Why was a man named Ota Benga put in a display with an orangutan at the Bronx Zoo in 1906? What does this perverse act, part of our nation’s history, have to do with abortion? While the treatment of Benga and the atrocity of abortion are not identical, they do share a point in common – a refusal to recognize humanity, which leads to treating another person, or an unborn baby, as an object that can be taken, killed, or used in a way others deem acceptable.

Ota Benga, of the Mbuti people, was born in the Belgian Congo around 1881. He was a man of very short stature; as an adult he was only 4 feet 11 inches in height and weighed 103 pounds.

To those whose worldview was shaped by evolutionary thought, Benga was considered part of a primitive race, an earlier form of man on the evolutionary journey. This worldview justified the wicked and brutal actions that were taken towards these people.

Once, when Benga was out on a successful elephant hunt, his wife and children were murdered, along with others, by the Force Publique, a military group in Congo started by King Leopold II of Belgium. If this was not a sufficient trial, Benga was captured and sold into slavery. A former missionary turned explorer, Samuel Verner, purchased Benga and others to be part of a display for the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair. This display was intended to showcase the stages of evolution.

After the World’s Fair, Benga was taken back to the Congo where he remarried. Sadly, his second wife died. With the rest of his family and clan gone, he suffered the added blow of being rejected by his people. Benga was brought back to the U.S. Facing financial difficulties, Verner offered Benga to the director of the Bronx Zoo, William Temple Hornaday. Shaped by an evolutionary mindset, Hornaday had no issue with displaying Ota Benga like an animal. This proved to be a great publicity stunt. A New York Times headline from Sept. 9, 1906 read, “BUSHMAN SHARES A CAGE WITH BRONX PARK APES; Some Laugh Over His Antics, but Many Are Not Pleased. KEEPER FREES HIM AT TIMES Then, with Bow and Arrow, the Pygmy from the Congo Takes to the Woods.”

The next week, a medical doctor, M.S. Gabriel, wrote an editorial claiming that Ota Benga was having a fine time at the zoo; there was no reason for protesting his poor treatment.

Although Benga did draw crowds, African-American pastors properly raised alarms. The New York Times responded to one of the ministers with incredible arrogance saying: “One reverend coloured brother objects to the curious exhibition on the grounds that it is an impious effort to lend credibility to Darwin’s dreadful theories … the reverend coloured brother should be told that evolution … is now taught in the textbooks of all the schools, and that it is no more debatable than the multiplication table.”

Benga thankfully was set free from the display at the zoo and was helped by an orphanage. Later he moved to Lynchburg, VA and was baptized. He attended some elementary-level classes and ended up working at a tobacco factory. He longed to return to Africa, but World War I prevented him from returning. Sadly, on March 20, 1916, he ended his own life.

On December 17, 2021 Governor J. B. Pritzker signed House Bill 370, repealing the Illinois Parental Notification Act that was first passed in 1995, but not instituted until 2013. It is estimated that this law, once enforced, saved about 1000 lives a year and reduced the number of abortions performed on minors by 55%.

Rich Miller‘s Capitol Fax newsletter recorded the praise of perverse politicians and leaders of groups that savagely prey on the unborn and young people in need. The conclusion of Miller’s article from 12/17/21 noted that Illinois increased its number of abortions to out-of-state residents from 2,970 in 2014 to 7,534 in 2019. Business is booming in this grisly trade.

Thankfully there were a few politicians and other leaders in the fight for life who expressed their horror at the passage of this law. Most of the opposition focused on the rights of parents. Some spoke of the danger of this law with respect to the trafficking of minor girls. Save for Eric Scheidler‘s statement, none of the responses directly highlighted the plight of the unborn. Parental rights are part of the issue, but even deeper is the fundamental right to life that the unborn child possesses from the moment of conception.

In 2006, one hundred years after its initial article, the New York Times wrote a drastically different column on Ota Benga, “The Scandal at the Zoo.” Additionally, in 2020, the Times noted an apology from the Wildlife Conservation Society, the group that oversees the Bronx Zoo, for its treatment of Benga and the practice of eugenics that was endorsed by two of the Society’s founders.

May the Lord awaken the hearts of those who currently are in rebellion against His truth regarding the humanity of the unborn child. If our eyes have been opened to this truth, let us not boast, yet let us not be silent in the face of the continued slaughter.

Other Sources:

David Catchpoole. The Elusive Okapi, Living Fossil of the Congo. Creation Magazine, Vol. 44, No. 1 2022

Jerry Bergman. Ota Benga: the pygmy put on display in a zoo, April 19, 2007

Now that the possibility of a tax hike passing with the help of “16 lame duck” legislators is not going to happen, Republicans cheer and Democrats lament, right? Not necessarily.

According to our state’s constitution, the governor has a lot of power when it comes to preparing the state’s budget, and, in fact, is constitutionally bound to present a balanced budget every year. Long-time Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan has no such constitutional requirement.

