the ancient Canaanite god Molech. 

While we may consider the idea of human sacrifice appalling, it has existed in many ancient (and current?) cultures. After all, what could be more effective in appeasing the gods and gaining divine favor than worshippers offering their most loved and precious gifts, their very own flesh and blood?

Regrettably, idolatry is not dead, and extreme devotion to such gods as the following is very much alive and well: Mammon (money and possessions), Aphrodite (love, sex and beauty), Dionysus (wine and pleasure) and Mars, or Ares (war and battles). And reverence for each of them is known to result in human sacrifice, even today:

Examples:

• Abortions in the U.S., while in significant decline, are estimated to exceed 600,000 a year. No one knows how many amazing human-lives-in-formation are sacrificed as a means of birth control rather than for reasons of rape, incest or to protect the health and life of the mother. See https://harvyoder.blogspot.com/2019/02/yes-i-am-pro-life-and-oppose-abortion.html

• The U.S. firearm death rate for children to age 17 is far higher than in any comparable nation in the world, and is now the leading cause of deaths in that age group, surpassing for the first time those due to auto accidents and cancer. Over 2,500 children are sacrificed each year due to our devotion to guns. See https://harvyoder.blogspot.com/2012/12/what-weapon-would-jesus-use.html

• Individuals are increasingly willing to sacrifice their very lives in pursuit of ecstatic pleasures offered by addictive drugs, alcohol and unprotected sex.

• Civilians of all ages are sacrificed in horrific wars waged in the name of "national defense," including an untold number of babies and innocent children who are indiscriminately bombed, dismembered, incinerated and buried under the rubble of their homes, schools and hospitals, all in a growing devotion to, and trust in, the bloodthirsty gods of war.

• Young men and increasing numbers of young women in their prime are promised glory and fame for heroically sacrificing life and limb for their country, typically at the behest of national leaders who want their enemies destroyed while themselves remaining out of harms way. 

The idolatrous sacrifice of human life will end only when we attribute greater value to preserving the lives of human beings than we do to the lines of human boundaries.

Premature babies in Gaza are considered worth sacrificing if necessary in order to retaliate against, and destroy, a nation's enemies.