State failure, violent religious extremism, and the Christian response in Nigeria

Under the title of an article he penned in 2017 – “Why Christ’s birth was an act of war” – Ph.D. in Systematic Theology David Schrock writes the following from an American perspective, “In our commercial age, it is easy for us to let Hallmark movies, white elephant gifts, and other candy-striped decorations shape our vision of Christmas. Accordingly, it’s easy to misread the story of Christ’s birth because of Christmas.”

What Schrock is saying is that what Christians in America or elsewhere in the Global North, living in relative comfort and security, make of Christmas, can prevent them from understanding the true meaning of Christ’s birth.

Christmas in Plateau State

The risk of Christians misinterpreting the meaning of, and real reason for celebrating Christmas, that accompanies citizenship in a comparatively wealthy, generally well-governed country, or membership in a relatively comfortable and secure community, is not the kind of risk confronting Christians in Bokkos, Barkin Ladi, and Mangu districts of north-central Nigeria’s Plateau State, this Christmas.

In that part of the world, the risk that Christians face is more tangible and violent. Their experience of Christmas in 2023 and the resulting fear of what Christmas may bring this year, align more closely with the warfare imagery Schrock tries to sensitize his readers about.

If anyone understands that Christ didn’t come to Earth to usher in the “health-and-wealth” that prosperity gospel preachers peddle, it is the Christians of Bokkos, Barkin Ladi, and Mangu districts, who, almost a year ago, suffered or witnessed violence at the hands of militias.

Nigeria’s Christmas Eve attacks

According to several news sources, militants ambushed 21 villages across the three mentioned districts of Nigeria’s Plateau State, on 24 December 2023, in what came to be known as Nigeria’s Christmas Eve attacks. The attacks left over 1500 homes and 8 churches destroyed, more than 300 villagers injured, around 200 dead, and more than 29000 people displaced.

With the first anniversary of the attacks approaching, there are concerns among Christians in Plateau State about repeat attacks in the coming days. According to PUNCH – a longstanding Nigerian news outlet – “intelligence reports…suggest further mayhem could occur this Christmas.” ?

The religious dimension of the violence

Secular and Christian news sources outside Nigeria recognized the religious dimension of the violence that characterized the Christmas Eve attacks in 2023.

Voice of America noted in its reporting, the “decades-old ethno-religious conflict between predominantly Muslim herders and Christian farmers”. The Guardian described the affected areas as located in a region “plagued for several years by religious and ethnic tensions” and “on the dividing line between Nigeria’s mostly Muslim north and mainly Christian south.” European Parliament resolution of 8 February 2024, states, “the security situation in Nigeria has been aggravated by an escalation of religious, ethnic and intercommunal conflicts, particularly in the country’s Middle Belt” and recognizes the deaths of “at least 200 members of Christian communities”.?

Vatican News cited Bokkos and Barkin-Ladi as “Christian-majority“ areas and Barnabas Aid reported, “Islamists kill 295 Nigerian Christians”, while Christianity Today challenged secular explanations of the conflict. ??

Ultimately, what mattered then and what continues to matter now is that on Christmas Eve 2023, human beings in Plateau State suffered at the hands of violent perpetrators and this sort of thing needs to be put to an end.

Even though human suffering is of primary concern, the fact that most of the victims in the Christmas Eve attacks were believed to be Christian and the perpetrators Muslim, potentially making the one-sided conflict on the night in question a religiously motivated one, remains significant for at least two reasons.

Firstly, history teaches about the injustices the religious are willing to perpetrate in the name of their gods and beliefs. When a religious group in any society pursues an objective under the veil of righteousness, while viewing people outside the group as less than deserving of respect and honor, it has implications for the degree to which people experience freedom in that society.

Consider, for example, the impact of Boko Haram on freedom in Nigeria since its emergence in 2009. According to Professor of Rural Development, Ahmadu Tafida, and his colleagues at Modibbo Adama University in Nigeria, “[A]ctivities of the Boko Haram insurgency have led to the loss of…about 38, 683 lives, 2.5 million people displaced, about 244, 000 turned refugees, [and] an estimated 952, 029 children made to drop out of school.”

Furthermore, in the context of Plateau State, religiously driven violence makes the compromise and cooperation between different groups necessary for managing the impact of climate change, strained natural resources, and population growth, which many have argued form part of the conflict dynamic, less likely. ???

Secondly, and more importantly for this article, the Christmas Eve attacks that happened in Plateau State in 2023, and that Christian communities in the same state fear might happen again this Christmas, raise the difficult question of how Christians ought to respond to violence committed against them.

The Christian response to violent attack

After the Nigerian Christmas Eve attacks, Plateau State Commissioner of Information and Communication Hon. Musa Ashoms told communities to “defend themselves and take up arms as needed”. On the other hand, Barnabas Aid reported that Christians were “looking up to God, and the authorities for justice” – ?“‘We do not and will not go for any reprisals or attacks … The Lord is our help and our refuge,’ said a pastor in Bokkos.”

