Christmas in a time of Massacres

I have written so much about violence in this column that a few months into 2012 I began to experience “tragedy fatigue.” Yet I was still shaken last week, when in my country of origin, the United States, a young man in Newtown, Connecticut, committed one of the worst mass murders in recent American history. […]

I have written so much about violence in this column that a few months into 2012 I began to experience “tragedy fatigue.” Yet I was still shaken last week, when in my country of origin, the United States, a young man in Newtown, Connecticut, committed one of the worst mass murders in recent American history. After killing his own mother at home, twenty-year old Adam Lanza shot his way into a primary school with a semi-automatic assault rifle. He killed six teachers and twenty children, all between the ages of six and seven. There have been other school shootings in the U.S., but this is the worst elementary school attack since 1927, when bombs at a Michigan school killed thirty-eight children and six adults.

The massacre at the Newtown school and other recent mass murders in the United States are internal outbreaks of American violence committed abroad.  In the 20th century, the United States was outspoken in its opposition to communism, posing it against American ideals of liberty. Ironically, in attempting to justify global aggression as necessary to contain the Soviet threat, my country undermined the very values it wished to promote. In addition to the wars in Korea and Vietnam, the American Central Intelligence Agency helped overthrow multiple democratically elected governments, including those in the Congo, Guatemala, and Iran. The U.S. also helped arm those they would later call enemies during the 21st century “War Against Terror.” The Ba’athist party of Sadaam Hussein in Iraq was initially supported by the CIA, and the U.S. supplied arms to the Taliban in Afghanistan. The Independent points out that many members of Al Qaeda were initially given U.S. military training.

Following the September 11, 2001 attacks on America, the U.S. legislative bodies passed the Patriot Act, which expanded American government surveillance powers. The act was ostensibly passed to protect U.S. citizens, but it has also enabled countless human rights violations, the most severe of which have included military torture, secret extraditions, and holding terror suspects indefinitely without trial. Many fiercely independent Americans were willing to give up rights to privacy and their ideals of human dignity to counter the threat of terrorism, yet ironically, the biggest threat to the American public remains not foreign invaders but homegrown terrorists. America’s military culture is caving in on itself. Violent video games, which are sometimes made in consultation with military experts, have become training materials for murder. Gun enthusiasts defend the right of civilians to own assault weapons.  In 2012 alone, there have been at least eighty-eight people killed in sixteen mass shootings in the United States.  In 2011, there were 8583 gun-related homicides.

We Americans mourn those twenty beautiful children and their six devoted teachers in Newtown. And well we should. But Americans should also mourn what we have become, and what is perpetrated in our name. The Bureau of Investigative Journalism claims that around 176 children have reportedly been killed by American drones in Pakistan over the past seven years. Still others have been killed by drones in Yemen, Somalia, and Afghanistan. In the name of making America “safe,” the American government has authorized the mass murder of civilians elsewhere.

Of course not all children have been killed in America or by Americans.  In China, the same day of the Newtown school attack, a man stabbed twenty-two children and one adult at a school. One of the worst ever school massacres was in 2004 when pro-Chechen rebels took an entire school hostage in Beslan, North Ossetia. 386 people were killed in the fighting between rebels and Russian security forces.  Other mass killings of school children have occurred in Angola, Brazil, Canada, China, Finland, France, Germany, Israel, Japan, Niger, the U.K., Yemen, and elsewhere. The majority of Norwegian terrorist Anders Breivik’s seventy-seven victims in 2011 were teenagers at a summer camp.  In Nigeria, this year, dozens of children and other noncombatants have been killed in attacks on churches, homes, markets, and in midnight raids on villages. This is a global illness.

Yet, there is an imbalance in the way children in different parts of the world are publically mourned. Mass murders in the West receive around the clock news coverage, but in Nigeria, there are no accurate counts of the number of victims or even incidents. Over the past few years, there have been almost daily killings in Maiduguri, yet mass murders there barely make Nigerian news anymore. Beyond Boko Haram’s “shock and awe” tactics that make headlines, there are smaller random acts of violence in Jos, Kaduna, Kano, Potsikam, Yola, and elsewhere.  A friend in Kano tells me of an acquaintance who was wounded when a gunman opened fire in a crowded shop. Others tell me of friends killed by soldiers. Such stories are often heard only by word of mouth and rumour.

Into this season of terror comes Christmas once again. In more peaceful times, Christmas is a joyful time for family and friends to gather, feast, and share gifts. Yet, the past few years I have had to remind myself the context of the first Christmas. The murder of innocents is not new to the world.  Biblical history is full of brutality. The book of Genesis records how the Egyptian pharaoh ordered the murder of Hebrew male children. Deuteronomy and Leviticus tell how ancient Canaanites sacrificed children to the god Moloch. Genesis and Joshua detail ancient Israel’s acts of genocide. Kings, Chronicles, and the prophets record the cruelty of Assyrian and Babylonian conquerors. Matthew records how King Herod attempted to kill the prophesied Messiah by ordering the massacre of all male children less than two years of age in Bethlehem.  This is the world into which Jesus was born. As the story of his life unfolds in the Gospels, we see his interactions with ordinary people: shepherds, fisherman, carpenters, civil servants, soldiers, housewives, beggars, and prostitutes. Jesus was familiar with oppression: the economic and military imperialism of the Roman government, the violence and corruption of local rulers, the hypocrisy and greed of religious leaders, and finally the darkness of the human spirit under a burden of hatred, anger and fear. Jesus taught that we must start the transformation of society with transformation of self.  “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest,” he told his disciples. “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” He taught that in “losing” their lives by giving up individualistic desires, his disciples would actually find the true meaning of life. Many of Jesus’ teachings were counter-intuitive, “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” In this way, followers of Jesus can begin to revolutionize the larger society. “Let your light shine before men,” Jesus told them, “that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.” When he taught them how to pray “thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven,” he was giving them, not a distant promise of things to come, but an active  tool by which they could enact God’s transforming love on earth.

This ultimately is the “good news of great joy,” the angels proclaimed to the shepherds when Jesus was born. As we celebrate Christmas in an age of mass murders, we do not forget our suffering but instead remember to place it in the perspective of Hope.  Jesus said “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of the life.” And against that light of truth: justice, mercy, and humility; faith, hope, and love, the darkness cannot stand.

Merry Christmas. May peace be with you.