By the way, the American health-care reform debate may not seem like a subject for this blog on reconciliation. And it may seem strange for me to talk about it during my trip to Burundi.
But remember, reconciliation happens when forgiveness meets repentance. And, very little is understood about repentance, I have discovered. Not here in Burundi, not in France and not in my home country of the United States.
One aspect we hope to talk more about is the desire, when one truly repents and begins to be restored, to make things right. Even more is a desire to reject core thoughts that we hold or that have been held by our group or even our predecessors once we realize that these thoughts go against truth and justice.
Well, even in something like health-care reform we can see some of the signs of thinking that disciples may want to reconsider.
If you are in Christian circles in America you may not get a chance to hear differing thoughts on this and other debates, which can give the impression that there is only one, true Christian way to think about this.
Here are some others that you can add to your sources of reflection.
Brian McClaren writes many things I have been wanting to say in his Open Letter to US Conservative Christians. You should also check out what Jim Wallis has to say on the subject. McClaren also lists several faith-based fact-checking sites.
By the way, if you’d like to do some fact-checking about the health care debate, here are some faith-based sources that I believe can be trusted to avoid uncritical and inaccurate reporting about health care. I understand they will be offering correctives to rumors and misinformation in the months ahead.
http://blog.faithinpubliclife.org/
http://www.sojo.net
http://www.catholicsinalliance.org/
I, for one, would like to challenge all Christians to not forward ANY e-mail they receive that speaks of politics without first checking to see if the source is credible. People of faith (any faith) are easy marks for those who are looking to exploit the word-of-mouth machine.
We tend to believe what we hear automatically when it comes from someone we think is like us. Politicians, interest groups and corporations have long figured this out and some lobbying groups have come to specialize in preparing factless campaigns focused on conservative Christians. So all they need to do is get a Christian to forward their "facts" and it becomes automatically credible to the other Christians who will receive it.
Disciples need to be wise and not allow themselves, no matter what their political beliefs, to be used like this. The results can be more important than we think.
Here in Burundi, like in neighboring Rwanda, an overwhelming percentage of the population was Christian. But their faith did not lead them to repent of cultural ideas that had been handed to them through colonial rule and their own ancestors.
And when pushed to the edge, it was their beliefs in their own group superiority and need for vengeance and self-protection against the enemy that led to genocide in Rwanda and 11 years of ethnic violence in Burundi. All of this happened with churches participation at worst and silence at best.
And the result has been a young population that, while it has not turned away from the church in droves, is increasingly questioning the foundations of this faith that was not able to keep people from acting out of their worst nature.
When I watch the town-hall anger and read some of the hateful comments that I have come across on facebook and blogs (my wife was privy to some message strings on Obama and health care from some of her high school friends on Facebook recently that would make you think twice -- no, thrice -- about how far we have come on race relations in the US), I sometimes wonder what is possible in America.
Are we so far removed from the people who took out machetes and whacked their neighbors when they felt threatened? Are we really that different? I would argue that we are not different at all. The only thing that protects us is what core beliefs we allow to govern us.
And right now, I am not sure that those core beliefs are in order.
Comments