Hitler and the Nazi's committed it against the Jewish people in the 1940's and it took the world years to get involved and end it. And I'm sure the world vowed it would not, could not, happen again. But it did. In the early 1990's. In an age of incredible technology when communication worldwide can happen almost instantaneously.
The story and history of genocide against the Tutsi people of Rwanda is told in The Bishop of Rwanda by John Rucyahana. 1,117,000 people were killed in a period of 100 days. Incredible. Here is a quote from the book that may help explain how this can happen, and in the age we live in:
"In modern society, if a catastrophe isn't shown on the television news, it doesn't exist."
Rick Warren used the word "hope" several times in the forward of this book. And that alone made me eager to read on. I am awed by stories of God turning despair into the divine, the hardships of today into hope for tomorrow. What follows is a quote from Rick about Rwanda. But I think this quote is timeless. In my limited travels I have seen this hope he talks about in the eyes of the children in Ecuador and Peru:
"It is miraculous that in the place with the most reason to despair, you find the most hope, the most energy, and the most cooperation."
I have seen this hope in the work of Compassion International project directors. I have seen it in the Compassion kids that my wife and I sponsor.
The author is a Rwandan Tutsi who escaped to Uganda with his family during this bloodshed. He had a thriving ministry in Uganda and had even been granted citizenship. A rare thing for a refugee in Africa. He had a very good home and owned land. His children were going to good schools. He says he "had everything that a man wants to be firmly established in a place." But he soon sensed God wanted him back in Rwanda to be part of the healing of that young nation. Going back to Rwanda would be dangerous. As a man of the church especially since the church had facilitated and even participated in some of the genocide ( incredible but true - read the book ). Does he take his family to a place of violence? There were risks and the risks gave him doubts. Here is the authors word of wisdom about doubt:
"Moments of doubt are part of life, and they are part of the Christian walk as well. It's what you do with them that matters."
Monday, September 3, 2007
Genocide
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1 comments:
Wow. Powerful stuff. I used to teach a unit on the Holocaust when I was in the classroom...On the first day - with the swastika plastered on my overhead projection screen and Shindler's list music playing in the background...I asked them a simple question -- Who was responsible for the Holocaust? Inevitably, the majority of my students wrote down - Hitler...
By the end of the unit, after really looking at the history, the response of the Germans, the Christians, the Americans...the end conclusion my students came up with was: "indifference." Hitler may have spearheaded it - but the indifference of so many people allowed it to take place.
And yet - we remain that way. It's unbelievable. Rwanda happened. Now Darfur.
Thank you for your blog. For making your reader's aware. I can't wait to read the book.
Now a question... So what do we do? How do we respond as Christians when we know these things are still going on?
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