The king is dead.

A thoughtless hunter who had too much money to spend and too much time on his hands lured him out of his protected kingdom, and shot him with an arrow that wouldn’t kill him until some 40 hours later, when the hunter “mercifully” put a bullet into his head.

The kill was not for food. It was not for population control of a nuisance species.

It was for sport; bloody sport.

It was wrong. It was heinous. It was brutal.

But it’s not the biggest crime in the world, or in Zimbabwe for that matter. The Western world went into a tizzy over the death of Cecil the lion, but it hardly bats an eyelash over other crimes in Africa.

Slavery is still very real on this continent. It now takes the form of the sex trade, and it’s robbing tens of thousands of African youth of their joy and innocence.  Then there’s hunger.  Starvation is a reality that far too many Africans, including natives of Zimbabwe, face daily. Drinking water is also scarce. Many a Zimbabwean mother fears to give her thirsty child water for fear of the sickness and death it may bring.

If you are more concerned over an African lion than you are over an African person then you may need to check your instruments because you are flying upside down in a world gone crazy.

Here in America 35,000 babies are aborted daily.  The Planned Parenthood scandal that’s hitting newsfeeds is just the tip of the iceberg of this butcher industry. Human body parts are being sold in the name of research. With one breath the pro-abortionists tell us that the lump of tissue they are destroying is not human life, and with the next they are sifting through the mutilated remains of a baby to exclaim “Oh! It’s another boy!”

Since when is a baby boy not human? And when did his death deserve less outrage than that of an animal?

An African girl is sold into slavery to be raped by her owners and we turn a blind eye.

An American baby boy is torn limb from limb and we are silent.

An animal that lived an ocean away is killed and late night hosts cry on national television.

If anything, this should serve as proof that sin truly makes us sick.  We no longer recognize what is truly valuable and worthy of outrage.  Our priorities are so messed up that light is dark and dark is light.

But light shines brightest when it’s dark.  This is our time to shine the light of the Gospel into a world that is blinded by confusion, chaos and hatred.  Let us love the single mothers, adopt the orphaned children, and feed those who hunger.  Let our actions speak just as loudly as our words.  Let us proclaim loudly,

“The King has died, yet He lives!”