In Christianity's early days, the...
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In Christianity's early days, the slaughter of the babies (regarded as the first Christian martyrs) received considerable attention in Christian art. The nineteenth-century's Victorian Age shielded itself from such gore and thus didn't produce depictions of the event.
For those who are on life's front lines, whose noses are bloodied and knees skinned by confrontation with deep and powerful evil, certain parts of the story of Jesus' birth serve us better than others. In a nation where every year over 58,000 children are abducted by strangers, and over 200,000 by family members, do you tell desperate, grieving parents about gentle animals lowing next to a crib? If you mention God, do you chatter about a holy family glowing beside a manger or do you weep that Jesus, too, was under a death sentence, even as a child, and that he left town to the screech of other children dying?
For those who are on life's front lines, whose noses are bloodied and knees skinned by confrontation with deep and powerful evil, certain parts of the story of Jesus' birth serve us better than others. In a nation where every year over 58,000 children are abducted by strangers, and over 200,000 by family members, do you tell desperate, grieving parents about gentle animals lowing next to a crib? If you mention God, do you chatter about a holy family glowing beside a manger or do you weep that Jesus, too, was under a death sentence, even as a child, and that he left town to the screech of other children dying?
