Christian Comment with Rev. Alisdair Longwill, West of England Baptist Association

THE massacre at the Paris office of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, provoked a sense of shock and disbelief throughout the nations of the world.

The murder of 12 staff members by Islamic extremists, left Europeans in particular, dumbfounded that such a thing could take place ‘so close to home’.

Furthermore, this ‘unbelievable’ event was being broadcast around the world, within minutes, via TV, radio and social media.

It generated a shared sense of outrage and solidarity among those who treasure freedom of speech, which in turn led to a unity rally attended by around three million people, and the now familiar collective identification, ‘Je suis Charlie’.

About the same time, it was reported that approximately 2,000 people had been murdered in an attack by the terrorist group, Boko Haram on the town of Baga, north-eastern Nigeria.

The western media was largely silent on this.

There was no unity rally and there appeared to be no world-wide outpouring of grief.

It seemed that nobody much knew about it – to have the opportunity to ‘grieve’ those who had so tragically lost their lives.

A more accurate indication of the number of casualties later began to emerge as between 150-200, but nevertheless the point had been made.

Little by little, the above scenario began to provoke a variety of questions as to the ‘relative’ value of human life.

Amnesty International asked, ‘Why aren't world leaders linking arms in Baga?’ and another website, ‘…why are some deaths meaningful and to be mourned and others not’?

The different international responses to both of these tragedies, causes me to reflect on my attitude to the ‘value’ of people and the consequent actions that betray my ‘favouritisms’.

Do I treat people or even think about them differently, depending upon their ethnic origin, the colour of their skin, their intelligence, their dress sense (or the lack of it), or their similarity to me?

Jesus once summarised the essence of his teaching as loving God first and then loving your neighbour as yourself.

The powerful thing about this latter statement is that the word ‘neighbour’ encompasses everyone – it leaves no one beyond the responsibility of my love.

So in the spirit of recent events, let’s all proclaim (and live as if), ‘Je suis Charlie’.

‘Je suis Baga’.

‘Je suis you/your neighbour’.