Return the Spotlight to Darfur
Directed to a post at Blue Girl, Red State via Kevin Drum I was astonished by this first hand account of a woman who spent one month in a refugee camp in Chad, just across the border from Darfur. She had this to say,And women are the preponderance of victims. Men do not leave the villages to go to the countryside to gather firewood and other necessary items of sustenance. Women venture out, even though every time they leave their villages, they are at horrific risk of being beaten and raped and disfigured. The reason they go instead of the men? The women are only attacked, the men are killed.
Go deal with that for a month. See women with skulls bashed in, teeth broken off or knocked out, gashes inflicted on their bodies to leave horrible scars.
The epitome of man's inhumanity to man.
Utterly gut-wrenching and heart stopping. I'm at a loss for words.
And then I came across this quote from our monthly newspaper at HTB about Darfur.
"But it's not all doom and glood. A wonderful Roman Catholic Biship sometimes use to come in illegally with us because he'd been exiled when he criticized the regime. He speaks to his people's most hurting points of need. 'You people here in the Sudan still smile in spite of suffering, persecution and slavery. Your smiles put us to shame.
Many of you are embarrassed becaause you are naked. Don't be embarrassed. Yours is not true nakedness. True nakedness is to be without love. Be clothed in love - that is Christianity - and show your love to those who do not know our Lord of love. We must leave you, but we will not forget you. We will pray for you.'"
I have forgotten them. In all the discussion of Pat Robertson, school, Judge Roberts, and Iraq I've forgotten these people. May they and God forgive me. I am redoubling my efforts to pray for them and hope we can put the Spotlight on Darfur again.
Most amazingly, through it all the Sudanese Christians are loving their enemy.
posted by Expat Teacher @ 6:40 PM