The question of how Christians may or ought to respond to violence aimed at them (one that Christians elsewhere in the world who suffer violence because of their faith must also answer) becomes more pertinent and pressing in a broader Nigerian context characterized by increasing VRE that primarily targets Christians, and what appears to be the state’s failure to fulfill its security duties.

Religious persecution of Christians?

Nigeria is in 6th position on the Open Doors World Watch List 2024, after only three other African countries including Somalia, Libya, and Eritrea. The World Watch List is an annual ranking of the top 50 countries where Christians experience the most persecution.

In its four-year study, the findings of which were published in August, the Observatory of Religious Freedom in Africa (ORFA) concluded that across Nigeria, 2.7 Christians were killed for every Muslim. Between 2009 and early 2024, 18000 churches and 2200 Christian schools were destroyed in Nigeria.

In 2022, ACLED published among other research findings that violence targeting Christians had become more common in Nigeria since 2020. Also in 2022, more Christians were killed in Nigeria for their faith than anywhere else in the world: “Of the 5,621 people murdered worldwide in 2022 for their belief in Christ, almost nine in ten died in Nigeria.”

During a press conference in 2020, Nigeria’s then Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, recognized that Boko Haram and their ISWAP (Islamic State West Africa Province) allies had “‘started targeting Christians and Christian villages for a specific reason, which is to trigger a religious war and throw the nation into chaos.’”

These are among the reasons why Nigeria has so many internally displaced persons (IDPs) (read this Open Doors report) and why organizations like ADF International and Open Doors label Nigeria as among, if not the most dangerous country in the world for Christians. Reporting on events in 2023, Open Doors has stated that “a Christian dies nearly every two hours” in Nigeria.

The violence and danger facing Christians in Nigeria gives context to why, in 2023, Christian youth in a state other than Plateau, asked their pastor why church elders weren’t using tithes to purchase weapons, and why Christians in some communities are forming so-called “vigilante” groups. ?

It isn’t just that violent religious extremists are targeting Christians. Governance failures compound the problem, adding to the desperation and helplessness that Christians and other victims of violent religious extremism (VRE) in Nigeria experience. ?

State failure as a driver of VRE

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) publication in 2023, Journey to Extremism in Africa: Pathways to Recruitment and Disengagement, highlights the causal link between failed or poor governance and VRE.

Among victims and witnesses of the Christmas Eve attacks, some expressed their disappointment with the Nigerian government. Non-state actors criticizing government for its efforts, or lack thereof, included the Irigwe Youth Development Association, security analyst Chukwudi Victor Odoeme, and Amnesty International.

According to Vatican News, “Some witnesses said it took more than 12 hours before security agencies responded to their call for help.” On the Tuesday following the attacks, Nigerian President Bola Tinubu “ordered security agencies to find and arrest the perpetrators” but by mid-January 2024, no one had been held to account. Nothing in online news suggests this has changed almost one year later.

Whatever the failures of the government might have been before, during, and after the Christmas Eve attacks in Plateau State, they would have reinforced the image of Nigeria as a country whose political culture is characterized by lawlessness, impunity, and consequently, failed governance. ?

Governance failure in Nigeria extends beyond state inactivity. The State’s security apparatus has itself been a perpetrator of atrocities, including along religious lines (even if mistakenly so), potentially driving VRE and exacerbating its impact in the country, including on Christians.

According to Amnesty International , more than 10000 Nigerian civilians have died in military custody since the beginning of Boko Haram’s insurgency in 2009. This death toll is separate from the undocumented number of civilians unjustly killed during military operations. ?

Earlier in the month of the Christmas Eve attacks in 2023, the Nigerian military accidentally targeted a village in a bombing campaign against terrorists, leaving 120 Muslims dead. Fortunately, Muslim residents of the same village celebrated the following Christmas with Christians in the neighborhood church. The military’s failed airstrike was one of several that have occurred since 2017, according to Human Rights Watch , and that otherwise serve to exacerbate the VRE that overwhelmingly targets Christians. ?

The theology of violence

Aside from prayer and advocacy, what options do Christian communities that are victims of VRE in Plateau State and elsewhere in Nigeria have in terms of preventing and/or responding to the impact of VRE on their communities? Do these options include violence?

The latter question becomes especially relevant when considering the apparent inability or unwillingness of the Nigerian government to fulfill the foundational task that belongs to any government – to protect citizens from injustice and punish those guilty of injustice.

This is a task that, from a Christian perspective, is defined in Romans 13v4 (NIV): “For the one in authority is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for rulers do not bear the sword for no reason. They are God’s servants, agents of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer.”

What can the Church do, or what may the Church take responsibility for according to scripture, if anything, where the state fails to protect citizens from injustice and punish those guilty of injustice?

