By
Richard Mario Procida, Esq.
Matthew 2:13-23
13Now after they had left, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.” 14Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother by night, and went to Egypt, 15and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet, “Out of Egypt I have called my son.”
16When Herod saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, he was infuriated, and he sent and killed all the children in and around Bethlehem who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had learned from the wise men. 17Then was fulfilled what had been spoken through the prophet Jeremiah: 18“A voice was heard in Ramah, wailing and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be consoled, because they are no more.”
19When Herod died, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, 20“Get up, take the child and his mother, and go to the land of Israel, for those who were seeking the child’s life are dead.” 21Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother, and went to the land of Israel. 22But when he heard that Archelaus was ruling over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. And after being warned in a dream, he went away to the district of Galilee. 23There he made his home in a town called Nazareth, so that what had been spoken through the prophets might be fulfilled, “He will be called a Nazorean.”
I. Introduction
Christmas is a time for joy. A celebration! “A savior is born!”
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| Allison N. Wyatt, Age 6 |
Christmas is not joyful for everyone all of the time, but for those who celebrate it, its potential is grand. It’s a child’s holiday. It’s a day parents and family find joy in giving gifts to children and to one another. All too ready to play, our children and family return our kindness with love. At least that’s how it’s supposed to work.
Jesus’ birth was a day of celebration, too. A brilliant star hung overhead while
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| Ana Marquez-Greene, Age 6 |
wise men offered gifts of frankincense, gold and myrrh. But there’s something else the celebration of Jesus’ birth and today’s Christmas have in common—they are both short lived.
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| Avielle Richman, Age 6 |
II. The Slaugther of the Innocents.
Not long after Jesus’ birth Joseph encounters an angel in his dream telling him to flee to Egypt to escape “the slaughter of the innocents.” Herod is said to have ordered the killing of all first born boys aged 2 and younger in and around Bethlehem. It could have been a large number or a small number of children. No one knows, because we have no record of it outside of Matthew. Regardless, it’s a quick end to a celestial party.
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| Bushmaster used by Adam Lanza |
Today our celebration ends quickly, too. Today we remember the twenty children and six adults murdered by Adam Lanza last Christmas in a video game style assault on Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut.
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| School Entrance |
Armed with a Bushmaster assault rifle, Lanza targeted the elementary school in order to increase his kill rate. He kept a score sheet of past mass killings posted to the wall of his blacked out basement room. The 7-by-4 foot spreadsheet contained 500 names recording the number of persons each murderer killed and the precise make and model of the weapons used.
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| Lanza’s Room |
The windows of Lanza’s computer room were covered with black plastic bags, too. He had spent the three months prior to his killing spree mostly isolated in his rooms playing violent video games and planning his attack. He refused to talk even to his mother.
Lanza isn’t the only mass murderer to have planned his attack using video games. Anders Breivik used the popular game Call of Duty to hone his shooting
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| Lanza’s Video Games |
skills prior to killing 77 people in Norway in 2011.[1] Breivik specifically cited the game “Call of Duty” in his manifesto calling it part of his training-simulation.[2]
These are today’s “slaughter of the innocents.” May our thoughts and prayers be with the families of the victims this Christmas, and may their deaths be not in vain.
III. Media Violence Contributes to Violent Crime.
Contrary to what some have written, exposure to violent media increases aggression. In a recent study published in Pediatrics, the Official Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, Brad J. Bushman, et al., describes the conclusions of researchers: “For decades,
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| Benjamin Wheeler, Age 6 |
researchers have studied the effects of exposure to violent media on aggression in children and youth. The evidence from these studies has been reviewed numerous times, and nearly all researchers have reached the same conclusion: exposure to media violence can increase aggression.”[3] Those who say otherwise have simply not done their homework.
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| Caroline Previdi, Age 6 |
The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American Medical Association, the American Psychiatric Association, and the American Psychological Association have all endorsed the following joint statement: “The conclusion of the public health community, based on over 30 years of research, is that viewing entertainment violence can lead to increases in aggressive attitudes, values and behavior, particularly in children.”[4]
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| Catherine v. Hubbard, Age 6 |
Research organizations as well as government agencies have also issued statements. The US Surgeon General, the National Science Foundation, the National Institute of Mental Health, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have all issued statements. In sum, virtually all scientific and health organizations have concluded that media violence can increase aggression.
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| Charlotte Bacon, Age 6 |
Media violence is a factor in increasing social violence, and the cases of Adam Lanza and Anders Breivik demonstrate that fact. Of course, exposure to media violence doesn’t cause every person to turn into a mass murderer. Not everyone exposed to violent entertainment goes out and kills people. Imagine if they did. We would have a real mess.
The issue has never been whether every single person exposed to violent
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| Chase Kowalski, Age 7 |
entertainment becomes a murder. No one has ever argued that. The issue has always been whether violent media contributes to an increased incidence of violence. It’s always been a question about aggregate numbers, not individual responses.
