Civilization is in crisis. Our moral compass is haywire and we have wandered far off the correct path. Few acts exemplify this confusion of ethics better than elective abortion – the willful murder of one’s offspring. Abortion is the ultimate sign that society has become past feeling.

“Past feeling” is a phrase used in scripture to describe those whose hearts have hardened and who have left the Gospel path. In his letter to the Ephesian Saints, the Apostle Paul gave this encouragement:

“[W]alk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind,

“Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:

“Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness” (Ephesians 4:17-19).

Paul reminded his fellow Christians that disciples of the Master cannot walk as others do. We are meant to be a “peculiar people” (1 Peter 2:9). When we embrace the Savior’s covenant path, we embrace a new and higher way of life and forever leave behind old habits and corrupt ways of thought and behavior. Those who reject the Gospel of Jesus Christ alienate themselves “from the life of God.” This self-alienation comes because of ignorance, blindness of heart, and sin. A symbol of this alienation is that people become “past feeling.”

Those who are “past feeling” are those who have “their conscience seared with a hot iron” (1 Timothy 4:2). They have willfully rebelled against God and His laws to such an extent that they become numb to the Holy Spirit and can no longer properly hear or understand His quiet and subtle promptings. They are those who “are without God in the world” and who “have gone contrary to the nature of God” (Alma 41:11). All of us can slip into this state of unfeeling if we are not careful and if we do not guard ourselves against enemy interference.

A person who is “past feeling” sees the world differently and abnormally. Up is down. Black is white. Evil is good. This tragic state of affairs is a direct fulfillment of Isaiah’s ancient prophecy that people would “call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” (Isaiah 5:20)

Because their consciences are seared, they cannot reliably make moral judgment calls. They are not in tune with the Holy Spirit of God. A wise man gave an analogy about hearing the voice of the Holy Ghost. He first compared the process to using an old radio set to hone in on the proper signal and then observed:

“In terms of modern communication, crystal radio sets helped us emerge from the dark ages of communication. With advanced technology, cellular phones are used for much of the communication in our time. Occasionally, however, we find dead spots where the signal coming to a cell phone fails. This can happen when the cell phone user is in a tunnel or a canyon or when there is other interference.

“So it is with divine communication. The still, small voice, though still and small, is very powerful. It “whispereth through and pierceth all things.” But like my old crystal set, the message may be there but we fail to pick it up. Perhaps something in our lives prevents us from hearing the message because we are “past feeling.” We often put ourselves in spiritual dead spots—places and situations that block out divine messages. Some of these dead spots include anger, pornography, transgression, selfishness, and other situations that offend the Spirit” (President James E. Faust, “Did You Get the Right Message?” General Conference, April, 2004).

Using a similar analogy, Boyd K. Packer, who was a fearless defender of the faith against the forces of cultural depravity, warned:

“The world grows increasingly noisy. . . .

“This trend to more noise, more excitement, more contention, less restraint, less dignity, less formality is not coincidental nor innocent nor harmless.

“The first order issued by a commander mounting a military invasion is the jamming of the channels of communication of those he intends to conquer” (President Boyd K. Packer, “Reverence Invites Revelation,” General Conference, October, 1991).

Satan is the arch-enemy of mankind. He is the commanding general of the forces of wickedness. He is father of all lies. In order to get us to believe his harmful deceptions, he first has to jam our communication lines. He has to disrupt the flow of subtle messages from the Holy Spirit to our individual spirits. He does this through at least three methods: 1) Luring us into sin; 2) encouraging our neglect; and 3), convincing us of false ideas.

Sin is the most obvious way we disrupt our channels of communication. Whether through indulgence in pornography, substance abuse, dishonesty, pride, greed, adultery, or unwarranted violence, sin causes the Holy Spirit to flee. The Holy Spirit is, as the title suggests, holy. A holy being cannot and will not remain in a filthy environment. If you pollute and stain your soul, you drive the Holy Spirit out. The moment you begin to clean up the figurative mess, however, He rushes back in and helps you take out the trash.

