by Pastor Paul Clark
If you’ve ever had vertigo, you know how disconcerting it can be. It is hard to stand on your feet. You lose all sense of balance. The room appears to be spinning, even though it is not, creating an intense feeling of dizziness. It most commonly occurs when there’s an issue with your inner ear. Your sense of reality becomes distorted, making it hard, if not impossible, to go about everyday tasks.
Worse still is spiritual vertigo. This, too, creates a sense of imbalance. Things spin out of control. Reality can easily become distorted. Sex between a man and a woman in the holy realm of marriage is distorted until it becomes purely recreational, whenever and with whomever a person wishes. Spiritual vertigo can even accelerate to the point of a man identifying as a woman or a woman identifying as a man—or that a tiny human baby inside the womb is nothing significant, able to be disposed of at the whim of the mother.
We cringe at the case of Lindsay Clancy, a mother who cold-bloodedly murdered her three children: Cora, Dawson, and Callan. Bethany Mandel, a conservative columnist and mother of six, said that she believes the three children have been cast aside in conversations about the case. “We all know her name,” Mandel said, referring to Lindsay Clancy. “Very few people know the names of her children.”
Is it shocking to hear of a mother committing such a foul and demonic act? Of course it is. But should it surprise us when we label the gruesome practice of killing or dismembering a human baby in the womb a basic reproductive health need for women?
Spiritual vertigo, if not addressed quickly, can lead to an even higher degree of vertigo, when things spin out of control completely, and barbaric acts are committed. Yet, disturbingly, we see women in pink marching outside the courtroom—not on behalf of the three innocent children who were murdered—but on behalf of Lindsay Clancy, who claims to suffer from post-partum psychosis.
Post-partum depression is very real and quite common. It’s—as the old saying goes—a “tough row to hoe.” We had a dear friend from seminary who suffered a terrible and lengthy ordeal from it. But much rarer is what is called post-partum psychosis. This is what the defense for Lindsay Clancy claims. Nevertheless, whatever the label, we cannot obscure the terrible truth of what occurred. This was the premeditated murder of three children. She clearly planned the monstrous crime and then carried it out meticulously.
How can people with any sense of moral balance not recognize that and demand justice for the children?
But the same spiritual vertigo that refuses to acknowledge that an unborn baby inside the womb deserves basic human rights can even justify a woman who plans and carries out the brutal murders of her three children.
Human life is either sacred—given by God—or it is not. If not, then anyone, at any time, can be deemed disposable. It depends on who holds the power and therefore decides whether one is worthy of life—or not.
What the Nazi exterminators called Lebensunwertes Leben (“life unworthy of life”) seems to be very similar to the poisonous philosophy of the progressive elite in America who want the unfettered power to state who can live and who can die, whether it be unborn children, infants born with disabilities, or the aged and those who are approaching the end of life. Or perhaps ANYONE who doesn’t measure up to the criteria set by those who demand absolute authority. Herein lies the prevailing danger of Big Government or Socialism.
Lord, deliver us from spiritual vertigo. Deliver us from evil.
We can acknowledge mental illness, post-partum depression, and even forms of psychosis as very real results of Adam’s Fall, along with every distortion of God’s good creation that has been warped by human sin. But that doesn’t justify evil actions. True justice cries out for the innocent victims. True justice sees the value of every human being. True justice acknowledges that human life cannot and should not be snatched away at will.
Every day we sin. Every day we harbor evil thoughts. Every day we allow hurtful words to escape our mouths.
The only way out of spiritual vertigo is through the narrow path of repentance and faith in Jesus.
Alfred Hitchcock’s classic film Vertigo is a brilliant study of obsession. James Stewart plays a man who becomes so mesmerized by a mysterious woman, played by Kim Novak, that he finds himself falling ever deeper into his obsession to possess her. Let’s say that it doesn’t end well.
A person can become obsessed with many things—with a particular person, with sex, with gaining riches, jewels (watch the movie Gaslight for an example of that obsession), power, or fame. A person can become obsessed with what Allie Beth Stuckey calls “Toxic Empathy,” which can excuse—or even celebrate—the sin or crime of someone who is labeled as “oppressed,” while heaping anger and vitriol against those who are deemed the “oppressors.”
So, instead of empathy for the three children who were murdered, women in pink gather to show their sympathy for the mother who murdered them.
We should have empathy for the babies massacred every day in the womb, whether at a “clinic” or, more commonly, in the privacy of one’s bathroom after taking the abortion pill. Yet it seems that for many, empathy is worthy only if it is for the woman who engages in her “right” to have the abortion.
That does not mean that we have no compassion for a woman who may be confused and afraid, even pressured, to choose abortion. The false information and outright lies of Planned Parenthood and the abortion industry certainly do their best to entice her to such extreme actions. But compassion does not—and cannot—ignore the stark and terrible reality of the diabolical slaying of a baby girl or boy, who deserves the right to life.
Spiritual vertigo creates havoc in our world. It creates havoc even within our circle of family and friends.
As country singer Joe Diffey says, “When you’re spinnin’ round, things come undone.”
They come undone, all right. Lord, have mercy!
Only Jesus can deliver us from spiritual vertigo. Only Jesus can put things back together.
You are God’s own child. You have been bought with a price—the holy lifeblood of Christ. When things spin out of control, when your moral compass falters, repent, call upon the name of the LORD, and walk in the ways of His Word.
Vertigo is frightening, but God has things under control. He has purpose for your life. He steadfastly stands at our side until the day comes when all spiritual vertigo will cease, and our feet will be firmly planted on the beautiful, rich soil of the new heavens and new earth, where all things will be made right.
Rev. Paul Clark is President of Lutherans For Life of Michigan.