At Anzac Day it is common to set the deaths of the soldiers at Gallipoli into the context of a larger cause. Early war memorials declared their deaths to be for God, King and Country. Later comment frames them teleologically as shaping a template of national identity and of the national character.
This year we celebrate Anzac Day in a sea of citizen deaths from terrorism and military actions. Killings in first world nations are also often set within a broader context such as democracy, national security, freedom or the Western way of life.
This framing within a broader context is initially attractive. It appears to give meaning and value to lives that ended randomly, and consolation to the people who love, grieve for and honour them. Those who die are revered as victims or martyrs for a cause; perpetrators can be hated as monsters or representatives of an alien ideology.
Deeper reflection, however, suggests that to attribute meaning and value to people through their relationship to a cause does not enhance but diminishes their humanity. It implies that human beings are given value only in relationship to some larger idea or institution.
They are not seen as precious in themselves, regardless of how ordinary was their life and random the circumstances of their death. Their title to being remembered is as a cipher for democracy or another abstraction, not as persons set in their unique everyday relationships and commitments. This view weakens the value of the cause they are made to stand for by obliterating the differences between people in their relationship to it.
The example of the early Christians who were killed brings out these differences. The death of some was tightly identified with their faith: they were offered the opportunity to live if they renounced their faith but refused to do so. Others refused to escape from danger and were summarily killed as Christians. Others had no option but to remain and were killed in a general massacre of nominal Christians, non-Christian and anti-Christians.
Of these, we might say that members of the first and second group died for their faith, but to co-opt the others would be disrespectful. It would implicitly deny that each person who died is equally valuable, and should be remembered and respected regardless of their relationship to Christian faith.
Similar differences exist between the soldiers who died at Gallipoli and between the civilians killed in terrorist attacks. Many soldiers would have