Next, I use an analogy to talk about how neglect weakens our communication lines. If we do not charge our phone’s battery and it dies, we cannot use it to make or receive calls. It doesn’t matter if it is the latest and greatest version of the iPhone or an old flip-phone. Without a charged batter, you simply can’t make or receive calls or texts. Through neglect, we figuratively allow our spiritual batteries to die. Our spiritual muscles become atrophied overtime unless we stretch and use them. Rusty spiritual communication lines are certainly a factor in people becoming past feeling.

Thirdly, adopting false notions such as the anti-Christ concept of organic evolution, the Devilish dogmas of communism, or the idea that killing one’s children is acceptable extinguishes the influence of the Holy Ghost in your life. You cannot simultaneously harbor contradictory worldviews. As the Lord taught:

“No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon” (Matthew 6:24).

We might be sincere. We might really believe an idea. But ultimately we cannot believe two contradictory principles. They cancel each other out. We cannot stand on both sides of the dividing line between good and evil. We either believe the teachings of the Gospel of Jesus Christ or we don’t.

For example, we simply cannot believe that man evolved from a lower species because it has been revealed: “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness” (Genesis 1:26). To believe the idea of organic evolution is to believe either that the Genesis account of creation is fraudulent or that God is something lesser than man. Both suppositions are false and would nullify the entire Gospel of Jesus Christ. They undercut the profound reality that we are the literal children of our Father in Heaven.

By the same token, we cannot believe in the command “thou shalt not kill” and also think elective abortion – the unnecessary and voluntary killing of a child – is fine and dandy. Either we believe that we have no right to kill another unless in self-defense or to punish one who has forfeited his right to life through the malicious violation of another’s rights, or we believe that we have a right to kill. There is no middle ground. There is no third position. Either humans have a right to destroy the lives of their children or they do not. Since the Gospel of our Redeemer teaches quite clearly in multiple places “Thou shalt not kill” (Exodus 20:13), it stands that to advocate killing – for any illegitimate reason – is contrary to the Gospel.

When we wander in sin, neglect our duties relative to God and our fellow men, or adopt false philosophies, we sear our conscience and jam our crucial lines of communication with God. As such, we become “past feeling” and we “quench” the Holy Spirit (1 Thessalonians 5:19). In this darkened state, we often gravitate towards greater darkness. It is the nature of things to be attracted to things that are similar. As a revelation states:

“For intelligence cleaveth unto intelligence; wisdom receiveth wisdom; truth embraceth truth; virtue loveth virtue; light cleaveth unto light; mercy hath compassion on mercy and claimeth her own; justice continueth its course and claimeth its own” (Doctrine and Covenants 88:40).

When we become past feeling, we embrace those things that are devoid of spirit, life, and light because they are comfortable and familiar. Once we successfully silence the voice of our conscience and disrupt the communications from the Holy Ghost, we are led into hedonism. We live for ourselves and don’t care about others. Our creed in life becomes, “How does this benefit me?”

To carnal individuals, the responsibilities and self-sacrifice required in marriage and parenthood are burdensome. Self-centered women who value sex and carefree living over all other things naturally embrace abortion as a means of continuing their hedonistic lifestyles while avoiding the “inconvenience” of motherhood. Lustful men, too, encourage abortion so that they can avoid the duties of fatherhood and continue sleeping around and not thinking of anyone but themselves.

In my article “Abortionism – Cult of Death,” I quoted a LifeSiteNews piece that hits the nail on the head. It explains the perverse rationale behind abortion:

““Abortionism” is essentially a philosophy that raises abortion to a sacred status, above all other democratic principles.

“. . . Abortion’s now-sacred status is symptomatic of something far more sinister: the sweeping success of the Sexual Revolution. So-called “sexual rights” are now considered to be the most important “rights” our society has, and take precedence over all other rights, regardless of how fundamental they are.”

