A 16-year-old teen suffering from terminal bone cancer, and whose dying wish is to end abortion in the state of Texas, has chosen to forgive the social media trolls who have been attacking him for his pro-life stance.
The Daily Signal is reporting on the magnificent display of Christian charity exhibited by Jeremiah Thomas, a Texas teen who was diagnosed with an osteoblastic osteosarcoma, an extremely aggressive form of bone cancer. and is now in hospice care.
Thomas, a former all-star, state champion football player from Waco, made headlines a few months ago when he made a “legacy wish” through the Make-A-Wish Foundation to see abortion banned in the state of Texas. His request for a meeting with the state’s governor, Greg Abbott, resulted in having his request made part of the Republican party platform.
Being the son of Rusty Thomas, National Director for the pro-life organization, Operation Rescue, Jeremiah grew up fighting for the rights of the unborn and wasn’t about to leave this world without doing as much as possible to save their innocent lives. But that didn’t win him too many friends in cyberspace. Not long after news broke about his legacy wish, he began to receive hateful attacks on social media.
“Cancer is giving your mom a late term abortion. Lmao [laughing my a– off],” one message said.
“Jeremiah … You aren’t dead yet? God do your job!” another said.
“See u in hell ugly.”
“Thank god this cancer is terminal,” said another.”Don’t want someone so oppressive, sexist, and backwards thinking walking around, living, breathing my air.”
His mother, Kendra, wrote on Facebook: “How would you feel if someone wished your child dead? Or laughed at his suffering? Or called him ugly as he recovered from the effects of chemo and radiation? How would you feel if someone blamed your child for the osteoblastic osteosarcoma taking his life? Or bullied him with the taunt that he was weak and deserved his disease? How would you feel if someone told your recently paralyzed child that he didn’t deserve to walk? Or posted on your child’s Instagram that he was unworthy of breathing air…even as nodules fill his lungs and threaten to bring on a suffocating death that feels like drowning. How would you feel if an army of abortion supporters, homosexuals, and social justice warriors flooded your child’s social media account to cyberbully him AS HE DIED?”
Jeremiah spent a few days deleting the vile comments and Kendra noticed that Jhe didn’t talk about it, nor did he post anything new. She wondered if the cyberbullies had been to much for him.
But then she opened his Instagram account and found a picture of him praying with the caption, “Anyone need prayer?”
“Jeremiah’s response to those who hate him is to bless them. To pray for them,” she said.
“This is what he told me, ‘I pity them. To have that much darkness in your heart that you’d want a kid with cancer to die. Makes me wonder what happened to them in their life. It’s a scary place to be- mentally and spiritually. I pray God would have mercy on them’.”
How can a 16-year-old terminal cancer patient forgive those who wish him dead? Kendra asks.
“Jesus. Jeremiah can forgive others because he’s been forgiven. He knows he wasn’t the first to be bullied. Jesus was falsely accused. Beaten. Mocked. Spat on. People didn’t just wish Jesus dead. They crucified him. They buried him in a tomb. But Jesus didn’t stay dead. He rose again on the third day and forgave his bullies.
“Jeremiah also knows it doesn’t matter who you are. Whether you’re a strong, handsome state football champion (with a smile that lights up the world). Or a weak, wheelchair bound cancer victim (with a smile that still lights up the world). If you profess Christ as your Lord and Savior, you will be hated.”
As Jesus said, “If the world hates you, remember that it hated me first” (John 15:18).
For Jeremiah, being hated for the right reasons isn’t all that bad.
“Feels good to be hated for Christ,” he said. “Feels like I’m actually doing something.”
Let us keep this brave young warrior for Christ, and his family, in our prayers!
A GoFundMe page has been set up to help the family with medical expenses.
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