16 When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi. 17 Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled:
18 “A voice is heard in Ramah,
weeping and great mourning,
Rachel weeping for her children
and refusing to be comforted,
because they are no more.”[d]
If Herod had been able to restrain himself and rule accordingly, he would not be regarded as a tyrant. But Herod sacrificed the innocents to protect his own position. That’s what tyrants do. That’s why tyrants and tyranny should, indeed, be protected against: it is an affirmation of innocence.
That innocence is not protected is the very reason why tyranny is bad.
But what need do we have of a figurehead of tyranny if the job of tyranny is being done? Are innocents to die in the name of anti-tyranny? How is that not, in word and deed, the very corruption of the hope of anti-tyranny?
To protect the gun, and not the innocents –indeed, to protect the gun at the expense of the innocent — in order to guard against a tyrant, is doing the job of tyranny and goes beyond corruption into abomination.
