Evil Is Hard, Cold And Brutal
Harold Keke was – is – a self-absorbed brute, as concerned only about his own fortunes as are too many American politicians. In 2004, Keke’s callous ruthlessness left Rev. Richard Carter, chaplain of the Anglican/Episcopalian Melanesian Brotherhood to observe:
“What I still find impossible to understand is the failure of imagination, or compassion, or heart with which people can commit atrocities without perceiving the suffering caused. Perhaps they do perceive and that is the horror of human cruelty, where pain is mocked, torture is sport and the inhuman takes on a diabolic logic of its own.”
The grandson of a founder of the South Seas Evangelical Church and reared as a Roman Catholic, Keke wanted the world to believe he was a “prophet,” leading his people to their “promised land” in an ethnic war. He might have been consigned to the dustbins of history were it not for the courage – and sanctity – of some of his victims, now recognized as saints and martyrs by the Anglican Churches of the South Seas.
Established in 1925 by Bishop James Manwaring Steward and policeman Ini Kopuria as an Anglican Franciscan community of brothers – Ira Reta Tasiu in the Mota language, the Melanesian Brotherhood introduced Christianity to areas of the Solomon Islands, including Guadalcanal of World War II fame, Vanuatu, and parts of Papua New Guinea.
The largest Anglican religious community in the world in the early 2000s, with over 300 brothers and more than 300 novices, the Melanesian Brotherhood had been honored by the United Nations for its peace-making efforts throughout the South Pacific and beyond.
Following traditions dating to Twelfth Century, the Brothers – Tasiu, as they are known in the Islands – pray the Divine Office, including daily Eucharist (Mass) and, generally live for seven to twenty years under temporary vows of poverty, celibacy and obedience before returning to their lives in the everyday world, marrying, raising families and serving as Christian laymen in their villages or communities. A small number are ordained deacons or priests and Filipinos, Polynesian Islanders and some Europeans have joined the community.
Beginning in 1998, almost five years of ethnic violence and civil war – “the tensions” - erupted on the islands of Honiara and Guadalcanal as a result of the migration of people from the island of Malaita seeking greater economic opportunities. Keke assume the mantle of “prophet” and leader of the ethnic Guale - Guadalcanal Islanders. He waged a campaign of intimidation and violence against the Malaitan Islanders, asserting his people’s traditional rights in Guadalcanal – the principal source of his support and one of the primary causes of the war. He formed the Malaita Eagle Force, gaining control of most of the Island’s police force – making them a de facto extension of his own militia – and, when a multi-national peace force led by Australia intervened and affected a peace accord in 2003, Keke refused to participate, admitted to killing and kidnapping to achieve his goals. At one point, premier Ezekiel Alebua (who was ultimately deposed during “the tensions”) referred to Keke as “little more than a violent thug.”
Brother Nathaniel Sado, who knew Keke, embarked on a mission to negotiate with him. On April 23, 2003, when Brother Nathaniel did not return, six Brothers went to investigate reports that Keke had killed Brother Nathaniel. Three were immediately murdered and the other three were tortured and murdered the next day. Keke and his terrorists surrendered several days later. The bodies of the seven martyrs were recovered and interred at their Tabalia motherhouse on October 24, 2003. Five years later the names of the Melanesian Martyrs were included in the Anglican list of contemporary martyrs.
Keke was personally implicated in more than fifty murders, including cabinet minister and Anglican priest Augustine Geve and the Melanesian Brothers.
From 1990 – 2005, British priest Richard Carter served as a tutor and chaplain to the Melanesian Brotherhood, eventually becoming a brother himself. In Search of the Lost: The Modern Martyrs of Melanesia is his account of the martyrdom of the Brothers.
“We have just heard that one of our Brothers, Nathaniel Sado, seems to have been taken hostage by Harold Keke and his men. Why? Brother Alfred Tabo and Father Francis, the present priest at Kolina, went with him to deliver a letter to Keke from the Archbishop… a follow up offer for the Church to work at mediation and dialogue in this conflict. They were unable to meet Keke… Brother Nathaniel insisted on staying behind to meet with Keke personally…
“25 April 2003
ON EASTER DAY, we heard news over the radio of Brother Nathaniel Sado’s death… one of Keke’s men had deserted and fled […] after witnessing Brother Nathaniel’s death. Brother Nathaniel had been held in a cage and had been so speared and wounded that he even asked to die… [People are asking] What kind of God would call us, and then abandon us to torture and death if we fail? No, this is pure evil.
“I have never wanted to belong to a magic Brotherhood buoyed up by superstition, but to one that celebrates that the Word became flesh, real flesh. And yet the reality of that is that there is no miraculous divine protection: there is a young man bleeding to death in the misery and rain of the Weather Coast, seemingly abandoned by everyone. His only failing was his innocence. The witness told us that even when he was dying he sang a hymn, “Jesus you hold ’em hand blong me”.,..
“Keke has a secretary who keeps a meticulous record of facts dictated by Keke, and Keke invents the plot as though he is writing his own history. The secretary is an ex-student from a church school, a frequent visitor to Tabalia. I know him, and had always thought him a thoughtful young man, so earnest I had thought he would join the Brotherhood. This is how life choices are made: he could have been a Brother working for peace, or the apprentice of a psychopath. . .
