Beyond Silence: The Church’s Responsibility to Address Unreported Sufferings

‘(they) were doomed to the flames and burnt, to serve as a nightly illumination when daylight had expired. Nero offered his gardens for the spectacle.’ Tacitus (Roman historian and official, c.58 to 115 C.E.) The Annals, Book XV, C.E. 62-65

 ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ Matthew 25:40

 

Introduction 

In Tacitus’s account of the fire that destroyed Rome in 64 A.D., he writes that Nero, the Roman emperor, held a great feast while the city was burning. He benignly notes that Nero’s guests watched the fire in silence and did nothing to help the victims. Today, this silence is observed in various other realms of life. Foucault (1982) posits that knowledge is power. This power is wielded by media today: both mainstream and social media. It has the power to devise, code and construct. It is observed that neocolonial forces have primacy in regulating the media. In this process, however, many ‘no people’ are created and their sufferings and pleas are not seen. In an image- conscious world when such blots are covered up, any narrative that tries to challenge them is questioned. It is important to give consideration to diverse standpoints. In a humble effort to provide some perspectives as the Church, this article is a critical assessment of the media, offering a postcolonial critique of the dominant media, based in part on Deepa Bhatia’s 2009 documentary, ‘Nero’s Guests’.  In this regard, the ‘necropolitics’ perspective of the African political thinker, Professor Achille Mbembe (2003), can be beneficial. In his well- regarded 2019 book, On the Postcolony, Mbembe exposes the colonial composition of the ‘slave bodies’ in the European slave trade. He envisions the biopolitics of the slave bodies against the biopolitics of the sovereign phenomenology of the West. The culture of violence experienced in the slave trade defined the slave body as no-thing, no-body, and non-being. Mbembe calls this necropolitics, the legally sanctioned politics of death. Necropolitics is the use of social and political power to dictate how some people may live and how some must die. The deployment of necropolitics creates what Mbembe calls deathworlds, or “new and unique forms of social existence in which vast populations are subjected to living conditions that confer upon them the status of the living dead.” 

Media as fourth Pillar of Democracy

The media is often termed the fourth pillar of democracy. The term “Fourth Estate”, originally coined by the Victorian writer Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881), refers to the press and news media advocating and framing political issues. A balanced media perspective is essential to safeguard the transparency of democratic processes. However, this does not seem popular, often leading to silence on key issues. The politically-inspired silence negates the life of many, making them ‘no-people.’ Rev. Dr. Joshva Raja (2008) states that globalization has created an international public space where many people are identified as ‘no people’ because of silence on life issues. Thus, media is often used as weapons of mass distraction (WMD) to divert people’s attention towards material goods, creating artificial needs. This often leads to misrepresentation, thus polluting the information itself. 

Nero’s Guests: An Overview 

Nero’s Guests is a moving 56-minute 2009 documentary by Deepa Bhatia on the issue of farmers’ suicides in India, especially cotton farmers. P. Sainath, the 2007 Ramon Magsaysay Award winner, the 2000 Amnesty Intemational’s Global Award winner for Human Rights Joumalism, founder editor of the People’s Archive of Rural India, and writer and journalism teacher, undertakes an expedition to research the suicide of farmers in Vidarbha, Maharashtra. In the documentary, P. Sainath compares the farmers who committed suicide to the charred victims reported in Tacitus’s ‘Nero and the Burning of Rome’. Sainath begins with a lecture to college students on India’s agrarian crisis. He describes the pain and emotion of the families of farmers who have taken their own lives, citing the staggering number of suicides in recent years. He places the famers’ suicide crisis within the broader history of agrarian distress in India, dating back to the colonial era. Sainath introduces Tacitus’s account of the fire that destroyed Rome in 64 AD. Tacitus writes that Nero, the Roman emperor, held a great feast while the city was burning. Nero’s guests watched the fire in silence, doing nothing to help the victims. Sainath poses the question “Who are Nero’s Guests?” in the case of farmers’ suicides. He found the answers following his investigation of the farmers’ suicides over five and a half years. Sainath blames the media for being “imprisoned by profit”. While the Indian media has extensive coverage of entertainment, fashion, politics, and economy, there has been limited/no attention on farming or poverty in India. He discusses the agrarian crisis in India and the resultant displacement. He questions the Govemment’s decision to export 20 million tons of food grains, while people in India starved in 2002 and 2003. He also blames the banks for granting generous loans to rich people, while biased towards the poor. Sainath concludes by quoting Mahatma Gandhi, “Recall the face of the poorest and weakest person you’ve met and ask yourself how the action you contemplate will place him or her in greater control of his life.”  The theme for this Messenger Issue is ‘Looking Unto the Lord for leading.’ We need not look far, but only at the face of our brothers and sisters to find the face of our Lord. In Matthew 25:40, Jesus teaches, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ This Christian responsibility demands a response from us as the Church, each one of us. 

