Fear should not consume our lives, but it is always lurking in the shadows of our souls; creating obstacles in our passage. Although we should completely trust God’s direction and actions, it is nearly impossible to disregard fear in totality. My biggest fear is losing one of my beautiful four children to the grip of death. I cannot imagine; nor can I relate. Most of us cannot relate to what that kind of loss would do to our faith, families, and lives. It is unbearable to consider it, yet many of us carry that fear with us daily.
What we can relate to is the misery of seeing our children sick, whether they are battling a chronic disease in the hospital or stuck at home with a simple head cold. As parents, we are charged with the protection and health of our children. Nothing makes us feel more helpless than the inability to cure our children immediately and remove their pain and suffering. It is distressing, yet it is something every parent must undergo.
I am aware the Alfie Evans story is old news; it has been cycled out of our brains and our social media posts and our news feeds. Just like that. Gone. I have had plenty of time for reflection on this case, and I’d like to revisit different aspects of the story that concern me; aspects that should concern all of us. My heart goes out to Alfie’s parents; to be rendered helpless in saving the life of your own child is an excruciating blow to the parenting model.
I’ve seen the memes on social media stating, “This is why we buy an AR-15” and “This is why we don’t want Universal Healthcare.” Not horrible points necessarily, but that’s not the direction my brain is headed on this story. There is something dark and sinister here at the foundation that I simply can’t shake or comprehend; something conjuring in the minds of humans that allows evil to prevail and holiness to step aside. This story is horrific at its core, and I believe there is a demonic element present.
Imagine your child is sick. Very sick. Sick to the point your child is in a semi-vegetative state from a degenerative neurological condition, and the doctors can’t tell you exactly what that condition is. What the doctors can tell you is that continuing life support for the child is inhumane, and it’s time to pull the plug. You stare at your helpless child, believing differently. You have faith that your child is meant to live. However, the doctors continue to disagree and make plans to pull your child from the apparatus that is keeping him alive.
Fine. Whatever. You decide to take your child to a different doctor to receive further treatment. However, the hospital tells you that you cannot remove your child to help him because they believe such actions are futile. Wait. What? Why? You are the parent. You make that decision for your child. You are charged with the safety and health of your child. Not anymore apparently.
So, we know that Italy granted Alfie Evans citizenship to help with the child’s transfer out of the UK, presumably to receive treatment that possibly could have saved him. Possibly not. What we don’t know is the exact reason why the bureaucrats in England wouldn’t allow it. What do they care? What difference does it make to them? Was it a power play? Fear of losing control of the populous? I think the answer is, unfortunately, the allowance of evil infiltration into our lives. It is evident in this story and many others like it.
Have we become so desensitized to death that we completely disregard life? Many of our lives are filled with fear and doubt, complexity and misdirection; all of which that lead us from the light. For decades we turn our heads at human trafficking, the rampant use of pornography, and the loss of millions of innocent lives to the repulsive legality of abortion. These normalized events take us further from God’s promise, and closer to an eternal life without Him, especially if we support such actions. We should not be shocked by the conclusion of the Alfie Evans story; we have been working hard to get to this point. And we have arrived. A national government denied parents the right to save their child because that government no longer believed that child should be allowed to live. The child was sucking up valuable resources. It was time to cut the losses and move on.
Do you believe in demons? Yes. Demons. Balrog looking creatures from the depths of the underworld. Naturally, we do not see them in that form; but they are present. They come to sicken and perverse the minds of men and women to enact heinous rituals of evil upon their fellow humans, and some days it appears they are winning the war. The Alfie Evans case was a big victory for Satan and his minions. He wants more.
How else can you explain it? At what point did the Alder Hey Children’s Hospital administrators stop and think that this could possibly be evil? Was it when they applied to remove parental rights and ventilation? Nope. At what point did Mr. Justice Hayden, a high court judge, think that his decision was inhumane? Obviously, he didn’t as he ruled in favor of the hospital administrators. What about the hospital’s lawyers at the hearing at the high court in Liverpool? Or the court of appeal justices that agreed with Hayden? Or the Supreme Court justices? Or the judges at the European Court of Human Rights when they found no human rights violation in the case or denied the application to move Alfie for treatment? What about the doctors that physically removed Alfie’s ventilation?
At what point did anyone involved in the decision-making process of this toddler’s life stop and have the courage to speak out against this atrocity? No one did. No one came to Alfie’s aid. Pray for these misguided people; their minds weakened by the demons who control them. Life support was removed from the child, and he continued breathing on his own for more than four days. Four days. This entire process completed because the hearts of mankind have grown cold and cowardly, and their minds have become weak. There were so many opportunities to stop this madness; opportunities for God’s light to shine on the world through compassion and love. It never happened.
At this point, our only defense against such evil is constant prayer and devotion to the laws of God. Will it come to more one day? Will physical confrontation become necessary in the future? I pray not. My heart aches for Tom Evans and Kate James, the parents of Alfie Evans. May God bring some ease to their souls and heavy hearts. Pray daily for such chaos to end and condemn these actions whenever they are brought up.
Evil at all phases should be condemned and disputed. If you do not condemn, then, by definition, you condone. I’ll say it again. If you don’t condemn; you condone. A family friend told me that once, and I’ve used it ever since. Do not condone such disregard for the sanctity of life. Condemn it. Condemn it with all your might. Hopefully, with holy leadership and prayer as our weapon, we will turn the tide on actions such as these. Do not side with those that allow demons to control their thoughts and prey upon their weaknesses. Be strong. Be vigilant. Be mindful. God bless.