Staring Genocide in the Face

By now, we're all familiar with the trend the Lance Armstrong Foundation's LIVESTRONG yellow wristband started. By buying a band, you're supporting cancer research; by wearing the band, you're raising awareness of the problem.

You can buy fund-raising wristbands for almost any charity, but one of the absurdities of our times has been the way uninformed people and greedy corporations have turned wristbands into fashion accessories with no meaning. In sportswear stores, I can buy a package of three colored wristbands that say nothing . . . just to accessorize my sports outfits and make it seem as if I were an informed, caring, generous, activist person.

That kind of moral obtuseness turned me away from wristbands, until now. I've found a wristband I'm willing to buy and wear: Not on Our Watch--Save Darfur.

While I'd been aware of the atrocities of the Sudanese government against its people, this morning's op-ed by Steve and Cokie Roberts finally helped me overcome the sense of futility which had immobilized me. I may not be able to join Doctors Without Borders and go to the Sudan, but--damn it--I've got a checkbook and I'm not afraid to use it.

What is happening in the Sudan?

Since independence 49 years ago, Sudan has been a country of civil strife. But beginning in 2003, the strife grew heinous. Tens of thousands of Sudanese citizens have been murdered; thousands of women have suffered systematic rape; 1.5 million people have been driven from their homes and their towns destroyed. The CIA Factbook on Sudan estimates 4.367 million internally displaced people.

Worst of all, the violence has been perpetrated against its own people by Sudanese military or the government-sponsored militia called janjaweed (or janjawid). The government has deliberately inflamed ethnic conflict and impeded humanitarian aid.

An article from The New Yorker recounts the personal violence the Sudanese have endured:

When the janjaweed came, Abbas told me, her oldest child, a boy, had run ahead of her. She had carried her infant on her back, and she had taken one of her girls in each hand. This hadn't left her with a free hand for either of her younger sons, five-year-old Adam Muhammed and seven-year-old Hassan Muhammed. They trailed behind as the Arab soldiers threw matches onto the roofs of the huts. An Arab militiaman suddenly grabbed the boys, and Abbas pleaded that they be released. The gunman warned her that if she didn't shut up, all of her children would be killed. She backed away as instructed, but as she did so the man threw five-year-old Adam into the fire. 'Mama, Mama!' he shouted, as the flames consumed him. Hassan, his older brother, briefly escaped his captor's grasp, but as he ran toward his mother he was shot in the back twice and died instantly. --Samantha Power, "Dying in Darfur," The New Yorker

For those who escape sudden death, the refugee problem is horrific. The CIA Factbook estimates 108,251 have fled to Eritrea; 5,023 to Chad, and 7,983 to Uganda. Western Africa is an incredibly harsh, unforgiving landscape. Making it to a refuge camp does not guarantee survival, and it is in these camps that most of the world's relief efforts are focused. (See the photo essay "Staring Genocide in the Face" by Jerry Fowler of the US Holocaust Memorial Museum.)

What can we do?

The Committee on Conscience of the US Holocaust Memorial Museum urges five actions to prevent holocaust:

1. KEEP INFORMED. Find out more about what is going on from various news sources and organizations. Sign up to receive the Committee on Conscience electronic newsletter or regularly visit our Web site for updates ( www.committeeonconscience.org).
2. CONTACT THE MEDIA. Write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper or to other news outlets to comment on their coverage of Darfur or to express your views about the importance of public attention to the story.
3. COMMUNICATE WITH THE GOVERNMENT. Contact your government representatives to let them know your views and concerns about events in Darfur.
4. SUPPORT RELIEF EFFORTS. Find out more about relief organizations mounting efforts to help civilians affected by the crisis. They may have ideas of ways you can help. See the Committee on Conscience Web site for a link to listings of relief organizations operating in Darfur.
5. GET ENGAGED IN YOUR COMMUNITY. Talk about Darfur to your friends, family, members of organizations you belong to, and coworkers—help spread the word. Look for groups within your community who may also be working to help address the crisis.

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• Presbyterian Disaster Assistance for Sudan
  
• Doctors Without Borders
• www.SaveDarfur.org
• USAID | Sudan
  
• US Holocaust Memorial Museum | Committee on Conscience | Genocide Emergency
• Samantha Power, "Dying in Darfur," The New Yorker
• Wikipedia | Darfur Conflict
• CIA Factbook on Sudan
• Human Rights Watch | Crisis in Darfur
• BBC News In Depth | Sudan: A Nation Divided
• UN News Centre | Sudan
  

Culture Wars :: Evolution

On 7 July 2005, Cardinal Christoph Schönborn of Austria wrote an op-ed piece in The New York Times arguing that evolution may be inconsistent with Catholic faith. (See "Finding Design in Nature.")

