lifeasmission

The Link Between Gossip and Genocide

February 27, 2006

I realize I am a latecomer to this discussion, but I just finished watching Hotel Rwanda and can’t go to bed without commenting. Let me say at the outset that if you haven’t seen it, there’s a good chance much of what I have to say will simply fail to make sense. I welcome comments, but will only give a serious ear to those who respond as those having seen the movie.

What’s the point of the cross? Ask your average Westerner that and you’re likely to get a response along the lines of, “Jesus died for my sins so that I can go to Heaven when I die.” A slightly more churched person might venture, “Our sin has separated us from God and the only way that relationship can be restored is by a perfect sacrifice. Jesus paid this penalty which I could not pay.” Either way, what typically ends up happening is the person in question, upon their “acceptance of Jesus as Lord and Savior,” makes up their mind to do their best not to sin and fulfill all the duties of a card-carrying church member – throw some cash in the collection plate, be in a small group, maybe even volunteer some time on a ministry team or help at a soup kitchen.

What’s the point of the cross? I wonder how a Tutsi or a Hutu might respond. Guess what, they’d say just about the same thing. Before the mass genocide in the summer of 1994, there was a massive and country-wide Christian revival where Rwandans “came to Christ” by the tens of thousands (see link at bottom). In fact, Rwanda had been so thouroughly evangelized that it was declared by the government to be a “Christian Kingdom.”

A country full of confessing Christians slaughtering one another – I’d say it’s high time we revisit our conceptions of the gospel, conversion, evangelism, revival, salvation, and discipleship, wouldn’t you?

I have a great fear that we in the West with our elevation of rights and freedoms have successfully stripped the cross of its scriptural significance and have castritated the gospel as a result.

Jesus’ agenda was fairly simple, afterall, it’s the same agenda God has been after ever since the fall – get back to seeing and treating each other as those made in the image of the Creator. Let me try to get at it this way.

Why is gossip a sin? Because when you gossip about someone you are doing two things:

1) you are treating another human as an object, something to be scorned, ridiculed, made fun of, cast in a negative light, or just plain embarassed – you dehumanize them

2) you are also affecting yourself, all our actions affect us. Do something enough and it becomes a habit; we dehumanize ourselves in the process.

Gossip, taken to its consequent end, culminates in genocide. All sin is basically this, dehumanizing. We can dehumanize ourselves and others through either making ourselves out to be more than human (think Adam and Eve) or by making ourselves out to be less than human, which is what happens each and every time we sin against another person (and sin ALWAYS involves others). Actually, when you really look at it, these 2 dimensions, deifying and dehumanizing ourselves and others are almost always intertwined.

Jesus was after 2 primary things, love God, love your neighbor. Dallas Williard has decribed the gospel of Western culture as one of “sin management.” Managing sin has nothing to do with either part of Jesus’ twin agenda. It does however fit nicely into a culture which desperately wants to find a way to cling to its Judeo-Christian facade and remains grossly obsessed with the idea that man is the measure of all things.

A million “Christian” Rwnadans were killed by massive forces of other “Christian” Rwandans. Want to know what happens when the gospel of sin management reaches to the ends of the world – genocide, because in the end it doesn’t matter; what being a Christian is ultimately all about is your personal relationship with God and if you can find a way to justify your actions, especially if you can justify them based on Scripture (a common feature of the English Crusades, the mid-atlantic Slave trade, the Holocaust, and South African Apartheid) then you’ll be ok, St. Peter will be waiting to welcome you into the Pearly Gates.

The scandal of the cross has been largely abandoned by those who want to go on living lives of comfort and pleasure. “Ten thousand Africans killed today, wow, that’s a shame, turn the channel this is depressing.” Where were we? Where were the armies of Christian soldiers who should have been in Rwanda standing between the Tutsis and Hutu’s screaming, “Stop! Stop! In the name of Jesus, Stop!” We were sitting in pews singing psychologically comforting babble like, “You are so good to me, you heal my broken heart, you are my Father in Heaven.”

We have personalized God to the point that we could care less about everyone else, let alone our enemies.
We have internalized God to the point that we think being a Christian has little or nothing to do with the decisions we make, large or small.
We have distanced God to the point that we have no idea how to answer the question, “Where was God when they were hacking my children to bits with a machete?”

I don’t know about you, but I want the gospel back. I actually want the good news to be good news that matters here and now. I want it to be good news not just for the guy who feels bad about his alcohol addiction, but good news for the children who lose parents to senseless violence. The only way that’s gonna happen though is if the Church is willing to be to and for the world what Jesus was to and for Israel. We must stand in the gap, we must lead the way and give our very lives if necessary. We must love so radically that when they kill us they will be forced to say, “Surely these were sons and daughthers of God!”

How did that prayer go?

Our Father – not my Father?
Who art in Heaven – and where did the ancient peoples believe Heaven was – not somewhere beyond the known universe, but right in their midst, unseen, but vitally present.
Hallowed be thy name – becasue there is one God who is the source and sustainer of all life
Your Kingdom come – by which Jesus meant God’s glorious reign
Your will be done – God ‘s will as Jesus understood it – love of God and love of neighbor
On Earth – excuse me? where was that? I thought we were just trying to get up to Heaven.
As it is in Heaven – That ideal place where love of God and love of others are the driving norms
Give us this day our daily bread – notice again the pronouns and the meager request
And forgive us our debts/trespasses/sins – becasue we want to love God and fail all the time
As we forgive our debtors/those who trespass/sin against us – because we’d never dream of thinking that God would actually forgive us if we don’t do the same (right?)
And lead us not into temptation – because our failings and shortcomings should really, really scare us
But deliver us from evil – becasue Satan and his forces are mightily at work
For thine is the Kingdom – all belongs to God
and the power - God can do all things
and the glory – God outshines all which stands against Him
Forever and ever – from, in, and to all time.
Amen – let it be, please!

What’s the point of the cross? Just this – that left to out own devices we will not only dehumanize people to the point of exterminating them, but we will become so diluted as to what it means to be authentically human that we will crucify the very incarnation of Love. If Jesus lived to show us what it means to be a true human being – in perfect relationship with God and others, then the cross is the great testimony that there’s something in us that hates the very idea of being truly human and the resurrection the great testimony that by the grace of God we may yet hope for it.

See this article for a detailed and documented account of the link between Christian revivalism in Rwanda prior to the genocide of 2004 as well as much other pertinent information.

Technorati Tags: hotelrwanda, genocide, theology, church, movies

Related Posts

No related posts.

Posted in: church, movies, theology