Christian Responsibility: Some Theological Pointers 

Christian responsibility in the context of reading ‘Nero’s Guest’s’ calls forth the Church to re-vision its responsibility. As envisioned by Prof. Gnana Patrick (2020), it is good to assume that the Church and Civil Society are kindred concepts, with historical affinity to one another. It is in this context that the Church is called upon to play an inspirational and prophetic role to mediate transcendence through civil society. 

Creating ‘Radical Memory’ by Valuing Micro Narratives 

The practice of minority reporting is an art to be practiced. In Numbers 13, Joshua and Caleb, among the 12 spies sent out by Moses from Kadesh-Barnea to reconnoiter the land of Canaan, offer a model. Only Caleb and Joshua advised the Hebrews to proceed immediately to take the land, while the other ten spies were against.  Today, this can be envisioned as minority reporting, a threat to the social obligations and values that underpin the liberal order. The dominant narrative of the media focuses on development and religious issues, silently shifting our gaze from genuine concerns. Mbembe’s necropolitics is also about the right to expose other people-including a country’s own citizens-to the realities of mortal danger and death. Sainath pulls us back from such complacency through his erudite journalism.  Dr. James Parkinson (2013) proposes a Christology of ‘minor messianisms’ through which the memorialization of the Christ-event in confronting the contemporary neo-imperial forces in the streets. Minority reporting is needed. We are reminded of our responsibility as the Church which must extend its gaze to the ‘face’ of the other even when the dominant media allows ‘facelessness.’ Prof. Judith Butler (2012) encourages the Church to look beyond the widow, the orphan, the stranger’ as the other and questions the ambiguity in addressing the question of the ‘concrete other’ in the current global scenario. The Church must be media of this memory. 

Questioning the Artifice: Importance to Skin not Mask 

An artifice comes to be known as the image constructed only when it is challenged. Mbembe (2019) emphasizes the persuasive power of artifice, where the constructed image is taken as an authentic testimony of reality and life. The persuasive power of artifice, according to Mbembe, lies in its ability to make the constructed image or narrative appear authentic and relatable to everyday experiences. By presenting their ideologies and narratives as familiar and plausible, the power centers can enhance their persuasive power and maintain control over the masses. This is nothing but a mask. This subversive unmasking is what Sainath does. He does it to reveal life by uncovering the truth about the uncomfortable truths.  Rev. Dr. Jione Havea (2020) points this out in his indigenous reading where importance is given to skin (giving skin names). He questions the dominant tendencies by referring to “Skin” as the reverse of Frantz Fannon’s (2008) “mask” where Black people put on “white masks” in order to fit in with the dominant culture. However, by unmasking, the skin is made visible, revealing life. The Church must stop the process of masking by unravelling the skin, the true site of life. Thus, the call is to become a mediator rather than a spectator with a purpose to look and work for the affected rather than mere self-preservation. 

Conclusion 

Media is one of the strong arms of globalization which intersects with capitalism, development, [neo]colonialism, and so forth – and is a force to reckon with in the current context of theology and hermeneutics. Using Necropolitics in reading ‘Nero’s Guests’ raises pertinent issues about farmer suicides where the onus is on those who witnessed the atrocious crimes but did not react. The Church has an opportunity for re-assessing its priorities within the world  order. Havea (2021) has suggested that in the networking of market and politics, media holds the world in a sense of liquidity. Theology can mediate while Media can inform theology about the skins/realities of life to engage with it. This will allow what the Church has to see, hear and speak for all. It is P. Sainath, who opens our eyes to the force of death through the silent victims. The call for the Church is to re-read its responsibility as an agency of life amidst various forces (market, media, state), captured well in the traditional Jewish saying (Malka 1984), “my neighbor’s material needs are my spiritual needs.”