wfn.org | commentary on the killings in Jonesboro

[BPFNA, PO Box 280, Lake Junaluska, NC 28745; 828/456-1881;]

Dear Editor:

Printed below, for your information, is a reflection by Ken Sehested,
executive director/editor of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America
on the recent tragedy in Jonesboro, Arkansas. It is scheduled for printing
in the Spring 1998 issue of Baptist Peacemaker, journal of the BPFNA. For
reprint permission, contact: David Teague, BPFNA associate editor,
(828/456-1881) bpfna@primeline.com
--------------------------
The Jonesboro Judgment
Commentary on the killings in Jonesboro: Why did it happen? What does it
mean? How are we to respond?

by Ken Sehested

        The horrific events of March 24, 1998, in Jonesboro, Arkansas,
stand as a defining moment for us. Two young people, ages 11 and 13,
carried out a plan as calculated as it was cold-blooded: arming themselves
with an assortment of handguns and rifles, pilfered from the home of one of
the boys' grandfather; stealing the other boy's family vehicle; and
transporting this arsenal to a wooded area near the Westside Middle School,
where both were students. While one stood ready in hiding, clad in military
fatigues, the other went to school and, after being excused to the
bathroom, walked instead to the nearest fire alarm, activated it, then left
the building to join his friend. As students and teachers began exiting the
building-purposely drawn into the line of fire-the boys let loose a barrage
of gunfire of at least 26 shots, finding 16 different targets. It was all
over within 15 seconds: four young girls and one teacher lay dead, 11
others wounded.
        Greater tragedies happened on that day, and on every other day,
both here and elsewhere. But most go unnoticed (more on that later).
However, in Jonesboro a terrible truth has become too obvious to overlook.
        Our immediate reaction is to ask: Why did this happen? Why would
two young men, on the near edge of adolescence, attempt the random
execution of their peers? The source of their anger is still ambiguous; but
the certainty of their need for vengeance is clear. What perceived slight
could evoke such hostility, such resolve for retaliation? What honor was in
need of such "redemption"? What injustice justified such brutality? Even if
they did it "just for the hell of if," we long to know what flaming reality
elicits such monstrous behavior from little boys, for we know,
instinctively, they are flesh of our flesh.
        But we don't know; at least not yet. Our first task is simply to
grieve: With those left in the wake of this tragedy, especially the
families of those killed; with their peers and all the people of Jonesboro;
and with the alleged perpetrators (such a fierce word for such fledglings)
who, along with their immediate families, face a fearful future.

What does this mean?
        The depth of grief itself pleads for interpretation. No doubt we
will get it, and in large doses. Critics and commentators of every possible
persuasion are having a field day pondering these questions. Anyone with
half a brain and access to a microphone or a modem will get a chance at
broadcast fame in the coming weeks. We'll be subjected to expert and
erudite opinions from sociologists and psychologists, from pundits and
politicians, examining this trauma from every conceivable angle. Geraldo
and his television and radio talk show peers will enjoy a scavenging feast.
And just about everything under the sun will get some measure of blame. One
major East Coast news outlet has already painted this episode as a
"Southern thing." No doubt the major metropolitan-based media across the
land will be weighing in with typical class-based and culturally-biased
analysis.
        In the end, will we be able to read the meaning of March 24, of
Jonesboro, Arkansas, for what it really is? Maybe. Will the educated
commentators, the posturing politicians, the tantalizing talk show hosts
get the message? Probably not. For that matter, will the church understand?
We hope so.
Is there a "Word from the Lord" in this terrorizing, trying time? Yes, we
think so. And it is this:  The meaning of Jonesboro is the judgment of God.
Not the kind popularized on billboards and bumper stickers-the
hate-mongering sort with a sickening veneer of religious sanction. But
judgment, nonetheless.
        And judgment not simply for the good people of northeast Arkansas,
but for the nation. And, by extension, to the degree to which we as a
people are in fact a "beacon" to the world, a model for social, political,
economic and moral development, Jonesboro is also a judgment on every
nation, every region, every community of every size.

