"Defender of the Weak"

I was listening to NPR last week and was struck by a profile on a specific humanitarian author. He's written a book about helping the impoverished of the world, the role of the UN, and a critique of worldwide efforts to fight poverty, hunger and violence. I have a heartfelt desire to help those in need and from my college years of travel I have a perspective on poverty unmatched by most Americans. There is no doubt that we should be and could be doing much more to help those in need both here and abroad, but the how overwhelms even the most committed of us.

My heart has broken over the last few weeks as I've watched the HBO miniseries Generation Kill (HBO's take on the Iraq invasion). I disagree with the political message of some of the episodes, but see the humanitarian impact of war on normal people and can't help but envision a world where my family and I are the ones running for cover as our town is bombed or as gunfire rips through the walls of our home. I was struck by the scene of a father who didn't stop at an American roadblock and who's car was subsequently shot up. The only casualty was his 5 year old daughter and his crime, trying to flee the violence. The scene ended with the father asking the American soldiers through an interpreter if he could have his dead daughter's body and he picked her up and carried her back to town. I can't even imagine the horror.

I saw a picture, just this evening, of a refugee child from the fighting in Georgia (a former Soviet state) lying on a table in a school house. Conservative estimates are that 100,000 people have been uprooted from their homes and lives more or less because a former imperial power needs to reassert control over its' weaker neighbors. Thousands dead, more wounded and no one came to their aid.

The aforementioned author would have us believe that the answer to the world's problems with hunger, poverty, and violence is more aid from NGOs, the UN, and sovereign states. He went so far as to insinuate that if organizations such as the UN sent aid workers and money instead of peacekeepers to global hot spots, our world would be a safer and better place. His hypothesis is that well fed people with jobs would not resort to violence to feed their families, etc. I think that he's failed to consider the fact that gangs with guns, dictators with guns, and evil people with guns subjugate the innocent, steal their food, and rape and kill their families. These people derive their power through intimidation and fear. These people thrive on lawlessness and are the same people who steal humanitarian aid to hoard it for themselves and their friends. These are the same people who keep entire populations poor, uneducated, and hungry in order to stay in power. These are the same people who kill their neighbors because of their ethnicity and no amount of money or food will tame their hatred and evil. These people will not stop until forced to, much like a serial killer won't stop until caught and caged. If food, opportunity, and money solved all of our problems there would be no need for police in the US because there is plenty of food, opportunity, and money to go around.

Unfortunately there is evil and there is good and some choose evil despite the opportunity to choose good. There will always be the need to use force to defend the weak until there is no more evil in the world. I know that sounds simplistic and I know the use of force has tragic consequences for those caught in between and we see the horror every time we watch the news about Iraq, but the alternative is worse. Doing nothing over the past 60 years led to 6,000,000 dead Jews, 20,000,000+ dead Russians in Stalin's Russia, hundreds of thousands dead in Serbia and Croatia, hundreds of thousands dead Rwanda, thousands dead in the Sudan, and countless millions others dead who suffer under the heal of tyrants. There is good and there is evil and there is no middle ground. There is one moral law, whether we choose to believe it or not. In the end there will be punishment for those who do evil because there is one Defender of the Weak and mark my words, He weeps for this world and what we've done to it.

"IMPACT"

I was reading the news this morning, as I do most mornings, and I ran across this Time Magazine article, Making Capitalism More Creative. It's really less of an article and more of a vision shared by Bill Gates with the readers of Time. I have to say, coming from a man who was all geek back when computers weren't cool, it's amazing the vision he has for the poor of our world. Unlike most government programs, Bill is not advocating the "send me your money and I'll do good with it" point of view, he's advocating actually using our gifts, talents, time and money to make a difference ourselves. What an amazing concept! What if most Christians actually shared this point of view? Our world would look so different.

I wish that I thought about the gifts, talent, time and money that I could share more often. How would my neighbors react if I walked over and helped wash a car or mow the grass? How would my community react if I showed up to help build a Habitat home? How would a coworker react if I invited him home to have dinner with my family? There are so many little things that I could do to help make someone else's life better, but so often I sit at home and watch TV or surf the web. My normal excuse is that my fatigue or work schedule prevents me from being proactive in my community.

Can you imagine the impact on our children if we actually modeled generous living? Despite socioeconomics or cultural barriers, our children would grow to be men and women of action who serve instead of demanding service. I think we are at a crossroad in American culture and life, we're seeing the fruit of our Grandparent's labor; wealth, prestige, longevity as well as a greater divide between those who have and those who have not. We have more opportunity than ever before to ride the coattails and wealth of those who came before us or to leverage what we've been given for the good of our communities and world. What a vision for a better world, yet given our current attitudes and actions, what a shame.