A message from Len Deo, Founder and President of New Jersey Family Policy Council, after a gun rampage claimed 27 lives at Sandy Hook Elementary School:

“This past Friday, we witnessed a horrible tragedy…one of unspeakable horror that happened to 20 young children and 7 adults in Newtown, Connecticut. I think I speak for all of us when I say our Christmas this year will not be the same. The pall of this slaughter of young children will undoubtedly hang over us; it will be in the back of our minds.

“Evil has been with us since the dawn of creation…but Newtown is so close to home, so recent, so unexplainable, so unbelievable, so surreal. The images, the 24-hour news coverage, are overwhelming. The media’s constant barrage of images has helped to sear this into most people’s minds. There are times when we just can’t watch, – but even so, we are right to treat this as a national grief.

“At Christmas, more than 2000 years ago, the vassal state of Israel reeled from a similar outrage. Every male child in Bethlehem 2 years of age or younger was slaughtered by the Roman-approved King Herod in a vicious attempt to crush what he feared was an affront to his kingship by the birth of the Messiah. Their lives were not more wrongly lost than these.

“These things should drive us to our knees. We must pray for those whose lives were lost, the innocent young and the teachers and staff who jeopardized and sacrificed their own lives to protect many more young ones. For all the families whose lives are broken by this senseless tragedy, we offer our heartfelt prayers.

“And we offer them in hope. Although it seems wrong to speak of hope after such events, we are not talking about pat answers for their suffering or a naïve wish that somehow time will make this shooting seem less wrong. Our hope is in the One who is named “God With Us,” who was born at Christmas to take our suffering upon Himself and bring about the restoration of all things.”