Our preoccupations
        The Jonesboro judgment is especially pronounced in two areas of our
life as a people. One involves the status of our children. The other has to
do with our preoccupation with violence, in general, and with guns in
particular.
        Our children are among the first to feel the effects of violence,
especially gun violence. The young lives consumed on March 24 in Jonesboro
hardly register a blimp on our statistical screen.
        *A child dies from gunshot wounds every two hours in the U.S. To
put this in larger perspective: In a decade and a half of U.S. military
presence in Vietnam our nation lost over 50,000 soldiers. Nowadays, in
roughly the same amount of time, a similar number of children are killed by
gunfire in our homes, streets, schools and playgrounds. When-and why-was
this war declared?
        *Gun fatalities in the U.S. number, on average, twenty times that
of any other industrialized country. We have more registered gun dealers
than gas stations.
        *Federal law enforcement statistics document the fact that a
handgun kept in a home is 43 times more likely to be used on a family
member or friend than on an intruder. What is it that provokes such a need
for security, a security whose price is the blood of the innocent?
The social, political and economic engines which drive our nation's
future-and that of the world-are consuming the lives of our young. Consider
these figures:
        *Globally, 35,000 children die daily from malnutrition. Another 10
million die each year for reasons directly attributed to the conditions of
poverty. In the last decade alone, at least two million children have died
in warfare; another 4-5 million have been disabled. The U.N. now estimates
that, in modern warfare, seven children die for every soldier.
        *Some 80 million children between the ages of 10 and 14, scattered
in various parts of the underdeveloped world, work in virtual slavery,
making pennies a day in often dangerous conditions, in order to supply
richer nations, like our own, with inexpensive products. It's estimated
that a million Asian children work in squalid and cramped conditions making
carpets for sale here in Western countries.
        *One fifth of the world's people are now forced to live within the
confines of 1.5% of the world's wealth. We in the U.S., accounting for 6%
of the human community, enjoy more than 40% of available resources.
        *Right here in the U.S. the gap between rich and poor is greater
than it's been since the early 1940s. Although as a people we are twice as
wealthy as even 30 years ago, child poverty is escalating. One of every
five children in the U.S. now lives in poverty. Nearly 8,000 children are
abused or neglected each day.
        We appear to have an addiction to violence and a fetish for guns.
None but the criminally insane are openly committed to violence as a way of
life. Yet the statistical picture is unmistakable: We are committed to a
way of life which cannot be sustained without resorting to violence.
Somehow we have become convinced that violence, at home and abroad, is our
principle channel of saving grace. The preaching of the Gospel is directed
precisely against this claim.

Judgment as truth-telling
        Contrary to popular perception, however, the Jonesboro judgment is
not simply a harsh condemnation. As with so many of the church's cherished
convictions, the notion of judgment itself has been compromised and
confused. God's judgment (often paired with "apocalypse") is not merely or
primarily a message of doom and destruction. Nor does it mark the demise of
hope. And it certainly does not imply the hand of God in the killing field
of Westside Middle School's lawn. Rather, the theological meaning of
apocalypse connotes the uncovering of things previously hidden. Judgment is
truth-telling and corresponds to the unique moment when we are offered the
ability to see things as they really are. The truth, as Jesus reminded his
disciples, will set you free (John 8:32).
        The function of such judgment is repentance, not retribution;
restitution, not revenge. Repentance is not simply feeling bad about
ourselves, although it does involve a moment of shocking disclosure. The
truth will hurt. But it does not lead to self-recrimination, much less
self-destruction. Just the opposite: The experience of God's grace-itself
the predicate of repentance-is the power to act in new ways, to turn from
the present course, to overcome inertia. It is by this grace that we are
saved, that we are freed from historical momentum-from destined
destruction-and empowered to frame new policies, adapt new values and
behavior, toward health and well-being, toward redemption.

How are we to respond?
        The church's evangelical mission is to speak this truth: We reap
what we sow. Jonesboro is but the harvest of prior planting and tilling. It
may be an exaggeration of our social reality; but it is not an aberration.
We must declare this message
        *. . . with prophetic vigor: What happened in Jonesboro is a
parable of what is happening to us as a people. It will not be a
comfortable assignment. Nor will it be easy, since the church itself is
implicated in and benefits from the kinds of arrangements which foster what
happened in Jonesboro.
        *. . . with analytical clarity: Drawing on the compassionate and
intelligent courage from many quarters, we must lift up the voices of those
who can help us understand the underlying dynamics which have set us on
this course, as well as new public policies which can steer us in a new
direction.
        *. . . with pastoral wisdom: Local congregations themselves must
devise creative and redemptive ways to invest their own resources in the
broader struggle against violence, as well as the specific task of
nurturing our children and youth-and not just those in our own membership,
but in all communities, beginning with those closest at hand. We dare not
speak out unless we are willing to pay up.
        Preparations are already underway to commemorate the thirtieth
anniversary of another moment of judgment, that of the assassination on
April 4, 1968, of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The "dream" which occupied Dr.
King's imagination featured the images of children. And so it is with
Scripture, as in Isaiah's portrait of the peaceable kingdom procession led
by a child (11:6-9), and in Jesus' warning against any who would hinder or
harm children, "for to such belongs the reign of God" (Luke 18:16).
        The very welfare of our future depends on the welfare of our young.
For the church, so does the integrity of its faith. May we, in this moment
of grief, be granted ears to hear and eyes to see the new future which God
intends.

        Ken Sehested is executive director of the Baptist Peace Fellowship
and editor of Baptist Peacemaker.
        The BPFNA is distributing (at no cost) "A Church for All God's
Children," guidelines and ideas created to help congregations respond to
the needs of children and youth. This 2-page guide is part of a larger
supplement created to support "Children and Poverty: An Episcopal
Initiative," a 1996 statement by the Council of Bishops of the United
Methodist Church.
        In addition, we have extra copies of the previous issue of Baptist
Peacemaker (Winter 1997) devoted to this concern (US$1.00 each). Order
bpfna@primeline.com
        We gratefully acknowledge that some of the statistical information
in "The Jonesboro Judgment" was excerpted from "Children and Poverty."