Several Republican Illinois legislators have long assumed that Bruce Rauner would willingly sign a tax increase as part of a budget deal with Madigan. Those aren’t the headlines Rauner wants going into 2018’s gubernatorial election, however, so a super-majority Democrat controlled General Assembly doing the dirty work without the need of his assistance would have been ideal. And, of course, Democrats raising taxes again supplies a terrific weapon for all Republican campaigns.

Except that now, as Rich Miller reports, the Democrats won’t be doing Rauner that favor. So it’s back to the status quo, which really isn’t the status quo in that the numbers don’t stay the same, they continue to get worse.

Neither party has offered an honestly balanced budget in many years, and Governor Rauner, as chief executive, might possibly be blamed for the little things — here are just a few facts from the Illinois Policy Institute article “Illinois’ $204B Debt Crowding Out Payment for Social Services” (we have put them into bullet points for easy reading):

• Illinois will spend $1 billion more on annual debt payments than it will on human services in fiscal year 2017.
• Social service agencies in Illinois, such as The Center for Youth and Family Solutions, on average wait almost a year to get paid for the services they provide to the state’s low-income families, disabled and seniors. Many agencies have closed their doors, unable to pay their employees and rent.
• Illinois is sitting on a mountain of debt worth $204 billion.
• Illinois spends so much on debt that those costs now consume almost 18 percent of the state’s general fund budget.
• Illinois’ backlog of unpaid bills is what often gets the most public attention. While significant – the money due to vendors reached $9 billion in November – it only makes up a small part of Illinois’ total debt.
• The real burden lies in Illinois’ $28 billion in bonds and its $111 billion unfunded pension liability. The $139 billion total is double what it was just 15 years ago.
• Another $56 billion is owed on government-worker retirement health insurance liabilities.
• Combined, these debts all add up to $204 billion. And that’s the rosy scenario. If more realistic investment-return assumptions are used, Illinois’ pension debt nearly doubles.
• Unfortunately, the state has just $79 billion in assets to meet its $190 billion obligation, leaving a $111 billion hole for taxpayers to pick up.

So is raising taxes a solution? Fiscal conservatives understand the answer is “no” — the Illinois Policy Institute’s Ted Dabrowski recently laid out the ABC’s:

For many, tax hikes look like the only solution to Illinois’ fiscal woes. But tax hikes will only make things worse. Illinoisans are already burdened with some of the highest taxes in the nation, including the highest property taxes of any state.

As a result of Illinois’ dysfunction, the state is bleeding people and its tax base. Between July 2014 and July 2015, approximately 300,000 people left Illinois for good and only 200,000 moved in, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. This resulted in a loss of 105,000 residents on net to other states – an all-time high for Illinois. Tax hikes will only chase more residents away.

So what is the solution? Fiscal conservatives understand that, too — again here’s Ted Dabrowski:

The only way to keep Illinoisans here is to bring fiscal sanity back to the state through major spending reforms that bring Illinois’ budget in line with what ordinary Illinoisans can afford.

Fiscal sanity? Spending reforms? Uh, yes, and maybe that’s a nicer way of saying it than the plain truth — which is that Illinois needs to cut its spending by many billions of dollars if it is to ever make the budget math work.

Since Democrats have no wish to cut spending, and Republicans completely lack the ability to draw up a genuinely balanced budget and then sell it successfully to the people of Illinois, it’s a good bet we’ll just see more of the same. The budget can will be kicked down the road into the 2018 election year when tens of millions of dollars will be spent by each party trying to portray the other side as the villain.

The Illinois GOP has just launched yet another crusade to make Democrat House Speaker Mike Madigan as the chief villain. Here’s a better idea. Since Madigan knows how to win, Republicans should work on converting him into a Republican fiscal conservative. With Madigan’s political and communications skills, Illinois can then get back on the right track. Who knows, with Madigan’s abilities and Illinois’ potential, our state might soon be competing with states like Texas for businesses and experience the growth levels it once enjoyed.

Take ACTION: Click HERE to send an email to your state representative and to Governor Rauner to urge them to do the hard work of cutting the waste and bloat in Illinois government instead of constantly looking for new ways to tax the people. The size of government is the problem!

Here are just a few recent headlines for your reading pleasure:

State Budget Deadlock Continues To Harm Social Service Organizations

Illinois’ Billions: Pension Debt and Unpaid Bills Total More than $140B

State of Illinois’ Pension Debt Jumps to $130 Billion

Social Services in Illinois Say Situation Still Bad With Temporary Budget

The Illinois Family Institute is completely dependent on the voluntary contributions of individuals just like you.  Without you, we would be unable to represent our Christian values in Springfield or fight the radical agenda being pushed by the godless Left in our culture.

Please consider chipping in $25 or $50 to support our work to stand boldly in the public square.

Click HERE to make a tax-deductible donation.

To make a credit card donation over the phone, call the IFI office at (708) 781-9328.