Alarmed, some Catholic American scientists have asked the Vatican to clarify. According to The New York Times, "The scientists asked the pope to reaffirm earlier statements on the subject by Pope John Paul II and others 'that scientific rationality and the church's commitment to divine purpose and meaning in the universe were not incompatible'" (13 July 2005).

Less alarmed, publications such as The National Catholic Reporter have argued for calm, pointing out that "the compatibility of evolution with Catholic faith" has a long and tested history. As Slate magazine points out, no one wants a repeat "of that Galileo mess" ("What Catholics Think of Evolution").

Some analysts have suggested that Schönborn wrote his op-ed piece at the urging of the Discovery Institute in Seattle, a leading intelligent design think tank. If so, then the Cardinal seems to have decided to step into one of America's current cultural war issues: creationism and/or "intelligent design" vs. evolution.

What does the Presbyterian Church USA have to say about evolution?

In 1969, the General Assembly (then of the PCUS) approved a statement which concludes "Neither Scripture, our Confession of Faith, nor our Catechisms, teach the Creation of man by the direct and immediate acts of God so as to exclude the possibility of evolution as a scientific theory." At the same time, the church "re-affirm[ed] our belief in the uniqueness of man as a creature whom God has made in His own image."

In other words, the scientific theory of evolution is not incompatible with the Bible: "Nowhere is the process by which God made, created or formed man set out in scientific terms. A description of this process in its physical aspects is a matter of natural science. The Bible is not a book of science."

The 214th General Assembly (2002) went a step further, reaffirming the compatability of good theology and good science. Within the resolution that GA passed were these points:

1. Reaffirms that God is Creator, in accordance with the witness of Scripture and The Reformed Confessions.
2. Reaffirms that there is no contradiction between an evolutionary theory of human origins and the doctrine of God as Creator.
3. Encourages State Boards of Education across the nation to establish standards for science education in Public Schools based on the most reliable content of scientific knowledge as determined by the scientific community. . . .

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For more resources on the dialogue between science and faith within the Presbyterian tradition, see

• the links on the PC(USA)'s Theology & Worship webpage and
• the web site of the Presbyterian Association on Science, Technology, and the Christian Faith.

Extravagant Evil or Extravagant Love?

The following will appear in the 14 July 2005 edition of the Powell Tribune, under the byline of David Hunter:

This past Sunday, I preached on the Parable of the Sower from Matthew 13. One of the things that has always struck me about the parable is how extravagant or wasteful the sower was with his seed. Seed was thrown on a path, on rocky ground and among weeds, but it didn't seem to bother the sower and it didn't deter a rich harvest.

Although Jesus offered an explanation of the parable that focuses on the soils, and that is the usual direction of most studies, I believe Jesus also gave us a deep insight into the extravagance of God's love. Perhaps Jesus was even saying a word to those who criticized his teaching and offering forgiveness, healing and caring to people they considered unworthy.

As we reflect on this theme, I can imagine a disturbing contrast between our call to share God's extravagant love and the extravagance of evil revealed in the most recent terrorist attacks in London. One of the reasons that Terrorism is so horrendous is that it is indiscriminate in its choice of victims. Age, sex, nationality, religion and moral character don't matter. While some of those characteristics may be influenced by the chosen location of an attack, terrorists don’t care if their victims are innocent or guilty; they don’t care who dies and who escapes. Terrorists scatter hate, hurt, and fear, with an indiscriminate extravagance that is not unlike the image of how the sower scattered God's word in our Lord’s parable.

Now I know this comparison may be upsetting, but my point is to suggest that terrorists may practice this principle of extravagance better than we do. Theirs is of course an extravagance of hate and that may be an easier task. But as Christians aren’t we called to practice an extravagance of love?

We are called to spread God’s love to other people whether or not we think they deserve it. We are called to declare God’s love to others whether or not they are like us. God’s love should be offered to all people, whatever their color, religion, nationality, financial situation or moral condition. Some people will accept it and others will not, but it isn't our job to figure out which is which in advance so that God's love (and our efforts) won't be wasted. If terrorists don’t care who gets hurt, why is it that some churches and Christians seem to be very concerned about who gets loved?

Holding the newspaper with its grim tidings of terror in one hand and the Scriptures with their message of God's love in the other, I can only believe that the best way for us personally to respond to all the hate and the evil in the world is still to answer it with the extravagance of God’s love.

Jesus taught, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.” (Matthew 5:43-45 RSV) Now that’s extravagant love.

--David Hunter