Darfur and the Moral Minority

The crisis in Darfur was a rallying point for many this week. Illinois' Junior Senator, Barack Obama used his influence and the platform of the Oprah Winfrey Show, which is viewed by millions of people each day, to educate the public and highlight the plight of people living in the Darfur region of Sudan.

The United Methodist Church issued a response to the crisis calling for the immediate deployment of the 17,500 UN peacekeepers and over 3000 UN civilian police authorized by the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1706 passed on August 31, 2006 and urged the government of Sudan to comply with the Darfur Peace Agreement so that this most horrible human tragedy can come to an end and the suffering of the people stop.

Evangelical Christian leaders, including such notables as the Reverend Bill Hybel's of Willowcreek Church and President of the Willowcreek Association, Reverend Ted Haggard the President of the National Association of Evangelicals, Dr. Richard Land of the Southern Baptists, have created a new organization called "Evangelicals for Darfur". These evangelical leaders took out a full page advertisement in USA Today beseeching President Bush to act on his faith and do the right thing by leading the world to stop the genocide effecting "the least of these" in Darfur.

The evangelical leader's ad went on to inform the President, "To date more than 400,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million displaced. Countless more have been raped, maimed, and tortured; Men, women, and children created in God's image, innocents all. Ending the atrocities will require your personal leadership in supporting the deployment of a strong U.N. peacekeeping force and multilateral economic sanctions. While we often disagree on matters of politics, we are united in the belief that your intervention can make the critical difference in Darfur. We join together now to urge you, in the words of Proverbs 24:11-12, to "rescue those being led away to death." We pledge to do everything we can can to rally support in both Congress and the U.N. to support your leadership in ending the horror in Darfur."

It is great to see the attention the issue is receiving. I have frequently been in touch with Senator Obama's staff regarding the crisis and he is, and has been, one of the leading voices on this issue, doing far more than most people know. The United Methodist Church has fought, and continues to fight to bring this genocide to an end and to respond to the humanitarian crisis. Evangelicals are a welcome voice in the struggle to defend those who have no voice.

Earlier this year, I attended the rally for Darfur held in Washington DC. The rally was perhaps the most diverse rally I have ever attended. It was amazing to see; young and old bridged the generation gap, Christians, Muslims, Jews, Hindus and Buddhist set aside their historic differences for this common cause. Two groups that chose not to support the Save Darfur Coalition event, sponsored by over 160 organizations, were the Institute on Religion and Democracy (IRD) which describes itself as working to reform the social and political witness of American churches, and the Wilberforce Forum.

Why did a renewal and reform movement that claims to labor on behalf of persecuted people choose not to participate in the Save Darfur Coalition event? Because they viewed one or two co-sponsoring groups as having ties to terrorist groups who desire to wipe Israel off the map. It is a strange and amazing rationale considering; Elie Wiesel, Nobel Peace prize-winner, freely and passionately addressed the crowd of over 25,000, American Jewish Organizations were among the lead organizers of the event, and the Jewish community was so well represented with perhaps thousands of youth who traveled by bus and proudly displayed signs identifying themselves.

Members of the dissenting groups even dared ask, "Where is the morality of the Save Darfur coalition?"

These dissenters are reminiscent of those whom Jesus described as "blind guides who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel...scribes, Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which indeed appear beautiful outside, but inside they are full of dead men's bones" (Matthew 23:24ff.).

When I heard of their dissent and their self-righteous condemnation of the coalition, I wondered if they had heard of the government of Sudan's suggestion that the coalition was a Zionist conspiracy. When I heard of their dissent suggesting that the Council on American-Islamic Relations' (CAIR) participation was less than genuine and an attempt to clean up their reputation, I wondered if they had also heard the claim that Jewish organizations were participating in order to deflect attention from the Palestinian/Israeli conflict.

When I heard of their dissent I also pondered the words directed to the people of Darfur by the perpetrators of the violence, "Do not expect the United States of America and the West to come to your aid as they did for the people in the South (The southern region of Sudan). The people in the South are Christians. The world doesn't care about what happens to you! Does the fact that these Black Africans are Muslims make a difference? Can we disagree on politics yet still unite to save human life "men, women, and children created in God's image, innocents all."? Or, will this "genocide in slow motion" continue unabated?"
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To hear Obama's DC rally speech visit www.youtube.com or Link

To view the Evangelical leaders document or to listen to the radio ad visit www.evangelicalsfordarfur.org