The End of Life Option Act took effect in California on June 9. It’s a sanitized label for physician-assisted suicide. California is now the fourth state in the U.S. to legalize killing yourself. Lawmakers and advocates argue such laws are necessary to avoid prolonged and unwanted pain and suffering for the terminally ill. This story got a few mentions here and there but the story washed quickly in the news cycle even though a group of doctors are now trying to knock down the law.

Locally, a Rockford nurse is suing her former employer, the Winnebago County Health Department, after she was fired for conscientious objection to a new mandate that all nurses at the WCHD be trained to provide abortion referrals and the Plan B abortion drug. This story survived a similarly short stay in the news; after all, killing pre-born children is legal in all 50 states.

Then the news exploded with the horrific deaths of 49 people caused by a gunman in Orlando, Fla. The news was and is being sustained with stories about the innocent individuals gunned down, their families, the impact, the response, the investigation, etc., etc.

I am not minimizing this indescribable, despicable act and my heart is not hardened to this senseless loss of life but I am surprised that we are surprised by more mass murder when it happens every single day in the quiet of our communities with no headlines and with doctors and nurses standing by. Every single day we promote more life loss through “referrals” and drugs that end life in the womb. Every single day somewhere, someone is counseling and referring the elderly and the terminally ill to receive medication to end their sick and tired lives. And every year legislation gets considered and passed to encourage and prevent opposition to all of the above.

Like it or not, it seems to me, we are slowly and surely being conditioned to see life as expendable. Our society has chosen to be its own god. If something or someone is unwanted, inconvenient, disagreeable, economically burdensome or an emotional drain to our lives, we look for quick, easy elimination. And even if it’s only a minority who feel this way, as long as the rationale is compelling, killing off others and their burdens somehow becomes the new norm. We are becoming conditioned to kill even though we cleanse it with emotional reasoning and vague labels like “Plan B” and “dying with dignity.” Our outrage is only acceptable when the news about killing is big, sustained and accompanied by pictures and video.

The man who killed 49 people in Orlando was sick. Sadly, so is our culture. And I am sad, I am not surprised. Before we become too accustomed to the numbness of so much death, I ask you to join me in praying and reflecting on God’s gift of life and on the surprise that God can still love us.