Hotel Darfur?
Have you seen “Hotel Rwanda”? If you have, then like me you might have promised yourself, “Never again will I sit by silently if this sort of thing happens again.”
As a nation, the U .S. danced around the atrocities in Rwanda by referring to them as “acts of genocide” instead of calling them what the whole bloody (literally) mess really was: Genocide. Period.
Like the townspeople in “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” we as a country pretended not to see the obvious when we accepted the acts-of-genocide rhetoric. The way our national conscience works, the label “genocide” would carry with it a moral obligation to actually stop the atrocities, but acts of genocide—well, what could anyone expect us to do about isolated incidents?
Still, when the number of those incidents reaches 800,000 in a country the size of Maryland, it ought to jar us into seeing the naked truth. Sadly, it didn’t.
Now history seems determined to repeat itself on the African continent. The country where the atrocities are happening has changed, and the key players are different. And the numbers are smaller—so far. But the evil is just as dark. This time around the faces of the helpless are in Sudan. Darfur to be exact.
A March report from the Bureau for Intelligence and Research said this: “It is estimated that 98-181,000 people have died since March 2003 in the conflict-affected area of Darfur and eastern Chad. Excluding an expected ‘normal’ base mortality total of 35,000 deaths for this population, 63–146,000 ‘excess’ deaths can be attributed to violence, disease, and malnutrition because of the conflict.”
Imagine a minimum of 63,000 people made in the image of God....
So how is it that, once again, tragedy is unfolding before us and we are saying so little about it? Yes, the international community, including the U.S., is sending much needed food. And it’s helping, too. Also, don’t worry—I’ve heard no one suggest that we should send troops. Amazingly, we don’t need to do that much! All that needs to happen to make a difference is for our leaders to make a big stink about it. Shame those responsible. Give the events lots of international attention. This strategy has actually worked fairly well in the past.
I have been quick to speak on behalf of embryos and unborn babies. But they’re not the only humans who need our advocacy. As Nicholas Kristof noted today in the New York Times, “Mr. Bush values a frozen embryo. But he hasn't mustered much compassion for an entire population of terrorized widows and orphans. And he is cementing in place the very hopelessness he dreads, by continuing to avert his eyes from the first genocide of the 21st century.”
Ouch. That widows and orphans thing is right out of James 1:27.
…which leads me to another scripture: Proverbs 31. Most of us are familiar with P-31, as it is sometimes called. In it we find an acrostic (in Hebrew) poem about the “excellent wife” (A.K.A. superwoman). Yet the poem about her doesn’t start until v. 10. Two verses earlier, we read a lesser known piece of wisdom: "Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute.”
This is that.
Many of us have repented of our inaction in Rwanda. Now’s a good time to “show forth the fruits of repentance.” I’m writing to the president right now to plead for action. Will you join me?