The slaughter of the innocents...
Illustration
The slaughter of the innocents is one of the hardest stories in the life of Jesus for us to deal with. We stand in horror at what happened to these children, while Jesus and his parents escaped.
During the United Nations Year of the Child, a good deal of study was done on the condition of children all over the world. Like Jesus, millions of children are refugees, who, with or without their families, have had to leave their homes with just what they could wear or carry, and walk hundreds of miles to escape danger -- only to be turned back, or to find their refuge also dangerous, and lacking in the basic necessities of life.
Even in the United States, 18 million children go without even basic medical and dental care every year. One child every minute is abused or molested -- usually by a parent or caregiver. Others are regularly reviled, called names, mocked and otherwise psychologically abused. Many are simply neglected, left to their own devices to feed themselves, caring for one another (girls as young as seven may be the only caregivers for siblings). Sometimes they are found in cars, alleyways and side yards, while one or both parents seek their own fun. Other parents may provide a babysitter or housekeeper while they are away, but consistently abandon their children to others in order to pursue wealth or recreation.
Older children run away from these situations every 10 minutes, but find life even harder on the streets. Exploitation of these youngsters feeds the viler industries in this and many nations. Lured by those who pretend to offer care and love, children are literally sold into all kinds of slavery, where they are at the mercy of those who make money pandering to the lowest forms of human degradation.
It is not the Herods alone who have been guilty of slaughtering the innocents in more primitive or brutal societies than ours. But it is for just such capacity for brutality that Jesus needed to be born in the first place.
During the United Nations Year of the Child, a good deal of study was done on the condition of children all over the world. Like Jesus, millions of children are refugees, who, with or without their families, have had to leave their homes with just what they could wear or carry, and walk hundreds of miles to escape danger -- only to be turned back, or to find their refuge also dangerous, and lacking in the basic necessities of life.
Even in the United States, 18 million children go without even basic medical and dental care every year. One child every minute is abused or molested -- usually by a parent or caregiver. Others are regularly reviled, called names, mocked and otherwise psychologically abused. Many are simply neglected, left to their own devices to feed themselves, caring for one another (girls as young as seven may be the only caregivers for siblings). Sometimes they are found in cars, alleyways and side yards, while one or both parents seek their own fun. Other parents may provide a babysitter or housekeeper while they are away, but consistently abandon their children to others in order to pursue wealth or recreation.
Older children run away from these situations every 10 minutes, but find life even harder on the streets. Exploitation of these youngsters feeds the viler industries in this and many nations. Lured by those who pretend to offer care and love, children are literally sold into all kinds of slavery, where they are at the mercy of those who make money pandering to the lowest forms of human degradation.
It is not the Herods alone who have been guilty of slaughtering the innocents in more primitive or brutal societies than ours. But it is for just such capacity for brutality that Jesus needed to be born in the first place.