A hedonistic and selfish society is one that almost has to adopt abortion. Unless they have carte blanche on removing any impediment to their libidinous lifestyle, even if that “impediment” is another human life, they will be forced to be responsible individuals who do what dutiful individuals have always done – find a mate, marry, and create a family. When a person’s conscience is seared and they have become numb and past feeling, however, they stop thinking straight. Their only consideration becomes how they can find pleasure and feed their ravenous animal desires.

People who are so past feeling that they only think about self-gratification are those who invent emotion-driven slogans like “pro-choice,” “women’s rights,” and “my body, my choice” to justify snuffing out the lives of unborn human beings – human beings with arms and legs, fingers and toes, skin and eyes, functioning organs and a heart beat. A pregnant woman’s choices do not involve her body alone – they involve the body of another developing, growing human being. Through sexual intercourse, they have voluntarily created this life. Once that decision is made, they have no right to cancel it out because doing so terminates the life of a separate, unique human being – a son or daughter of Almighty God.

Think of how ghastly abortion really is. The very idea of a mother willfully killing her children is repugnant and disgusting to anyone who is not past feeling. Anyone with a functioning moral compass knows that elective abortion – that is, the unnecessary and wholly voluntary termination of the life of another human being for selfish purposes – is not only wrong, but evil.

We are frequently told that women are much more emotionally prescient than men. I suppose that a well-grounded woman has better motherly instincts than a man. Why shouldn’t she? She’s a woman and women were appointed to the holy and high calling of motherhood. However, I question the popular notion that women are more in tune than men when I see thousands of women in the streets marching for their alleged “right” to mutilate and kill their babies. When I see thousands of feminist women demanding, sometimes violently, the “right” to commit infanticide, it disgusts me.

No one has a “right” to kill babies. That is not a “right;” that is murder. It is heartless and evil. And simply because a human being has not yet developed as completely as another does not give anyone the right to kill him. If we use that perverse and flawed logic, we could say that children one, two, three, or four years old who have not matured yet – either physically or mentally – can be killed, too. Don’t think I’m being facetious. After-birth abortion – that is, the murder of already born children – has been advocated by abortion extremists throughout the world.

A rationale for after-birth abortion (i.e. murder) was given by two people clearly past feeling:

“[W]hen circumstances occur after birth such that they would have justified abortion, what we call after-birth abortion should be permissible. . . . [W]e propose to call this practice ‘after-birth abortion’, rather than ‘infanticide,’ to emphasize that the moral status of the individual killed is comparable with that of a fetus . . . rather than to that of a child. Therefore, we claim that killing a newborn could be ethically permissible in all the circumstances where abortion would be. Such circumstances include cases where the newborn has the potential to have an (at least) acceptable life, but the well-being of the family is at risk” (Alberto Giubilini and Francesca Minerva, in William Saletan, “After-Birth Abortion: The pro-choice case for infanticide,” Slate, March 12, 2012).

What Giubilini, Minerva, and all those who think like them, want is society to allow them to murder children for their own convenience. To disguise the fact that this is murder, they try to use medical terminology. But infanticide by any other name is still infanticide. It is human sacrifice on the altar of the Evil One.

Let me be clear: I am not referring to the less than 1% of abortion cases involving rape, incest, or severe medical issues. I’m speaking of elective, voluntary, willful abortion. Elective abortion is, by definition, never necessary. It is an unnecessary medical procedure whose purpose is not to save but to destroy. It is the deliberate execution of another human being. It is the intentional taking of life.

I repeat: You do not have a “right” to take another person’s life – even if their body happens to be temporarily inside of you. To reason that you have a “right” to kill is to admit that you are past feeling. And for a mother of all people to flippantly say, “My body, my choice” (i.e. “I can kill my children and there’s nothing you can do about it”), is not only delusional, but reprehensible in the extreme.

