Watching the events of the Christchurch Shooting from afar, my perspective this time has been different from other disasters like this. When I hear of events overseas, I’ve been saddened but somewhat detached. Even after hearing about the Port Arthur tragedy and the events of Martin Place, they didn’t seem to be too close to home for me. But this has been different, even though it’s taken place overseas. This somehow feels as though my home has been attacked. I suspect it’s because I’ve just returned from New Zealand, and although I never visited Christchurch, the New Zealand I visited felt a lot like home. There’s also the fact it was perpetrated by an Australian, someone I could have sat next to in a bus or a plane. It’s also a horror that has occurred when people were engaged in worship. As a leader of a faith community myself, and one who has been a regular worshipper since before I could walk, the idea of being attacked at such a time of peace and openness is chilling.
I also find it a hideous thought that someone should be killed purely because they were born into a particular culture or racial group. We are all born into a culture, we all are born with a race and none of us has any choice about which one we find ourselves within. With such randomness seemingly at play, how can a person be punished for being who they are? Race seems to have developed purely for humans to survive in whatever environment they have lived for long periods of time and culture is always shifting to embrace new situations and environments. As a white Christian, I know that in some parts of the world I would be viewed with suspicion and a symbol of foreign imperialism. In other parts, I’d be a symbol of wealth and foreign prosperity. These are all stereotypes others may apply to me. And I would be wrong to be killed because of them. As an individual I know I pose no threat to anyone, for I choose to see others as humans just like me, individuals living in the culture and the skin into which they were born. I still struggle seeing past stereotypes at times, but I know that this is what they are and not who my fellow human beings are. Most people are largely good, some people badly damaged, and some people are driven by evil intent. From experience, the scales predominately tip towards the good, and even in those of the latter, I’ve seen glimmers of hope. That people should die because of fears driven by stereotypes and situations in which they have played no part, is heartbreaking.
I remember in my teen years a time when things seemed to shift in the public discussions about migration. I’d grown up in the seventies and eighties and had gone to school with and lived near people from different racial and cultural backgrounds. There were racist elements back then but generally, we all got on regardless of one’s ethnicity. Then things began to shift in our national politics. As is always inevitable, our country and culture were changing. The world felt as if it was growing smaller. Discussion over immigration and multiculturalism seemed to be at the forefront of debate. It started at the peripheries and quickly moved to the focus of debate. Fringe talk became a central discussion. Where one was from, what religion and what culture became political hotcakes. After 9/11 things got even worse. Boat people became bad, the yellow peril morphed into the Muslim threat and seeking asylum became a nominally criminal act. Migrant communities became the bogeymen of the nation and were dragged out for discussion whenever the political numbers or the price of energy looked bad. Once the spectre of the same-sex marriage debate was put to rest, climate change and migration seemed to be all that was left. And then the Christchurch terror attack occurred, and we are all left wondering why this shared tragedy happened. We instinctively know that this is the ultimate outcome of the demonization of a group of people. But it is politically expedient and doesn’t necessarily refer to the ‘good ones’ within those communities. It’s not long before they are viewed as a scourge and a problem to be dealt with. We like to think that we were involved in a nuanced debate, but nuance becomes lost when people’s fears are engaged. In the irrational thinking of the arachnophobe, there are no harmless spiders. They all must be dealt with. And now in the wash-up, we are scrambling to distance ourselves from what’s been said and done and to ostracize those who continue to join in wholeheartedly. In Matthew 5: 21-22 Jesus said ‘21 “You have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, ‘You shall not murder’; and ‘whoever murders shall be liable to judgment.’ 22 But I say to you that if you are angry with a brother or sister, you will be liable to judgment; and if you insult a brother or sister, you will be liable to the council; and if you say, ‘You fool,’ you will be liable to the hell of fire (NRSV).’ Here Jesus makes the connection between unjust anger and slander, the assassination of a person’s character and the extreme outcome of it, the act of murder. The root of one lies in the other. Words are powerful things and hateful ideas are dangerous. Our politics and rhetoric have slandered a whole group of people. We’ve accused them of the crimes of others, treated them as outsiders, and accused them of not doing enough to prove our stories wrong. And we’ve done so in the name of the greater good. Sadly, for the people of Christchurch, they’ve reaped what we’ve sown. Let us, our politics and our cultural discussions work hard to sow better fruits in the future, lest we see another Christchurch.
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