The evidence suggests that violent entertainment contributes to the problem of social violence. It’s not the only factor, and it may not be the most influential factor, but it’s a significant part of the violence equation.
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| Daniel Barden, Age 7 |
Multiple things come together to create a killer. For example, exposure to personal violence is almost always a significant influence on the killer. Violent video games and movies can make matters worse, particularly with the most impressionable persons who are already predisposed toward violence. Adam Lanza was one such person.
IV. King Herod and Empire
King Herod represents the impunity of the powerful. “Empire”, the “domination system” or the ways of the world, destroy our children and slaughter their innocence. These are the forces that
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| Dylan Hockley, Age 6 |
destroy the good and encourage evil. The one who seeks to murder God’s son will not hesitate to kill our children as well.
These forces of evil are multifaceted and complex. In ancient times they were represented by the rulers and religious leaders who operated a corrupt and oppressive domination system in service of the Roman Empire. Today the world is still ruled by Empire.
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| Emilie Parker, Age 6 |
The Military-Industrial Complex, the entertainment industry, the wealthy one percent, and large corporations in concert with the Religious Right wrest control of our democracy. They use unregulated campaign finance laws and control over our politicians, news and entertainment media in the pursuit of Empire. These and other forces serve to distract, misinform, dehumanize and desensitize us to violence. They fill our minds with anger, lies, and violent thoughts and images. Every Empire needs a supply of blood thirsty killers to do its bidding, and violent movies and video games train our young people in the ways of violence.
V. Violent Movies, Violent Scripts
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| Grace Mcdonnell, Age 7 |
Our culture has become too tolerant of media violence, particularly gun violence in movies and video games. Violent entertainment is increasing. The study by Bushman, et al., found that gun violence in PG-13 movies has tripled since 1985, and overall violence in movies has doubled since 1950.[5] Their study raised the concern that gun violence in movies train young people to use guns.
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| Jack Pinto, Age 6 |
Young people solve problems by observing how others solve those problems.[6] They accumulate a set of programs, called scripts, for solving social problems.[7] Scripts can be learned by observing violent characters in the mass media. [8] The authors of the study posit that gun violence in movies, video games, television and the internet provide young viewers with scripts for gun use. Gun violence in films may also encourage an association between guns and violence.[9]
VI. Guns and Violence
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| James Mattioli, Age 6 |
The United States already has one of the highest rates of violent crime and homicide, per capita, of any developed country.[10] Many American cities have rates of gun homicides comparable to the most violent nations in the world.[11] The U.S. also has the highest rate of civilian gun ownership in the world. With less than 5% of the world’s population, Americans own roughly 35-50% of the World’s civilian owned guns. No other country compares.[12]
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| Jesse Lewis, Age 6 |
Adam Lanza’s bedroom was essentially a gun locker. It housed several firearms, more than 1,600 rounds of ammunition, 11 knives, a starter pistol, a bayonet, and 3 samurai swords. Lanza wore head to toe military garb around the house and created an indoor target range throughout the house and in his bedroom. He used his pellet gun to shoot at the targets. He was obsessed with weaponry, had military posters hung throughout the house, and wanted to join the Marines. Lanza killed his mother, twenty children and six other adults not long after his mother told him he was not cut out to be a Marine.
VII. A Comprehensive Solution to Violence
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| Jessica Rekos, Age 6 |
The solution to the problem of violence in the United States is, just like the causes of violence, multifaceted. Gun control, mental health treatment, social and anti-poverty programs for children, and law enforcement all have roles to play. One important area is our too easy tolerance of violence in the movies and video games. Reducing violence in video games, movies, and on television would help.
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| Jesephine Gay, Age 7 |
Our obscenity law and our rating system are more tolerant of violence than other western democracies.[13] Europe and Canada think differently. For example, Canada and many western countries, including England and Australia, all include references to violence in their obscenity laws. The United States, under the Miller test, does not. The people of most western nations are more concerned about violence than they are with nudity. Our culture finds public nudity distasteful and focuses on sexually explicit materials more than on gratuitous violence. [14]
VIII. Modifying the Movie Rating System
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| Madeleine F. Hsu, Age 6 |
The movie industry created the movie rating system in response to increasingly strict enforcement of the Motion Picture Productions Code, also known as the Hays Code. The Motion Pictures Producers and Distributors of America, now the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), took over enforcement of the code in 1934. In 1968 it replaced the code with its own rating system. The system is voluntary and not enforced by any government agency.[15]
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| Noah Pozner, Age 6 |
In the early 1980s people began complaining about increasing violence and gore in films that received PG ratings. In 1984, the MPAA introduced the PG-13 Rating.[16] The PG-13 rating is much more tolerant of violence than it is of nudity. While even brief nudity will require at least a PG-13 rating, violence is tolerated so long as it’s not extreme or persistent.[17] This is important, because PG-13 movies have the largest audience of young people. We have for too long tolerated violence to the exclusion of sex.
