Life is worth $54 billion.

I have been in New Zealand now for 4 days. I have been discouraged by many of the Kiwis (not all of the Kiwis of course, but many…) loose moral policies and apparent lack of interest in universal truth. Perhaps this is why I am here – to better understand my faith and share it with others…

As you can imagine, I was quite excited when I came across a table of Americans at lunch today, all between the ages of 21 and 22. We got talking about simple conversational topics, such as “Where are you from?” and “What are you studying here in New Zealand?” and of course that was all fine and perhaps even necessary. We were laughing and talking about how much we all loved Disneyland.

One of the exchange students that was at the table was from Mexico and he had previously finished up an internship with Disney in Florida. He swears by Disney. Loves it, loves it, loves it. Said he had spent some of the most amazing days of his life working for the company.

He casually brought up a story about the characters in full costume (often times young adults play the characters like Mickey, Goofy, or Lilo and have to dress in full body costumes). He said they are NEVER allowed to take these costumes off in front of anyone, lest a child see that the characters are not real.

Apparently there was a young woman working for Disney not too long ago, who was dressed up in a full body Minnie Mouse costume. A park-goer accidentally pushed her somehow and she fell into one of the bodies of water they have around the park. She started to drown and could not move with the mask on, so she ripped it off in hopes of preserving her life.

To that I say, smart move girlie. Way to take action and save your life. Unfortunately a little kid saw her remove the head-piece and realized that Minnie Mouse wasn’t real. And to that – Disney said “You’re Fired” and charged her big fines. It doesn’t matter if your life was in danger they said to her. Because, see – Disney values their image over this girl’s life; their own employee; their fellow human being.

When Alejandro (the exchange student telling the story) finished – I looked at him and everyone around with my jaw dropped wide open and said “That is terrible! That girl’s life is way more valuable than Disney’s image.” And to my statement, my fellow, female American sitting next to me rolled her eyes at me (like I was the most naïve thing on the planet) and said “Ya right. No it’s not.” And y’know what? The 5 others students sitting with us didn’t disagree. As a matter of fact, they didn’t say anything. Not even the one with the gold crucifix strung about his neck. Their silence alone was worth a thousand words --- or a thousands deaths.

How could my fellow American put a price tag on that poor girl’s life, just like that? I don’t care how much Disney’s image is worth – human life, even if it is just one, is worth way more. That Utilitarianism ideology is crap. I don’t care how many little children were traumatized when they realized Minnie Mouse wasn’t real – their piece of mind, all added up and multiplied by ten million isn’t the equivalent of one human life.

Do you suppose if the girl who said human life isn’t worth as much as Disney’s image, were put in the place of that employee, that she would think the same way? Do you suppose that if it were HER life on the line that she would say, “Sure guys…go ahead and kill me…as long as the kids still think Minnie Mouse is real, the sacrifice of my life will totally be worth it. Go ahead, just shoot me right here, right now. No problem.” I don’t THINK so.

Same line of thought goes for all those human’s lives who have been taken away from this Earth before they have barely begun - through abortion. I can just hear that aborted baby in the womb saying, “Sure mom, go ahead and kill me now – I wouldn’t want to be a burden on your mind or your schedule. I’m ready, kill me now.”

My heart breaks.