innocents in an unholy world
It is highly unlikely that the massacre of children reported in The Gospel Of Matthew ever took place (at least not to the extent claimed). However, this does not, in any way, alter the fact that today's festival is only surpassed in importance by the festivals of Jesus Christ himself. I fear that this will remain true until the Kingdom of God is completely realised on earth.
This is UNICEF's "Photo Of The Year."
The photograph was taken in Afghanistan. The man on the left is most probably in his forties. The girl is eleven years old. The girl's parents have sold their daughter to the man to be his wife (they needed the money). In a few hours time the man will take the girl to his bed and rape her. It is very likely that, within a couple of years, she will be a mother and by her late twenties (if she lives that long) she will be a grandmother, having sold her own daughter into marriage. All this is traditional where she comes from.
Too often people in the West turn a blind eye to this sort of thing because we don't like to patronise other cultures. But we shouldn't. This is evil in any culture because suffering and oppression is the same for all people. Of course, those of us who fight for justice within the Church are always being accused of riding roughshod over the feelings and beliefs of peoples from other cultures by those who own the same prejudices inherent in such cultures. But I don't give a damn about such accusations. I can see that the situation captured in this photograph is unenlightened, primitive and evil and I don't give a toss if evil, unenlightened primitives get upset about my views. We, as Christians, are expected to take good news to the poor and the oppressed. At the moment all we are taking to the poor is capitalism, militarism and croneyism, all of which result in more poverty and oppression. Of course, if you live in a Western country where the poor and the oppressed have to struggle everyday, on the streets of your own cities, just to survive, and where the dog eat dog, survival of the fittest mentality that leads to such obscenity is institutionally idolised, then you are obviously not in the position to take good news to anybody. We really do need to get rid of the log in our own eyes so that we can demand that other countries address the social obscenities of their cultures.
A 12-year-old boy toiling in a Bangladeshi brickyard. 4.7 million children between five and 14 years of age are involved in child labor in that country.
Too often people in the West turn a blind eye to this sort of thing because we don't like to patronise other cultures. But we shouldn't. This is evil in any culture because suffering and oppression is the same for all people. Of course, those of us who fight for justice within the Church are always being accused of riding roughshod over the feelings and beliefs of peoples from other cultures by those who own the same prejudices inherent in such cultures. But I don't give a damn about such accusations. I can see that the situation captured in this photograph is unenlightened, primitive and evil and I don't give a toss if evil, unenlightened primitives get upset about my views. We, as Christians, are expected to take good news to the poor and the oppressed. At the moment all we are taking to the poor is capitalism, militarism and croneyism, all of which result in more poverty and oppression. Of course, if you live in a Western country where the poor and the oppressed have to struggle everyday, on the streets of your own cities, just to survive, and where the dog eat dog, survival of the fittest mentality that leads to such obscenity is institutionally idolised, then you are obviously not in the position to take good news to anybody. We really do need to get rid of the log in our own eyes so that we can demand that other countries address the social obscenities of their cultures.
A 12-year-old boy toiling in a Bangladeshi brickyard. 4.7 million children between five and 14 years of age are involved in child labor in that country.
Two young boys, both afflicted with polio, languishing in an ill-equipped hospital in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo.
A nine-year-old girl jumping in glee on her birthday in the midst of a smoldering garbage dump outside of Manila.
Palestinian children were rushed from a car into a hospital after their homes were hit by Israeli shelling in the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Lahiya in April, 2006. An eight-year-old child was killed in the attack and 13 other children were injured.A big thank you to Sam for providing me with these photos. Apologies for the delay in posting them, Sam, but I thought today would be the proper day to do so.
47 comments:
There are no words- thank you for posting this.
It is exactly the right day, Mad One, and there is that log in our own eye to deal with.
Wiki reports of the Prophet Mohammed's wife Aisha that she was "six or seven years old when betrothed to Muhammad. She stayed in her parents' home until the age of nine, when the marriage was consummated". So I guess that the Afghan guy has religious precedent on his side?
We all have religious precedent on our side for all kinds of abuses. (Fortunately many of us have moved on.) There is so much sorrow in this world that it's hard to know where to begin.
Herod lives.
Trust me, my dear MP, one does not have to be a Christian to see that there is nothing good in this.
The flesh and blood of our children stoke the fires of our lust and ambition; from child laborers to child prostitutes to child soldiers. In an age where money is the measure of all things, why should we be so surprised.
Who says Moloch is dead?
This makes me physically ill. Have you all seen "Water"? It's much the same.
Thanks for a sobering slap in the face, MP. It's not Christmas everywhere - but I think I do see a wee hint of the Spirit of Christmas on the face of that little girl, jumping for sheer birthday joy on couch while all around her, garbage burns.
Very well done, MadPriest. I found the post so very true and affecting that I gave it a link - for what that's worth.