Don’t be fooled by the deceptive Marxian language about “rights,” “equality,” and “choice.” These emotion-laden words are meant to get you to lower your guard and accept things which your sensitive spirit knows are wrong. If you let your guard down long enough, you can adopt so much of that which is evil that you become past feeling and join those who are openly rebelling against God.

The great Christian leader, Boyd K. Packer, once said:

“World leaders and court judges agree that the family must endure if we are to survive. At the same time, they use the words freedom and choice as tools to pry apart the safeguards of the past and loosen up the laws on marriage, abortion, and gender. In so doing, they promote the very things which threaten the family. . . .

“When we speak plainly of divorce, abuse, gender identity, contraception, abortion, parental neglect, we are thought by some to be way out of touch or to be uncaring. Some ask if we know how many we hurt when we speak plainly. Do we know of marriages in trouble, of the many who remain single, of single-parent families, of couples unable to have children, of parents with wayward children, or of those confused about gender? Do we know? Do we care?

“Those who ask have no idea how much we care; you know little of the sleepless nights, of the endless hours of work, of prayer, of study, of travel—all for the happiness and redemption of mankind.

“Because we do know and because we do care, we must teach the rules of happiness without dilution, apology, or avoidance. That is our calling” (President Boyd K. Packer, “The Father and the Family,” General Conference, April, 1994).

Every soul is precious to God – and none more than those of innocent children who are pure and sinless, having come straight from His presence. He is the literal Father of all who come into mortality. We are His special sons and daughters. He surely weeps as He watches His children misuse their agency to literally butcher and kill each other – and then to justify it by saying it’s their “right.”

As Christians, we have a duty to denounce evil and promote goodness. We have a duty to follow the commandments and to use our influence, great or small, to thwart Satan’s plan – a plan which involves persuading people to kill their own children. We must not allow words like “choice” to disarm us or dissuade us from doing what is right.

“Thou shalt not kill.” This is the command. A woman’s voluntary decision to sleep with a man and risk becoming pregnant does not negate the Lord’s command, nor does it negate a human being’s right to live. It is not an assault on Freedom of choice to prohibit elective abortion. Rather, it is a protection of our God-given rights, chief among which is the right of life. Those who cannot yet defend themselves enjoy the same right to live and breathe as you do. If not, then we live in a savage, might-makes-right, Darwinistic mire.

Our civilization can hardly be considered civilized when we take into account the 70+ million innocent babies whose lives we’ve destroyed in a brutal and merciless holocaust. The millions of babies who have died in horrible agony as their little bodies were literally torn apart and then vacuumed out of their mother’s womb would tell you, if they could, that they wanted to live; that they had a right to live; that it was their body and their choice to live, grow, experience earth life, and be held by a loving mother. Is that too much too ask?

To those who are past feeling, anything that prevents their full hedonistic self-gratification is too much to ask. The anguish of butchered babies means nothing to the self-absorbed who reject eternal law. Those whose hearts have been hardened and minds darkened to such an extent that they ruthlessly champion their so-called “right” to murder human beings have marked themselves as enemies to humanity, to our God-given rights, and to the Liberty vouchsafed by the Constitution of the United States.

It is therefore the duty of every right-thinking individual – especially every Christian – who is not past feeling and who can still recognize the sweet influence of the Holy Spirit, to stand up in defense of the defenseless. It is our sacred responsibility not only to “be fruitful, and multiply” (Genesis 1:28), but to ensure that the right of life is extended to all those spirits whom our Father in Heaven desires to send into mortality. We must, as our Master did, go about doing good (Acts 10:38). And what cause is of more worth than defending the right of life of the most needy, innocent, and worthy among us?

Dear reader, abortion is evil. It is little more than coldblooded murder. It is a symptom of a spiritual sickness far worse than the hyped Coronavirus or smallpox. One thing is certain: An individual, group, or society that tolerates the slaughter of their infants is past feeling. God help us to repent. God help us to properly value life. And God help us to feel again!

Zack Strong,

February 9, 2020