Enough of this Carnage!

What the hell are we waiting for? Ceasefire, now!

“Thus says God: A voice was heard in Ramah, wailing and loud lamentation. Rachel, weeping for her children. She refuses to be consoled because they are no more.” – Jeremiah 31:15

I’m on a short vacation celebrating my wedding anniversary and a big birthday, but my heart is shattered in Rafah. I opened my socials to post photos and cannot find rest because scenes of murdered babies haunt my soul whenever I close my eyes. The vision of decapitated infants—torn to pieces like their parents’ hearts—these are images I can’t unsee. What if these were my children; how could I go on breathing? Then another thought comes quickly: All these children belong to all of us. As James Baldwin wrote “The children are always ours, every single one of them, all over the globe; and I am beginning to suspect that whoever is incapable of recognizing this may be incapable of morality.”

These are Rachel’s children; they are my children and yours. None of them—not Palestinian or Israeli; or Sudanese or Congolese; or Haitian or Ukrainian—none of our children deserve the brutality of war. These lifeless little ones should be alive to celebrate big birthdays, to fall in love, to thrive and live in peace. Instead, they are no more. Where is our morality in the face of all this killing?

As painful as it is to dwell in such a place, remember: This empathy—even when heartbreaking—is the very best of who we are. It is what it means to live a life of faith. If we do not weep for those children and their families, we have substituted numbness where compassion should live. If our stomachs are not sickened, if our souls are not cracked wide open, we are not living into the spirit of Ubuntu that demands we see every child as if they were our own. If we can watch and not be destroyed, we are not truly watching.

There has been much debate about whether this violence constitutes genocide, and I pray people are no longer debating what they witness. There is no justification for crowding people into Rafah—folks whose homes were bombed and destroyed—and then raining death upon those civilians once again. The international community is demanding an immediate and total ceasefire, and we must be equally forceful in demanding our government stop participating in these war crimes.

U.S.-made bombs are being dropped. Our tax dollars are paying for this horror. Just weeks ago, President Biden said that attacking Rafah would be his final limit before taking action. They are bombing Rafah. Children are dying. Where is the action? Call the White House at 202-456-1111 and demand we stop funding this carnage. Call the number again. Get your people to call. Post the graphic below to your social media. Make noise until our government uses every power at its disposal to end this bloodshed. Thoughts and prayers are not enough, not now. We’ve got to get loud about this horror. And what shall we say? #Ceasefirenow. And yes, of course #releasethehostages. AND #freePalestine. All of these are demands in the name of justice, in the name of love.

Change just one letter in that Jeremiah text and it could have been written this morning. “A voice is heard in Rafah, wailing and loud lamentation. Rachel, weeping for her children. She refuses to be consoled because they are no more.” Rachel’s voice cries out again, refusing empty comfort that will not protect God’s children. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for to answer that cry.