As far as I'm concerned, for the 12 days of Christmas, every child is the Christ Child.
However most are the fodder
for Herod's slaughter
and not rescued by a dreaming father.
MadPriest thank you for this most fitting observance of the Holy Innocents.
God help us all if we don't act.
Mags
Who says Moloch is dead?
I agree, Counterlight. I agree.
Counterlight is on this morning, for sure.
I think the saddest part of that "wedding photo" is the innocence of the kid, she has no clue what's in for her and no clue that what is going on is even wrong.
I am reminded of an incident "on the floors" many years ago in my training, rotating through Labor and Delivery. I was assigned a 13 year old mother-to-be, who, up until the second stage of labor, was coloring in a coloring book to pass the time. I remember thinking how in a few hours, her world was going to come crashing in on her.
As expected, she got pretty scared when the baby was about to make his appearance, and started crying and being inconsolable. I remember stepping out for just a minute to get something between contractions and overhearing the girl's mother (who looked to be in her early thirties) yell, "SHUT UP! SHUT UP! This is just how it is! I had to deal with this at your age and this is just the price you pay for being such a little slut!" I remember thinking what a terrible chain of destruction was taking place in these few hours, and that I was, in a way, complicit for attending the delivery. sigh
sigh. so depressing. and I keep coming back to the assassination of Bhutto -- a brave woman leader in a country/ culture that systematically oppresses women -- this killing keeps slapping like the icy waves of a bitter ocean. could she have helped the innocents? even though this post made me sick, I thank you for posting it.
Thanks for this, MP. Unfortunately, the Feast of the Holy Innocents is completely overlooked today, even in "liturgical" churches. Since these children are the named patrons of my parish,the day gets moved to the next Sunday, allowing an appropriately somber recognition of the continuing suffering of the children(and all other innocent people) in this world.
Kinda puts the Herod back in Christmas, we always say.
Today's NYT obituary of Bhutto includes the sentence "the egalitarian credo Ms. Bhutto preached as a politician found little echo in the lives of the impoverished men and women, many of them indentured workers, who worked the family’s ancestral lands". The obituary, that depicts an individual more remarkable for ambition than for political ability, is an valuable counterpoint to the commentary currently crowding cable news TV.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/28/world/asia/28bhutto.html?ref=obituaries
We have not evolved any further than the days of the Children's Crusades. And thinking that we have is part of that huge log in our eye.
Thanks for the reminders MP. We sorely need them to strip away the blinding film of self aggrandizing denial.
You know, as long as we buy cheap goods made in coutries where wages are too low for adults to support a family, we are complicit with regard to child exploitation. When parents cannot support their children, they put them into the work force (sometimes in absolutely horrific conditions) or sell them into slavery.
Trace
My ethical thinking is based on a Utilitarian method which stands alone apart from any religion. My belief in God merely gives me a reason to commit to an ethic that tries to avoid the suffering of others. Basically, I'm scared of upsetting God. A person who does not believe in a (universal - not just an individualistic) reward and punishment system can be the nicest person in the world but they don't have to be because there is no reason for their ethic other than their own decision to follow it.
I am with MP. I am NOT a cultural relativist, and just because this behavior is acceptable in some cultures does not make it right.
I heard on NPR yesterday of a case in Canada where an immigrant Muslim father murdered his 16yr old daughter for refusing to wear hijab to school.
Moreover, on myspace and facebookk pages around Canada, many girls wrote "she had it coming."
The discussion on NPR was how muted the response to this was from western feminists and so on, as though they didn't have the right to comment on an atrocity because a Muslim committed it.
(Aside, why is it okay in the PC-liberal world to criticize Christians and Jews but not Muslims? I do not get that, and roundly criticize everyone myself!)
I call BULL. This is no different than genital mutilation, which is also evil. I don't care if the unenlightened primitives are offended. Their culture is wrong to support it.
And we are wrong not to call them on it.
IT
Sadly, you're right JohnD. I celebrated communion for just 4 people this morning. But as I included this post in the service, I think it was worth it.
Yes, it was.
And what JohnieB said.
I have been mulling the feast all day and this was more than pertinent. I am trying to find (or more likely, receive -- the Holy Spirit will visit when She feels like it, most likely when I am in the shower) the words for Sunday's sermon, which I have been thinking of linking to the Holy Innocents. Mimi had some good thoughts {oh Godde, I just gave MP a straight line) about the juxtaposition of Christmas with the feast of Stephen and the harsh realities of discipleship and martyrdom.
Thank you, MP.
In the time it takes the average Episcopal sermon to get to its hearers, call it ten - twelve minutes, worldwide, over 200 children die of preventable causes traced to water born disease or or water scarcity issues. Just water and our negligence dose that. Then we get to abuse, starvation, industrial accidents, and the toll rises.
