Mama, I Can’t Breathe!

“Mama, I can’t breathe!”

This cry was raised in Minnesota as an innocent life pleaded for mercy — but it went unheard. Unanswered. No one paid attention, and no one cared.

That cry was raised — then the crier was murdered.

No. This cry was not raised by George Floyd as he died in Minneapolis on May 25 of this year. I’m not talking about George Floyd.

I’m talking about Zoe.

Zoe was a healthy, growing, beautiful little black girl who lived in Minnesota. On May 25, 2020, it was life as usual for Zoe: playing, sleeping, doing all the things a small child does.

Then she felt it. An overwhelming, burning pain. She tried to get away from it but couldn’t. She felt it spreading all over her body. She didn’t know what it was. She only knew that it hurt. She didn’t know what to do — so she did what every other child would have done in her situation. She cried, “Mama! Help!”

But no answer came. Mama didn’t reply. Zoe could hear her talking not far away, but it was like she was deaf. She didn’t hear Zoe — or didn’t want to.

Zoe felt the burning get worse as it moved to her lungs. She began to gasp for air. “Mama!” She screamed out again. “I can’t breathe!”

Once more, the call was answered by the cruel silence. Zoe began to sob harder. Surely Mama or Daddy or someone would hear her crying!

But if they did, they didn’t care. They might have plugged their ears and looked away, but they didn’t answer. Zoe began to scream as loud as she could into the darkness — then she heard them. The five words.

She heard them, spoken in a voice she didn’t recognize, but she couldn’t believe them. The silence that had been Mama’s only reply was cruel — but cruel didn’t even apply to these five words. They were inexpressibly inhumane, brutal. Evil. Zoe trembled, both from pain and fear, as she heard them.

“It will be over soon.”

Then Zoe heard Mama’s voice. She was talking to the person with the strange voice. Even as she had to struggle for her next breath, Zoe’s heart leapt at hearing her. Then the whole world came crashing down when Mama spoke.

“Good.”

Zoe felt a pain greater than the burning that now consumed her tiny body, a pain that seemed to stab straight at her beating heart. She wanted to cry until she had no more tears left–but she couldn’t. She couldn’t call to Mama again. She couldn’t even scream for mercy. She couldn’t breathe.

Finally, just as everything was going dark and she felt as if there was nothing left of her for the fire to burn, she was able to gasp out one last cry.

“Mama! I can’t breathe!”

And she died.

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Zoe died on the same day as George Floyd. She died in the same state, maybe even the same city, as George Floyd. She was even the same color as George Floyd.

But there will be no memorial services for Zoe. There will be no tearful mourners, no protests organized or riots carried out. There will be no legislation discussed or bills passed or movements begun as a result of her death. No one will write her name on a sidewalk or posterboard. No one will even know her name.

Because Zoe was aborted.

This is the inconsistency of the Black Lives Matter movement. When a black adult is allegedly murdered by a white adult, movements are begun, hashtags are created, riots break out and protests are held, even before the trial begins. But when a black baby is undoubtedly murdered by an adult–oftentimes a white adult–no one even bats an eye.

Black Lives Matter obviously doesn’t believe that every black life matters. Adherents of this movement are quick to name off a list of those who have been mistreated outside the womb (Emmett Till, etc.) and demand that their deaths be avenged; however, I have not heard one #BLM advocate declare that we need to end the number one killer of black people in America — this slaughter called abortion. This hypocrisy is why George Floyd’s death is condemned as a crime and a tragedy while Zoe’s murder is applauded as progress! When in fact the only difference between Zoe’s murder and George Floyd’s death is timing.

Do you realize that if George Floyd had died in the same way just 47 years ago, we would not even know his name? Not because social justice has come so far since then, but because 47 years ago, George Floyd was still in his mother’s womb. 47 years ago, he was just like Zoe. And if George Floyd had been murdered then, by a white abortionist (who, by the way, would have been paid well to commit the crime), no one would have said a word about it. His death wouldn’t have sparked riots and protests. Actually, BLM advocates would now be celebrating his killing!

George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis began a wildfire of riots that have ravaged the country as a whole. But when Zoe was burned alive in her mother’s womb and died unable to breathe, nobody cared. Nobody did anything.

Especially not anyone in connection with BLM.

This is because racism, death, and injustice are not really the things that the Black Lives Matter movement is concerned about. It is not concerned about preserving life and upholding justice — that much is obvious (just look at all the death and destruction that has been the result of these riots and protests). Its main goal is to obtain power. And power is gained by taking advantage of inflammatory situations, as well as winning over “socially important” people to your side.

George Floyd happened to be seen in BLM’s eyes as a “socially important” person. Zoe was not. Stirring up strife about George Floyd’s death has granted BLM a new way to throw dirt on everything they don’t like; saying something about Zoe’s death would only cast a shadow on a person’s supposed “freedom” to kill their own children. This is also why BLM pays very little attention to black-on-black crime, which results in the murders of far more black people than contact with cops does.

BLM is blatantly unbiblical, logically inconsistent, and absolutely wrong on all levels, but this is the most glaring contradiction of them all. Because BLM advocates will allow for the murder of one person, then condemn the murder of another. Why should we support a movement whose followers attack those who stood by as George Floyd was arrested, yet themselves ignore the hundreds of cries and pleas for life and mercy that are raised to them each day?

Black lives don’t matter just because, by some random roll of the dice, they matter. Every human life matters because every human is made in the image of God.

Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

Genesis 1:26-27

And because every person walking this earth is a human being and therefore made in the image of God, every person’s life matters.

But it’s not right to say “Black lives matter.” Neither is it right to say that “White lives matter.” This is because your life does not have a color. Your life does not have skin, or melanin. The most correct thing we can say is “Every life matters.” Or “Human lives matter.”

Or, if we want to use a hashtag, let’s do as a friend of mine suggested and use #babieslivesmatter. Because if we really want to find the oppressed people group of our age, it’s not “African-Americans”. It’s not adults of any ethnicity. It’s babies. Where can you see thousands of murders committed every day without something being done about it? Nowhere on this globe — except Planned Parenthood clinics.

Now, there is still hope for those who have been involved in these unjust murders and acts — hope and salvation in Christ alone. I prayerfully encourage all people to obey Christ’s command to “repent and believe the gospel” (Mark 1:15), which is the good news that Christ died on the cross and suffered the wrath of God as our substitute. In this sacrifice, Christ satisfied God’s justice so that He could justly give us grace and mercy. The cross of Jesus Christ is the greatest display of love and justice that we will ever find in time or eternity! And yet BLM rejects this cross and this wonderful, glorious Savior by saying that Christ is not enough — we must first have social reparation.

When will we begin to understand that justice doesn’t extend itself to just one demographic? That the blood is not just on the other person’s hands? How many horrific murders must be violently committed towards the unborn before we will unplug our ears and hear the thousands of death cries that will testify against us, as individuals, as a nation, and as a world, when we come before the judgement throne of God?

How many times must we hear, “Mama, I can’t breathe!”

SDG <><

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Top Photo by Cooper Baumgartner on Unsplash