Dog and God
On the air with Drew Mariani on Relevant Radio this week, I was talking about the public outrage surrounding the Michael Vick dogfighting story, and we wondered where the moral outrage is over the legal violence done to vulnerable baby humans. Callers were really sharp, with great comments about the extremes people will go to for their pets, about the moral disconnect in taking human life versus harming animal life, and one gentleman’s concern that people think they have ownership over babies they ‘created’. Such a view, he said, removes the Creator from the act of creation. Which is a huge part of the culture of death and moral relativism.
So…..I recalled that conversation when I saw this little blurb on page 9 of the Chicago Tribune today (though it’s considerably longer in the online edition).
Leona Helmsley’s dog will continue to live an opulent life, and then be buried alongside her in a mausoleum. But two of Helmsley’s grandchildren got nothing from the late luxury hotelier and real estate billionaire’s estate.
Helmsley left her beloved white Maltese, named Trouble, a $12 million trust fund, according to her will, which was made public Tuesday in surrogate court.
A $12 million trust fund….to her dog.
New stories have come out this week about the numbers of Iraq refugees in desperate need of humanitarian relief, and the crisis continues in the Palestinian territories, especially around Gaza, and in both cases whole communities of Christians are suffering terribly. Of course, Darfur continues to be a humanitarian crisis, and areas devastated in earthquakes and other natural disasters are in desperate need of disaster relief of the most basic human essentials.
Imagine how far $12 million could have gone to aid people.
And then a short time after seeing the Trib piece, I came across a news story I’d missed back in May, about a wealthy atheist who donated millions to the Archdiocese of New York. Seems like a good time to bring it up.
Philanthropist and retired hedge-fund manager Robert W. Wilson said he is giving $22.5 million to the Archdiocese of New York to fund a scholarship program for needy inner-city students attending Roman Catholic schools.
Wilson, 80, said in a phone interview today that although he is an atheist, he has no problem donating money to a fund linked to Catholic schools.
“Let’s face it, without the Roman Catholic Church, there would be no Western civilization,” Wilson said.
That’s the story that should be grabbing headlines.