The same people who shout about abortions are strangely quiet about what happens to kids once born. Where indeed is the outrage as the children suffer and die?
The child labor situation just appalls me. We are part of a conspiracy that puts our prices ahead of their lives.
It is time to ignore the Southern Cone heads and raise some serious hell about this in the public view. We shall always have the poor and the stupid with us, but we can do something about the poor. If nothing less, we can make poverty more bearable.
FWIW
jimB
"The same people who shout about abortions are strangely quiet about what happens to kids once born. Where indeed is the outrage as the children suffer and die?"
I've had the same question myself.
After all, isn't war basically just post-natal abortion?
I think that American liberals probably don't want peaceable Muslims and other brown-skinned Americans to get offed by the hysterical mobs. IT, didn't your Indian non-Muslim colleagues try to stay inconspicuous right after 9/11? The gas station and convenience mart folks were getting beaten up, middle-aged Hindu men in suits were getting funny looks, Muslim students were staying inside, and one poor oncology resident unfortunate enough to be named Osama was wishing he had been named anything else, even Cuthbert.
We need to catch the individual perps, not a billion or so random Muslims or brown folks.
That was me at 1:14
I do think that the "liberals are pro-Muslim and anti-Christian" is a meme put about by the reactionaries running the country, the psychotic or lying Fox-style punditry (Michael Savage/Wiener, Bill O'Reilly, David Horowitz, Ann Coulter, Rush "Anal Cyst" Limbaugh, and so on), and the conservative evangelical and pentecostalist pity-party who hate anybody who prefers separation of church and state, thereby slowing down church helicopter purchases.
Liberals merely prefer the rule of law to the rule of the mob.
NancyP
Fran was right. This a brilliant post. I need to come over here more often.
"for the 12 days of Christmas, every child is the christ child" Now THAT is brilliant.
and ever after, if we would only treat them as if they were...
Inconsolable are we; thank you muchly for softening the hardness of our hearts.
jn1034, my friend, do you think that if you're going to post graphic images of dead children, you could post some kind of disclaimer or warning? You do realize, of course, that such images can be very strongly triggering for those who might suffer from depression. Or, if someone is on the job, some kind of "not safe for work" note might be appropriate.
Just sayin
Although I'm fully expecting to be ignored or blown off or lectured on how important it is to face the grisliness of all this...
To add to my previous note: you never know who is reading your blog and viewing your pictures. Any depressed person, maybe even a teenager who is struggling not to cut themselves any more, might be lurking, and such images might drive them to pick up that razor and start slashing their arms or various other parts of their bodies. I'm not kidding. There are a lot of young people out there who do cut themselves, some of whom are trying to stop, but when they run across images of dead children or dead animals, it sets something off in their minds and it's back to the razor again.
Self-injury is not a joke.
OK I've had my say, thank you.
For MP or any of the readers here, should they wish to see how I have used this brilliant post. Thank you again MP.
While my heart hurts from this world, I shall never let it stop me from the work and grace that I am called to do.
click here
May there be peace and justice.
I'm with Tracie the Red here. When I saw the first horrible picture, I immediately navigated away from the site. Having images like that in my mind is not going to make me more anti-war than I already am (which is THOROUGHLY anti-war). Yes, I think some people need to see them: people who think war is merely a glorified football game on steroids (and we certainly have them in this country). But I know I will actually do less good in the world if I'm so overwhelmed by such images that I feel I must protect myself by tuning the whole thing out OR by desensitizing myself and becoming numb. I've already seen my share of such pictures and I know what war does.
I think it's a good idea to warn people so they can choose whether to go there or not.
Thanks Ellie. I appreciate the second on my comment.
I have a pretty strong constitution and I can take grisly. Part of that might be the fact that my ex Daniel is a special effects makeup artist and he can do makeup for horror movies that looks exactly like those pictures.
But I have also seen the blogs of teens who are struggling with many issues and who are very depressed, and they do look out for each other and post warnings on their entries even if it is only potentially triggering TEXT, let alone graphic bloody gory imagery.
Images are very different from text.
Text you can read slowly, one word at a time, and it isn't quite the assault on the mind that a photograph is.
That's why Robert Mapplethorpe's photography was so shocking. The whole image smacks the eyes and the mind full-force - BOOOYA!!
Make no mistake; images are very powerful. It can and does cause strong visceral reactions.
nancyP, No i disagree. It's less striking here than in Europe, but I have spent a lot of time in Europe, both living there and visiting, and there really IS a strong attitude amongst a certain leftist wing that is apologetic towards Islamic misdeeds and cuts no slack towards others. It's part of the culture of victimization and blame, IMHO. (As in Blame the US for everythingbut I digress. Let's just say that after 4 years living in Europe I came home.)
I myself am equally anti-everyone.
