Molek lives on today!

    In Leviticus, God commands the children of Israel,

Do not give any of your children to be sacrificed to Molek, for you must not profane the name of your God. I am the Lord.

   In other verses we find out that the children of Israel offered up their children as "burnt offerings" to Molek who was a fertility/harvest god.   For a long time, many archaeologists thought that this did not really happen and was Jewish folk-lore made to create hatred of the Canaanites.   However, as usual, the Bible is found to be right.  In the early 1990's an archaeologist found an altar littered with burned baby bones.   How could people do such a thing?

    Well, before you just cast them off as "primitive people who have no connection to you", let's look at what they were facing.  In their culture, there was no welfare system to fall back on.  If your crops failed, you starved and so did your family.   You were at the mercy of nature and if rain did not come, or your crops were destroyed by bugs or disease you were screwed.  A father looking at maybe his third year of failed crops and a starving family may be forced to take some very drastic measures.   Offering up his children may be a "two-fer" or "win-win" in his mind.   One or two less mouths to feed, a quick merciful death for his children and MAYBE this god Molek would be appeased and the rain would come back to the land.  It's a harsh reality but it's one that I am sure happened quite often.

    Today, we look back at people like this with some level of self-righteousness.  Certainly WE would never do something as awful as that!   If WE lived back then we would make other choices.   WE would know better! 

    But would we?

    Do we still make offerings to Molek today?

     I think we do.   No, he doesn't go by the name "Molek" anymore.  He goes by other names like:

• Abortion
• Career advancement
• Me-Time
• Entertainment

      Is the baby you carrying coming at a bad time in your life?   You're not ready to be a parent yet?  The child won't have everything other children will have?   The baby is not going to be perfect? The baby will not be a boy? (in China).  All these questions come to young mothers today who are faced with whether or not to allow this baby to be born.   Molek stands there with his arms open wide begging you to offer the baby up in return for what you want in life.   Alyssa Milano said in a recent pod-cast that she is glad she had an abortion when she was younger, because she wouldn't have been able to have the amazing career she has if she had gone through with the pregnancy.   Molek rewarded her offering with a chance to be on TV and Movies. 

      Molek, however, doesn't stop with aborted babies.   Children can be such a nuisance in our lives.   They are sooooo needy.    They need food, clothing, changing, teaching, training .... loving.  All this takes sooooo much of our time we need for ourselves.  Maybe it's a career.  The need to prove yourself to the world and staying home with a young child doesn't work towards that goal.   Maybe it's because you have this thing called a MORTGAGE (Another "M"-god) that demands you pay homage to Molek.   I once heard a woman say that she could never stay at home with her kids because she needed her time away from them. 

     But maybe you do stay at home and care for your children.   Do you also make offerings to Molek?   Maybe you need your "ME-time" (Another M-god), and the only way to do it is to employ inexpensive baby-sitters like smart-phones, tablets or PCs.   Children today spend 6-8 hours a day on these devices and studies are showing it is having a disastrous affects on their developing brains.    Oh, but it makes your like SOOooo much easier doesn't it!    On a long car trip?   It's easier to have them watch a movie, play games or watch YouTube than to teach them about the world or how to get along.   In the grocery store?  It's much easier to use the electronic baby-sitter to keep your kid entertained than to spend time teaching them about food and making good choices.    Score another offering for Molek!   While we don't set our children ablaze like people 3000 years ago,  little by little we scorch their growing brains in ways that will damage them for years to come all because we want our own little ME-time, or "Peace and Quiet". 

    I know this blog is harsh.  Personally I don't believe I would be ANY better than a lot of parents if I had to raise my kids today in our Internet-driven world.   I have my own problems dealing with today's screen-time-obsessed world.   I only write this to help raise the awareness to families today that are facing these problems.   Technology today is moving faster and faster than we can adapt.   Our children have little "bulls-eyes" on their brains that business-marketers, perverts and social/political-manipulators aiming for and we need to protect them from their constant onslaught of attacks.   We, as parents, need to make their needs a priority in our lives and stop sacrificing them for our own petty needs and desires.  There is no "win-win" when it comes to our children.  There is only "win-lose" at best and "lose-lose" at worst.