February 7, 2007
Dear Friends and Family,
Every day I listen to broadcasts from the BBC, CNN, and NPR on
my world-space satellite radio, and I am repeatedly overwhelmed
with two disturbing facts. First, since the founding of entities
such as the United Nations, African Union, European Union, and
Arab League, the level of violence and armed conflict within and
between nations has not decreased. Second, from Sri Lanka to Iraq,
and from Palestine to Israel to Lebanon and Sudan, the violence
is carried out by people of faith against other people of faith.
In Nigeria, a pastor and an imam were involved in violence against
each other's communities. Both lost loved ones and experienced
physical injury in the conflict. This propelled them to join hands
and work for peace. In 1999, they co-authored a book called The
Pastor and the Imam: Responding to Conflict. “Religion
today,” they write, “instead of serving as a source
of healing sickness, hunger, and poverty, and stimulating tranquility
and peaceful co-existence among human beings, is used to cause
sadness. It is bringing pain instead of relief, hatred instead
of love, division instead of unity, sadness instead of joy, discrimination
and destruction instead of accommodation and development.”
What is our response as Christians when we are met with ignorance,
fear, hatred, and violence? “You have heard that it was
said,” says Jesus, “‘Love your neighbor and
hate your enemy.’ But I tell you: Love your enemies and
pray for those who persecute you” (Matt. 5:43-44). These
are beautiful words, but when we try to put this wisdom into practice,
it seems as unattainable as transforming water into wine.
My struggle is one of the heart and not the mind, because my
challenge is not to accept the words intellectually, but how to
carry them out in daily life. The instruction seems unrealistic
and impractical in today's complicated and dangerous environment.
And yet, centuries of responding to violence in kind have proven
ineffective making a better world.
“The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending
spiral begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy,” wrote
Martin Luther King, Jr. “Instead of diminishing evil, it
multiplies it. Through violence you murder the hater, but you
do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate. Returning
violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness
to a night already void of stars.”
In 2006, parts of western Ethiopia were gripped in violence between
Muslims and Christians. The question of who was to blame isn’t
relevant to this letter. Suffice it to say that due to the actions
of a small number Muslims, numerous places of worship were burned,
hundreds of people were displaced, and many lost their lives.
I’ve become aware of two responses to this horror. The
first response was the filming, editing, and wide underground
distribution of an amateur video showing murdered Orthodox believers
beside their place of worship. The video was filled with footage
of mutilated corpses of men and women. Wailing crowds in mourning
surrounded the bodies. The point of the video was, I think, to
strike fear and anger in the hearts of those who saw it and to
mobilize a segment of the Ethiopian populace (Ethiopian Orthodox
and, potentially, Protestants) in defense of their faith and to
avenge their slain brothers and sisters.
The Scottish theologian William Barclay challenges this kind
of response: “Do we really believe that Christianity will
perish unless it be defended (or spread) by war? If we do believe
that, then we have deliberately passed a vote of no confidence
in Christianity. If Christianity needs this kind of defense then
there is little that is really divine about it. We must conclude
that a faith which needs the defense of modern warfare (or any
form of violence towards others) is not a faith which even deserves
to survive.”
In the second response, I’ve found deep respect and awe
of a true-life example of the gospel of peace and love in practice.
In the remote western area of Beghi-Gidami, a group of Muslim
men burned churches, chased people from their homes, and murdered
Mekane Yesus evangelist Michael Kano at his home in front of his
family. Security forces took control and many Muslim men were
detained in a building made of corrugated sheets of iron.
The Reverend Michael Hundessa, president of the Beghi-Gidami
Synod of the EECMY, visited the detainees. He observed that during
the daytime, they endured nearly unbearable temperatures, while
at night, they shivered in bitter cold. He saw that the prisoners
had little drinking water or toilets and that the sanitation conditions
were unhealthy.
Then Mr. Hundessa, with help from fellow Christians, ensured
that water be made available and that pit latrines be dug for
the detainees. This is the true nature of the gospel of Jesus
Christ!
Believers in the way of Jesus Christ are called to sow seeds
of peace, love, pardon, unity, faith, truth, hope, joy, and light.
Which of these two responses better reflects this call? These
works, done in love, may help to build trust, healing, and reconciliation
between individuals and faith communities.
Every day I ask myself about the seeds that I sow in my lifestyle
choices and my interactions with others. I am thankful to Jesus
for teaching a better way of living and to Michael Hundessa for
illustrating what it looks like in our world and times.
Brian
The 2007 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 329
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