IT
Thank you for this post: a modern representation of the Holy Innocents indeed. :(
Welcome Polly
I've checked you out and you is certainly our sort of gal. I will tell everyone about your wonderful blog just as soon as I can be bothered.
It's going to take a modern John the Baptist to bitch-slap people out of their reverie and wake them up to the truth. This situation demands the nothing less than the kind of rage Jesus showed towards the money-changers at the temple.
Wild locusts and honey at the NYSE, anyone?
One can never be apologetic for exposing the evils of humanity to the light of day. In fact, it is the mission of each Christian to bring light to the darkest crevices of the universe, especially to those most tender, susceptible hearts pleading to avoid the worst visions of our fallen nature. Understandably, some are in desperate want of honey-glazing their views of our world of tears. Moreso, not to diminish the pains some suffer owing to various emotional states, but those of us who’ve worked with people suffering with PTSD and with the dying know that anything can be a trigger to re-opening and re-infecting old wounds. One need not see a graphic visual to have a psychological meltdown. Psychoemotive triggers can range from a particular scent to a few notes of a song, from the current weather to a certain shade or hue, from the sound of a car horn to a couple snuggling on a park bench, from an old familiar taste to a simple, unsuspecting word typed on a blog, and so on. The public domain of the Internet, like creation itself, lurks with both delight and desolation. Who amongst us travels roads strewn only with rose petals and down-filled memories? Who amongst us hasn’t known overwhelming heartache and imposing despondency? When we witness innocents hacked and wasted, we see holy carnage. To deny staring at these horrific deaths is to avoid looking at the face of God. If we turn away from seeing them at their lowest, God surely looks away from us. If one chooses to run from God’s presence on Earth, it’s quite easy … simply take flight from the poor and the suffering, just embalm yourself in anesthetizing attractions and benign pleasures. Naturally, you’ll then sacrifice your humanity and spiritual progress, but you won’t feel a thing. Nope, you won’t feel at all. OCICBW, yes?
Hey. Thanks for dropping in E. I like your blog and I like your attitude. However, I wouldn't tell Rob that you've been here.
Ya know, I really did NOT need a self-righteous lecture from on high about facing grisly images and "honey coating" anything, thank you very much.
::growl::
I knew that was coming. I would have wagered fifty dollars on it.
I can't stand it when people do that.
I feel like I've just been absolutely beyond patronized and completely talked down to, like I'm some ignorant 4 year old. And THAT hits ALL the wrong buttons in my mind.
How about facing how Charlemagne treated the heathen Anglo-Saxons, eh? Clubbing them over the head so they'd stay still for baptism. Is that in any way right? How about facing what Olaf Tryggvason (Olaf Oathbreaker, as some call him) did to Raud the Strong, who also refused baptism? Olaf had a tube shoved down Raud's throat, all the way down to Raud's stomach. He then had a snake pushed into the tube, and the tube was heated so the snake crawled all the way down into Raud's stomach and killed him from inside. It's in the Heimskringla; read it sometime. Olaf was not a nice guy. (Thankfully this isn't the Olaf who got sainted; that was a different Olaf.) Do NOT get me started.
But no one wants to own up to this. Oh no. Instead, people want to sugar coat that and turn a blind eye and pretend it never happened. And Olaf and Charlemagne believed they were acting in the name of Jesus!
I really didn't need a lecture on honey-glazing crap this morning. Yes it pissed me off. (In the US, to be pissed off means to be angry, not drunk.)
But someone needs to be angry.
Someone needs to say something.
If I wind up getting kicked off of here permanently, for real, so be it.
I just cannot take being lectured from on high like that. And I won't.
arrrrggghhhhhh
I mean come on....all we asked for was a bloody WARNING!
Is that so difficult? Is that going to create such a problem? Is that so hard, so impossible to do?
Apparently it is!
I mean, after all, SOMEONE took the time to actually chase those images down and post them, right? So if one can go to all THAT trouble, you'd think a simple word or two ahead of the entry on in the note would be pretty dang easy. I think even I, stupid brainless idiotic bimbo that apparently I am, can manage that.
I'm not taking this lying down.
So sorry for asking for a little courtesy there. Apparently that is asking too damn much.
Just for the record - I looked at them ALL. I did NOT surf away from the page until I DID see the pictures. And that is WHY I asked for the warning. Like I said, I have a pretty sturdy constitution and I can handle it. But I know not everyone can.
That's part of the reason the lecture is so bloody unwelcome. I DID go there.
So don't even lecture me. Just spare me.
End of argument please.
JN1034 and Tracie the Red are both good people and friends that I do not wish to lose. Both have had their say, both are right (none of my firends are ever wrong). We will now do the English thing that we always do in these sort of situations - look embarrassed, shuffle from foot to foot and pretend it never happened.
Right, what's the weather like...
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