I
had a hard time believing it when I heard about it. Yet, I suppose that
I shouldn’t be surprised.
The headline read, “Indian man to sue his parents for giving birth to
him ‘without his consent’, wants to be paid for his life.” What?
In a YouTube video, a 27-year-old man, Raphael Samuel, claims that he is
suing his parents because “he
was conceived without his consent and therefore his parents should pay
for his life.”
“I want everyone in India and the world
to realize one thing that they are born without their consent. I want
them to understand that they do not owe their parents anything,” he
said. “If we are born without our consent, we should be maintained for
our life. We should be paid by our parents to live.”
Lukas Mikelionis of Fox News states that “Samuel
has been reported as a follower of antinatalism, an increasingly popular
yet bizarre ideology that believes that it’s morally wrong for people to
procreate and takes a nihilistic approach towards human life, saying
[that] humanity brings only suffering.”
Samuel says he loves his parents.
“I love my
parents, and we have a great relationship, but they had me for their joy
and their pleasure,” he told The
Print last month. “My life has been amazing, but I don’t see
why I should put another life through the rigmarole of school and
finding a career, especially when they didn’t ask to exist,” he said.
Samuel appears to be speaking of his own life in that statement.
Interestingly,
Samuel shared a Facebook post that is said to be from his mother in
which she allegedly states:
“If Raphael could come up with a rational
explanation as to how we could have sought his consent to be born, I
will accept my fault.” *
What are we to
make of Samuel’s position?
This writer believes this is
selfishness gone to seed. Samuel would suggest that it was the
selfishness of his parents that brought him into the world; they were
seeking only their own pleasure. But Samuel’s focus is only on
himself. “My parents should pay for my life.” Samuel’s comments may be
summarized by, “It’s all about ME.”
But it’s not.
To be self-centered is off-center. The
world doesn’t revolve around me. And if I think or act like it should,
I am setting myself up for misery.
If we’re going to “get it right,” we
must recognize that our world should “revolve around” Christ. He should
be the “center of our universe,” the focus of our lives.
Christ created us as an expression of
His power and of His love (Colossians 1:16). He created us with the
ability to choose to love Him in return, or not. When we choose to make
Him the center of our universe, we get it right. When we put anything
or anyone else in that place, we are off-center because we are
self-centered. Self-centeredness (selfishness) leads to self-deception
and sin.
But here’s the amazing thing: God still loves us and He wants to save us
(1 Timothy 2:4)! God gave His Son Jesus to die on the cross for our
sins and when we submit our lives to Him, He will save us and give us
eternal life (Romans 6:23; Ephesians 1:7).
God will save and
give eternal life to those who place their
faith and trust
in Jesus (Acts 16:30-31), turn from their sins in
repentance
(Acts 17:30-31), confess
Jesus before men (Romans 10:9-10), and are
baptized
(immersed) into Christ for the forgiveness of sins (Acts 2:38). He will
continue to cleanse from sin those who continue to put Him first by
walking in the light of His Word (1 John 1:7).
No, Samuel, life is not all about you.
It’s not about me either. It’s about Christ. If we’ll just put Him at
the center of our universe and submit our lives to Him, then “our world”
will be right.
--
David A. Sargent
* Information gleaned from “Indian
man to sue his parents for giving birth to him ‘without his consent’,
wants to be paid for his life” by
Lukas Mikelionis of Fox News,
www.foxnews.com,
2/7/19.
David A. Sargent,
Minister
Church of Christ at Creekwood
1901 Schillinger Rd. S.
Mobile, Alabama 36695
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