“When Keke was sick he called members of our Community to pray for him. He had seemed to honour and respect the impartiality of the Tasiu and even requested that Brother Nathaniel visit him. Only last year Brother Nathaniel helped Keke’s brother, Joseph Sangu, with the disarmament of Gela and Savo. But there is no trust, no loyalty; they say Keke has killed his own relations; fear, paranoia, and evil are growing on this Weather Coast.
On Tuesday, June 10, 2003, Carter wrote:
TWO MORE of our Brothers and five Novices have been taken hostage. I am gutted. I don’t want to hear this. Let me wake up and hear it is not true. Have all the prayers and intimations of hope been simply mocking us? Why was God silent? Why in my prayers did there seem to be no warning of this? . . .
This evil is hard, cold and brutal. Its weapons are real guns which really kill, and our God is a mirage.
On Wednesday, January 6, 2021 “evil… hard, cold and brutal. Its weapons…real guns which really kill” attempted to carry out an insurrection and obstruct the peaceful transition of the American presidency from one administration to another. All in the name of… Perhaps in the name of “pure evil.”
One year later, The New York Times noted the deaths of Capitol Police Officer Brian D. Sicknick, who was attacked by the mob, and died by suicide on January 7; Metropolitan Police Department Officer Jeffrey Smith, who died by suicide; and Capitol Police Officer Howard S Libengood, who died by suicide four days after the mob attack. The Washington medical examiner’s report indicated that Officer Sicknick suffered multiple strokes in the hours after his confrontation with the mob and “all that transpired played a role in his condition” leading to his death. Benjamin Philips, founder of the Trumparoo website died of a stroke; Benjamin Boyland appeared to have been crushed in the stampede as his fellow rioters attacked police; and Ashli Babbit was fatally shot by a Capitol Police officer as she attempted to break into the chamber of the House of Representatives. Officer Guynther Hashida, 43, a member of the Metropolitan Police Emergency Response Team, and Officer Kyle DeFreytak, 26, both died by suicide in July 2021.
Just moments before the insurrection, a member of the Proud Boys led kneeling terrorists in a prayer concluding with the words “we pray that you provide all of us with courage and strength to both represent you and represent our culture well. In his name: Amen.”
If prayer is the soul speaking its truth, the Proud Boys were asking their white nationalist god to smile on them and their culture of death.
Jenna Ryan flew from Texas to Washington on a private jet and declared “USA! USA! Here we are, in the name of Jesus! In the name above all names!” during the terrorist attack
Joshua Black of Alabama said his “goal” was to “get inside the building so I could plead the blood of Jesus over it.” When he pushed past the doors of the Capitol, he said, he burst into a prayerful chant: “Praise the name of Jesus! Glory to God! God bless America!”
The (apparently) theologically schizophrenic Jacob Chansley, a.k.a. Jake Angeli, a.k.a. the “self-initiated shaman,” a.k.a. “the QAnon Shaman,” a.k.a. founder of the Starseed Academy of Enlightenment and Ascension Mystery School, who vested himself in horns, a bearskin headdress, and red, white and blue face paint and carried a six-foot long spear during his invasion of the Capitol was caught praying , “Thank you, divine, omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent creator God for blessing each and every one of us here and now. Thank you, divine creator God, for surrounding (us) with the divine omnipresent white light of love and protection, peace and harmony… In Christ’s holy name we pray!” [Apparently, vegan Christian shamanism is a new political movement.]
Aids to Republican Senator Mitch McConnel reported hearing an insurrectionist pray for “the evil of Congress to be brought to an end.”
In the very early hours of Wednesday, January 7, 2021, Senate Chaplain Barry C. Black closed the joint session of Congress which had just declared Joseph R. Biden the 46th President of the United States,
Lord of our lives and sovereign of our beloved nation, we deplore the desecration of the United States Capitol Building, the shedding of innocent blood, the loss of life and the quagmire of dysfunction that threaten our democracy. These tragedies have reminded us that words matter and that the power of life and death is in the tongue…
On April 24, 2021, the Feast of the Melanesian Martyrs, the Most Rev. Leonard Dawea, Anglican Archbishop of Melanesia, concluded his homily honoring the seven martyrs - Brothers Robin Lindsay, Francis Tofi, Alfred Hill, Tony Sirihi, Ini Paratabatu, Patteson Gatu and Nathaniel Sado – with the reminder:
“Goodness is stronger than evil.
Love is stronger than hate.
Light is stronger that darkness.
Life is stronger that death.
Victory is ours through Him who loves us.
The Lord be with you.
More than a year after terrorists assaulted the seat of American Democracy, we echo the prayers of Chaplain Black and Archbishop Dawea and we are left to contemplate the words of Father Carter:
“What I still find impossible to understand is the failure of imagination, or compassion, or heart with which people can commit atrocities without perceiving the suffering caused. Perhaps they do perceive and that is the horror of human cruelty, where pain is mocked, torture is sport and the inhuman takes on a diabolic logic of its own.”