By Sarah-Marie Hoduski, Kansas City, Mo.
Ghost Stories are a global phenomena; some are rather fun—for example, the White House is said to be haunted by a number of ghosts; the most popularly seen is that of President Abraham Lincoln. Many residents over the years, including Eleanor Roosevelt’s maid, Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands, and Lady Byrd Johnson all claim to have seen him.[1] The most famous sighting of President Lincoln, however, was by Winston Churchill; who claims that Lincoln came in one night during his bath. Cigar in hand, Churchill remarked, “Good evening Mr. President. You seem to have me at a disadvantage.” He refused to stay in those rooms from then on. As a further example, it is rather curious that one of the United States’ most popular Ghost Stories is also one of its most treasured Christmas tales. Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol is a celebrated seasonal tradition, but it is also a Ghost Story that elucidates the horrors of child labor and the disadvantaged position of the working class poor. It details the story of Ebenezer Scrooge, who is visited in the night by his deceased business partner. Jacob Marley regales Scrooge with the horrors of a chained death brought on by absenting himself from the cause of the weak. Dickens says: Marley in his pigtail, usual waistcoat, tights and boots. The chain he drew was clasped about his middle. It was long, and wound about him like a tail; and it was made (for Scrooge observed it closely) of cash-boxes, keys, padlocks, ledgers, deeds, and heavy purses wrought in steel. Though he looked the phantom through and through, and saw it standing before him; though he felt the chilling influence of its death-cold eyes; he was still incredulous, and fought against his senses. Dickens’ Ghost Story emerged from the real life conditions of the Victorian Era Working Class. Some of the most severely punished crimes of the day were debt and poverty. As punishment, the poor were sent to Workhouses where they slaved away for no return. Andover House was a particularly well known facility, infamous for assigning its inmates to …bone crushing. The residents would grind animal bones into powder used for fertilizer. At one point, starving inmates nearly caused a riot as they fought over discarded bones, attempting to eat the marrow inside. In testimony from trials that investigated the cruel conditions, some inmates assigned to the bones would secretly pocket the morsels to scavenge them for their contents. Many starving children reportedly ate the leftover pig slop out of abject starvation. The women were repeatedly sexually assaulted, and the more obstinate inmates were forced to sleep in the facilitiy’s morgue. In all, there were 61 workhouse inmates that were known to have committed crimes in the hopes of being arrested and escaping the punishments of poverty.[2] Marley recounts that the real hell is to see the evils of this world and be unable to do anything about them: he brings Scrooge to see a mother and her infant child freezing to death on a porch stoop. As punishment for ignoring the needs of others during his life, Marley is forced to wander the earth seeing pain but unable to address it. Marley’s tale is a warning against the silence of the living, but among us are those that live silenced lives. Mothers are deceived by abortion propaganda and their children that lose their lives to it. Abortion Propaganda silences the cries of both mothers and their children, and in so doing propagates the scariest Ghost Story of all. Mothers who lose their babies widely report the phenomenon of the Phantom Cry They claim to be able to hear their deceased children wail. Some mothers have felt so gripped by the haunting guilt inhabiting the sound that they have resorted to digging in graveyards for their lost children—convinced they will unearth a living being crying out for life.[3] When the abortion lobby denies the pain of those that have lost their children they silence the suffering of those they prey upon. They negate the impossible grief of a lost child. Just like in Dicken’s Carol they continue to make poverty a crime. One which parents pay for with pain and the loss of their children. Don’t accept a Dickens hell. Don’t ghost through your life silent on the plight of the unborn. You are set free to work for those who are voiceless, today. You are not chained to inactivity, not chained to a living death. Significantly, Bound Silence is also Jesus’ definition of Hell. He recounts in the book of Luke the parable of the Rich Man and the beggar. The Rich Man ignores the plight of Lazarus the beggar and after his death, pleads for the relief of being able to warn his brothers about his fate. In both stories, the characters are accountable for the wealth, the talents, the capacity that they did not use to assist the weak. Individuals tell their own Ghost Stories when they ignore the plights of mothers in crisis. The needs of both mothers and their unborn children are very real, but equally vivid is the capacity to address these dilemmas and illicit meaningful change. Marley lamented his inability to aid a starving mother and her child. Don’t wait until it is too late to engage with the needs around you. There are very practical ways to help these disenfranchised targets of abortion agencies. Crisis pregnancy centers are an excellent way to invest in mothers that need help. Specifically, centers like Advice and Aid help parents through financial education, giving them resources like diapers and baby clothes, and counselling them through some tough decisions. They walk families through pregnancy and stand with them for three years following the birth of their child. Abortion culture is a consequence of the silent living. We can’t be content to let others ghost through their lives. To spectate is to be a spectre among men. Help to awaken others to their fates. Herald for those that are suppressed, and in your cry you will save others from living silent Ghost Stories of disengaged passivity. [1] http://mentalfloss.com/article/88007/12-people-who-have-supposedly-seen-or-felt-lincolns-ghost [2] http://listverse.com/2015/07/11/10-heartbreaking-stories-from-britains-workhouses/ [3] https://www.tommys.org/pregnancy-information/pregnancy-complications/pregnancy-loss/stillbirth/grieving-your-baby-after-stillbirth