Moloch and the Banality of Evil

March 15, 2011 by Denys Powlett-Jones

Continued from Page 1

Notice as well how, writing in the 1930s, decades before the age of mass abortions in the West, Mann describes the naïve and deluded hope that accompanied Laban and Adina's act of human sacrifice, a hope that finds no rewards, and seems instead to lead to a mysterious and punitive sterility. So too do the enthusiasts of the Cult of Roe v. Wade sing of the "blessing and prosperity" that their recommended child sacrifices will ostensibly bring; so too do their promises seem like the unfalsifiable dogmas of cult worship; so too are the actual fruits desiccated and bitter, with the collapse of fertility rates in the regions of the world where abortion has been least restricted for the longest time.

What Mann and Arendt have convinced me of is that an act as banal as typing a memo or laying bricks can be evil, even demonic. It is a mistake to think that what goes on inside a sanitized and insured abortion mill is more civilized than what took place on the altars of human sacrifice 3000 years ago.

The cult of Moloch is indeed alive and well, just under a new name. It even has a logo.

This piece originally appeared at Catholic Phoenix, and is reprinted here with permission.

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