IX. Remember the Children and Families of Bethlehem and Newtown
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| Olivia Engel, Age 6 |
It’s time for change. This is the message of “the slaughter of the innocents.” While we can celebrate our savior’s birth, there is still much work to be done. Life is not just one big party. Even our celebration of the birth of the world’s savior must end. The wickedness of the world intervenes and forces us to face reality.
Gun violence is at epidemic proportions in the United States. The sound of gunfire and children dying again interrupts our celebration. On Saturday, December 14, 2013, at 9:56 in the morning, church bells throughout Orange County, California will ring twenty-six times in honor of the twenty children and the six adults killed at Sandy Hook Elementary a year ago. This coming Sunday after Christmas we can remember again by ringing our church bells 26 times, and having a moment of silence as we read about the “slaughter of the innocents.”
Remember today’s and yesterday’s “slaughter of the innocents.” Pray for an
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| Adam Lanza |
end to gun violence. Campaign to regulate firearms; provide treatment for the mentally ill and social, health and welfare intervention programs for poor and disadvantaged children; and reduce violence in movies, video games, television, and the internet. The lesson of the “slaughter of the innocents” is this: Get back to work! Least Jesus, the children of Bethlehem, and the children of Newtown die in vain.
X. Theological Reflection (Update)
Someone who read this article asked: “Where’s the Good News?”
The Good News begins today. Today we embark with Jesus on his journey to Jerusalem. Jesus’ return to Nazareth is the first trek on his steady march to the city gate. The Good News is that Jesus has shown us the way to the Kingdom of God. While we follow Jesus as his ministry marches to it’s inevitable end in Jerusalem, we must never forget all the innocent blood spilled along the way.
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| Anne Marie Murphy |
Others have pointed to the role of King Herod as compared to Adam Lanza. Those in power have always used young men to deploy power. “Empire needs a supply of blood thirsty killers to do it’s dirty work.” Herod didn’t kill the children of Bethlehem himself. He sent a crew of young brutal killers to do it. Every empire needs young men willing to kill. It is as true today as it was then. This is how we train our young men to kill today. We expose them to brutal violence and train them to pull the trigger.
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| Dawn Lafferty Hochsprung, Age 47 |
It was the same then as it is today. Empire, the ways of the world, the world we live in, life in Jesus’ day was brutal and cruel. While we have advanced significantly in democracy and civil and human rights, our world remains brutal and cruel. Even places relatively peaceful are saturated with media violence. How do we seek the Kingdom of God in such a world. The Good News is that Jesus has shown us The Way.
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| Mary Sherlach, Age 56 |
Jesus demonstrated for us the Way to the Kingdom of God. We follow Jesus throughout the year as he travels to Jerusalem to change the world. In other words, all the progress we have made in over 2000 years in human freedom and self-government has come as a result of following Jesus Christ, whether you’re Christian or not. The act of following Christ is the essential thing. All religions offer their unique approach, but they all essentially offer the their own version of Christ’s One Way.[Matt. 7:21-23]
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| Lauren Rousseau, Age 30 |
The Good New is that Jesus has shown us how to change the world! Jesus said: “seek ye first the Kingdom of God”. This is the gospel, the good news that Jesus preached about: the Kingdom of God is near.
The Kingdom of God is not brought about by observation. No one can say “Look, here it is!’ or, ‘There it is!” You can’t sit on the sidelines and point it out. You have to a part of it. The Kingdom of God is in our midst.[Luke17:20-21]
The Good New is that together we can change the world. Get involved. Do your part. Follow Jesus. God has empowered us, through Christ, to do great things. [John 14:12] The Kingdom of God has come Near, Repent and believe the Good News. [Mark 1:15]
[3] Brad J. Bushman, et al., Gun Violence Trends in Movies, Pediatrics (Nov 11, 2013)( http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/early/2013/11/06/peds.2013-1600)
[5] Brad J. Bushman, et al., Gun Violence Trends in Movies, Pediatrics (Nov 11, 2013)( http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/early/2013/11/06/peds.2013-1600)
[6] Bandura A. Social Learning Theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall; 1977
[7] Schank RC, Abelson RP. Scripts, Plans, Goals, and Understanding. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum; 1977
[8] Huesmann LR. An information processing model for the development of aggression. Aggress Behav. 1988;14:13–24
[9] Brad J. Bushman, et al., Gun Violence Trends in Movies, Pediatrics (Nov 11, 2013)( http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/early/2013/11/06/peds.2013-1600)
[13] Richard Procida and Rita J. Simon, Global Perspectives on Social Issues: Pornography (Lexington Press, 2003).
Prophet of the Christian Left 