Christmas is especially for children. Merle A. Johnson writes: “It is heaven, made of children”. Children do not have the intellectual problems of many adults with angels speaking to shepherds, a star that leads wise men to a manger and a baby born from a virgin. 

The Christmas season will once again abound with pageants in which children wear old nightgowns and pretend they are wise men or shepherds, and when little girls carry angels’ wings on their backs. Let us therefore help our precious children to really enjoy this Christmas. 

Matthew’s gospel draws a parallel between the Jewish nation’s grief over Herod’s execution of the male children and Rachel, Israel’s mother figure, weeping for the exiled children of Israel. 

I want us to consider two things about Rachel’s children and the Herods of our present world. 

Firstly, the children are still affected by humanity’s cruelty. The Herods of our time have the children for wages far too small, with the simple excuse that they need the work. 

Parental Herods by the thousands in our countries each day rape and torture Rachel’s children. (The Namibian, 30 November 2020). 

They do not go to prison, because of weak child abuse laws, and other sorts of legal loopholes. They say children are theirs, so outsiders have nothing to do with them. 

The children are then left to be beaten, burnt with cigarettes, and abused in all sorts of ways. Of late, numerous toddlers have been raped by the Herods who believe this will relieve them of Aids (New Era, 11 December 2020). 

Little children are not regarded as human by some people unless they are such. Kill them all, the Herods keep shouting, like their fore bearers two thousand years ago. 

Secondly, the environment affects Rachel’s children, the Herods do not care for the children. They corrupt their environment with filth in literature, movies and TV. The children are exposed to violence, bad language and explicit sex in the media. The Herods make drug addicts of school children, and will continue with impunity if we remain silent. Let us work towards a sage and good environment for our children. 

The standards of a nation are best shown by what it allows to happen to Rachel’s children. The greatest crimes of all are those against children. According to The Namibian of 29 September 2023, about 20 000 children aged 12-17 in Namibia have experienced online sexual exploitation and abuse in 2021. The 2022 report further states that 30% of children who have experienced abuse online have not disclosed their experiences to anyone. ‘Findings on the Worst Forms of Child Labour’ says, children in Namibia are subjected to the worst form of child labour, including commercial sexual exploitation and human trafficking. Rachel continues to cry because society is far too lenient. Every time I see child abuse, broken homes, or narcotic traffic, I ask myself: “What can I do?” The trouble is that many of these Herods sit in the community and the Church. 

There are things that we can do now to demonstrate that the light still shines in the darkness, and that there is hope to come to the rescue of our children, so that adults as well as our children may enjoy this Christmas. 

Jan’s corner wishes its readers a Merry Festive Season and prosperous 2024. 

* Reverend Jan. A. Scholtz is the former Chairperson of ||Kharas Regional and former !Nami#nus Constituency Regional Councillor and is a holder of Diploma in Theology, B-Theo (SA), a Diploma in Youth Work and Development from the University of Zambia (UNZA), Diploma in Education III (KOK) BA (HED) from UNISA