The curious state of personhood. . .

In the latest phase of this descent into metaphysical madness, two rivers have been declared to be legal “persons” endowed with human-style rights. In New Zealand, the Whanganui River was granted the same legal rights as a human being. The reason? The Maori tribe considers the river sacred and an “ancestor.”

Religion was also why an Indian court declared the Ganges River, considered sacred in the Hindu faith, to be a “person.” From The Guardian story:

A court in the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand ordered on Monday that the Ganges and its main tributary, the Yamuna, be accorded the status of living human entities. The decision, which was welcomed by environmentalists, means that polluting or damaging the rivers will be legally equivalent to harming a person.

So, if I read this correctly, the child in the womb is NOT a person and has no rights but a river, which is not a person and has no potential to be a person, indeed, can never be human, has rights of personhood.  In other words, as the author above put it, our descent into metaphysical madness has transformed us into nature worshipers who view humans as somehow aliens to nature and corrupters of the pristine state of nature.  Therefore, it could be said, nature is more human than we are.  Wow!

No one denies that man has not been a good or careful or even faithful steward of God's creation but, that said, according human rights to that creation is a betrayal of God will and purpose and the denial of the unique and special status the LORD has accorded to humanity, His highest creation and those who were created in His likeness and wear His image (though distorted by sin).

Sadly, liberal Christianity is happy to accord to a river or other part of nature rights that it refuses to give to those not yet born.  Such is the depth of our descent into metaphysical madness that we find no contradiction between according a river personhood and continuing to deny that to the child in the womb.  Truly our values are being tested and authentic Christianity must retain the sanity of God's Word and wisdom even as the world around us trades the causes of the environment, global warming, and ecology for the Gospel of Christ who died for sinners.  Something to think about. . . indeed!

Of course, what this is really about is power.  No one thinks that a river will complain about its treatment at the hands of humanity but humans whose agenda is controlling our thoughts and our values will step in and take the voice of the rivers and direct the legal protection of their rights.  This is what it is always about -- the power to enforce the idea that man is the intruder and nature the just and rightful victim.  It is all connected.  From the granting of human rights to nature to abortion to physician assisted suicide to euthanasia for those whose lives are "not worth living," it is all connected.  We live in dangerous times in which real human life has less value than a river.  This is one more example of the false compassion I wrote about a few weeks ago. . .