As someone who started thinking more intentionally about the theology of violence in the last three years or so, who has done only superficial reading on the topic, and who is writing about the notion of Christian violence in the face of violent persecution for the first time, I don’t pretend to know or have any definitive, biblically based answer to this complex question.

At the very least, I hope this article helps raise awareness about the plight of persecuted Christians in Plateau State and elsewhere in Nigeria and that, by starting to tease out some relevant questions, it will encourage the Christian victims of VRE, and their supporters, to think carefully about what an appropriate biblical response to VRE looks like, assuming they haven't already done so. ?

Something I am certain about is that Christians, whether individually or corporately, have no scriptural justification to seek retribution against those who harm them. A practical example of this would be Christians, in the spirit of the reciprocal justice one reads about in Exodus 21:23-27 (NIV), pursuing their retreating attackers to inflict revenge. Think Frank Castle in the Marvel TV series, The Punisher, only on a corporate level.

While identifying the “Marks of the True Christian” in Romans 12:9-21 (ESV), Paul speaks against vengefulness among Christians:

“Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them” and “Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.’ To the contrary, ‘if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.’ Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”

Since Christians seeking retribution against their attackers (violent or otherwise) is unbiblical, it means that if there is a biblical case to be made for Christian violence in response to VRE, it must be limited to defence. If, from a biblical perspective, Christians are allowed to defend themselves, the question that follows is whether such defence applies to Christians individually, corporately, or both. ?????

Ushering in the New Covenant, Jesus teaches as follows in Mathew 5:38-45 (ESV), under the headings “Retaliation” and “Love Your Enemies” respectively:

“‘You have heard that it was said,?‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’??But I say to you,?Do not resist the one who is evil. But?if anyone?slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also…’You have heard that it was said,?‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’?But I say to you,?Love your enemies and?pray for those who persecute you,?so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven.”

Jesus said, “Do not resist the one who is evil.” Can Christians defend themselves against VRE without resisting “the one who is evil”? Did Jesus mean to say that Christians facing violent religious persecution should not defend themselves? If so, did Jesus mean for His instruction to apply to the individual Christian, to the Church as a collective, or both?

Based on Matthew 5:38-45 (ESV), a single unmarried Christian without children may be more inclined to surrender to the perpetrators of religiously motivated violence but what might one expect from a loving husband and father, for example, when religious extremists violently attack his family? Should he stand idly by?

In Proverbs 13:22, we learn that good parents leave “an inheritance for their children’s children” and in Proverbs 22:6, Christian parents are instructed to, “Train up a child in the way he should go.” Do these parental duties not depend on parents first keeping their children alive, including in the face of VRE?

One could argue that parents should flee with their families from violent persecution but what if circumstances don't allow this, as would have been the case with many of the families who fell victim to VRE during the Christmas Eve attacks? Some families did run away, but they were subsequently found and killed. ?????

What about the Christian responsibility to the wider community, when it faces religiously motivated violence? The second greatest commandment that Christ gave Christians, is to “‘love your neighbor as yourself’” (Matthew 22:36-40) and in James 1:27 (NIV), Christians learn that, “to look after orphans and widows in their distress” is what God “accepts as pure and faultless [religion]”. ?

What does it look like to love one’s neighbors and look after widows and orphans amid VRE? Can love, in this instance, involve defending one’s neighbors, including widows and orphans, against violent attack? Consider the story of American, Sam Childers, depicted in the film Machine Gun Preacher. Childers travelled to South Sudan to rescue children from the effects of armed conflict. His methods included violence. ??????

When Jesus said to not resist the evil one, could He have meant it only in the context of an attack against oneself or did He also mean it in the context of an attack against a collective, including one’s loved ones? Concerning the first of these scenarios, does a man who at any given moment happens to be physically apart from his wife and children, and who knows his family is safe, neglect his responsibility towards them, assuming he has one in the first place, when he refuses to defend his own life against assailants? ?

For some, arriving at answers to these questions becomes even more complicated when confronted with the seemingly contradictory scriptures of Ephesians 6:12 and Matthew 11:12. ???

My hope and prayer is that Christians in Plateau State won't experience the indignity of repeat attacks on their communities this Christmas. Nevertheless, they cannot be adequately prepared for such attacks without defining what they believe to be a biblical response to VRE, and without considering whether such a definition allows for violence, even if only for defensive purposes.

A sincere effort on the part of the Nigerian government to curb VRE (beginning with improved governance), and protect and defend Nigerians against the perpetrators of VRE, will help alleviate the burden among Christians in Nigeria of having to think and act as though the state doesn’t exist.

With the Christian victims of VRE in Plateau State and larger Nigeria in mind, Christians elsewhere in the world, who live in relative comfort and security, should reflect on their experience of Christmas and whether what they make of Christmas properly commemorates the birth of the One who offers the ultimate hope to all humans, including those who suffer violence because of their faith. ? ????