The Slaughter of The Holy Innocents

Over two thousand years ago after Jesus was born Herod the mad king of Judea set out to destroy him but had no idea who he was so he went to the town he knew he was in and slaughtered all the male children under a year old without disregard to person figuring Jesus would be among them and be destroyed and would not usurp his reign. There was weeping and wailing by all the mothers and they were inconsolable.

Down through the years crimes against humanity continued to be done by those who were afraid of losing power, wealth or status or just because they were suffering from mental disorders or disease. Even to this time where we are considered to be civilized, genocide, crimes against children, women, against humanity are still be committed and tolerated by the world for some excuse or another. Sexual abuse of children in Thailand is well known. Women are continually kept as second class citizens in much of the world and young girls are sex slaves. The world's governments and leaders know far more than we do about the practices and where these practices are tolerated. The world and its leaders do nothing about the situation.

This past Friday, December 14, 2012, a mad young man forced his way into a elementary school in Newtown, Conn. after he murdered his mother at his home and senselessly murdered six adults and twenty innocents not older than six years. Here in the United States these type of happenings are becoming almost common place. The reaction is of horror, grief, some words of comfort then it all slips away in our collective consciousness until the next time.

There are those who cry out, "Where is God now? Where is your loving and caring God?".  Maybe they should look inward and cry out "Where were we? Didn't we see this happening right before our eyes? Why didn't we do anything to prevent it?". Tighter gun controls, yes of course. Let people hunt but keep the assault weapons with the ability to have clips with lots and lots of bullets that were intended to use in war, for killing lots of enemies  out of the hands of the general public at large. Yes of course. Let us set up clinics that really help people with mental disorders not to control them unfairly but to make sure they can function in society as good citizens. This person certainly must have been seen by his mother or some neighbors as slipping away into the world of madness. Denial must have played in their minds that he could not have disintegrated into such a destructive soul. So she did nothing. They did nothing. He was left alone to do unmentionable destruction finally destroying his very self. So I pose the question, where were we as a society, caring and watchful? Hopefully the President and our political leaders will face up to the problems as they exist in our society and try to stem the use of violence we perpetrate upon ourselves. We have to look at our society as a whole and ask ourselves why we let our video games be so bloody? Why our entertainment on television and the cinema is so bloody? It is easy to blame the makers of these shows but we as a nation patronize them. We pay money to see the blood and guts. Sooner or later all that is portrayed gets into the psyche of our young as well as our old, our society as a whole. Sooner or later all this violence played out on the big and small screens gets played out in real life.

But to the atheist and non-believers, and even the lost faithful who ask, "Where is your God in all this? Where is your God now?" I can only offer this response:

Where was our God yesterday? Probably right in the middle of it knowing we never could understand how he/she could just let this happen or how such injustices keep going on in this world of ours, such as children abuse, sex slavery and genocide. Because this happened so close we feel it more but tragedies are occurring all over the world practically every second of every day. Yet through faith we believe God is present and those upon which these tragedies occur are comforted in a later life. So only through belief, though faith can we believe that God is taking care of it all in His/Her way in His/Her time. Faith and hope are coupled together because they are something we can't see or realize because who hopes in something he already has? But through faith and hope comes trust and all we can say our God is here to help. This we believe. Not much of an answer for those who do not believe but there are some while not believing in a God per se, believe in a Greater Power, something outside themselves because they can't do whatever they want to do by themselves, ask any addict in a 12 step program.

Maybe our God is in us waiting for us to take action that is needed, action based on love and concern not caring a whit about money, power, or imagined freedoms being snatched away but rather what is right and just .