"The Christian must discover in contemplation, and in the giving of his life, those symbolic actions which will ignite the people's faith to resist injustice with their whole lives, lives coming together as a united force of truth and thus releasing the liberating power of the God within them." - James Douglass, Contemplation and Resistance.

Sunday, April 01, 2007

Unreasonable Dreams


"The UN High Commissioner for Refugees said on Sunday that one in eight Iraqis had been forced from their homes because of the bloodshed raging across the country, and warned that the numbers will only rise.

"Already two million have fled Iraq altogether, he said, while another 1.8 million are already displaced inside the country, which has an estimated population of around 27 million.

'The biggest displacement in the Middle East since the dramatic events of 1948 has now forced one in eight Iraqis from their homes,' he added, referring to creation of the state of Israel that triggered a massive Palestinian exodus.

'Last year alone, we estimate that nearly 500,000 Iraqis moved to other areas inside the country,' he added."

In response to this outrageous treatment, Christian ministers and Catholic priests throughout the United States have called for fairness to the Iraqis whose lives we have destroyed through our thoughtless aggression. Many have organized refugee camps in their churches to house homeless Iraqis and have called on Congress and the President to unite to save hundreds of thousands of Iraqis from a hideous death through starvation, disease, and violence. "We are Christians - therefore we will open our megachurches to the poor and homeless that Jesus died for!" proclaimed Rick Warren along with Pope Benedict XVI.

How I wish I lived in a world like that! Instead, the mouths of those who would cry out with prophetic justice are twisted shut through the intellectual strangulation of the media.

Imagine a world where the instant the revelations of torture at Guantanamo were made known, universal outrage swept across the Christian community and pentitents volunteered by the thousands to make reparation for the crimes committed against our Moslem brothers. Would we then need hydrogen bombs to protect ourselves?

No comments: