In case you aren't a Washington news junkie, The New York Times has an article to catch you up on the hot little issue in D.C. of late (click here to read). Congress has tried over the years to squeeze a law out that recognizes that Turkey killed hundreds of thousands of Armenians in the early twentieth century, calling it genocide. The legislation recently popped back up in the House, with the subcommittee voting to send it to the floor for passage.
Before tuning this out as an unimportant "political story", please read on.
In a world where countries get in bed with "allies" for whatever common cause they have at the time and forgive inconvenient details about their policies and practices, pet issues become political footballs that opponents play with to score points against each other. Genocide is today's football.
Iran denies genocide of the Jews. Sudan denies genocide in Darfur. Turkey says, "that was the Ottoman empire, not modern Turkey." Politicians work this topic like it's getting them leverage while the tragedy of it all gets corrupted. Who was, is, or will be doing it is not the problem; stopping it is the problem.
Washington, D.C. is a place we send our representatives to conduct the business of our federal government. New York is where the U.N. addresses global concerns. For all of their work, we rarely get more than an adversarial playground tiff where someone's feelings get hurt, different groups pick a side, and it festers till someone else commits the same "atrocity."
Bringing out someone's dirty laundry almost a hundred years after it happened and trying it by today's standards, all the while waiting for the politic way to intervene in the same atrocities today is absurd. Jesus condemned the Pharisees who would "load people down with burdens they cannot carry and will not lift a finger to help them"(Luke 11.46).
Maybe I'm being a bit hypocritical myself, condemning somebody for overlooking injustice while I watch and even help others besmirch and deride people who cannot defend themselves (gossip, slander, etc). We all tend to destroy the weak among us if not kept in check.
Only by living out a firm commitment to love our friends and enemies, to love mercy, to embrace compassion, and to be ministers of peace will we reshape history, making sure every person has a place he can feel safe and appreciated.
Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, the tempest-tossed, to me:
I lift my lamp beside the golden door.- Emma Lazarus
at the base of the Statue of Liberty
Post Script:
Before one labels me a liberal pacifist, I firmly believe our nation should protect its borders and "ensure liberty for ourselves and our posterity." I simply do not think giving lip service to the issue while our borders are tightly shut and our arms firmly crossed is acceptable. Promoting peace as a primary directive is to the Christian; empowering the indigent is our national response.
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