Human Rights Violations in China

In the September 19, 2005 issue of Time Magazine there was an article concerning the forced abortions and mass sterilizations caried out by the Chinese government (mostly local) on women who already had one child, the limit the law allows. Though the Chinese federal government says that it is not their policy, people who have witnessed and experienced the events are now suffering from health related issues. The scars of carrying a child for 8.5 months only to have nurses strap her to a table while doctors drive a needle into the child to kill it and then take the child's body are unbearable.

The reason they say it occurs, however, is that population increase is a key statistic that could cost a local official any type of promotion. If the province is experiencing population growth due to too many babies being born local officials will not advance their careers.

It is heartbreaking to come to grips with the fact people will sacrafice babies and even the lives of adults for their own ambitions of power. Is it not a violation of human rights to abort babies against the mother's will?

Katrina

The violence of a storm has produced violence in its chaotic aftermath. It's understandable. But why does the media focus on the violent stories and the shortcomings of rescue workers who have never witnessed anything close to this magnitude? Why are we naturally pulled to the horrible violence of it all as we fail to tell the stories of heroes.

Are there less stories of heroes in this crisis? Does the bad outweigh the good--not in events that have taken place but in the behavior and reaction of people? I don't think so. I believe that there are far more stories of heroism in this crisis than what we have heard.

Its simply easier to find the villains or the victims. The squeaky wheel gets the oil and the louder people get the media. But I have to believe there are heroes who have risked their lives and would make us proud to call them our brothers and sisters.

These are the people who have responded to the violence of the storm with compassion and love and by doing so have calmed the storm for thousands taking the example of the God/Man that once did similar feats of wonder.

Transformation, Transformation, Transformation

That is what this is all about. We know biblically that we are all created in the image of God. We know that we are all fallen and are redeemed by the blood of Christ and are being prepared for the New Creation to come (Rev. 21).

The anithesis that has separated us from one another and from God runs through us all, including our enemies. We are all in the same boat. We are all in the need of transformation and must look to the transformation of one another through the love of Christ. That is what it means to be Christlike.

That is why I whole heartedly disagree with Robertson and so many others. We must look to the transformation of our enemies rather than their convenient disposal. When Jesus said love your enemies he meant every word of it.

To deny the opportunity for our enemies to change is to deny ourselves the same opportunity. For we are all capable of atrocity in one form or another. God does not allow his people to live under the law of "Kill or be Killed." In fact, Jesus proved that his way was far more excellent and effective.

Robertson: You're too Eager

When Pat Robertson, the Religious Right leader who sometimes makes me wince when he speaks for so many Christians, said on TV the other day that Hugo Chavez, the President of Venezuela, should be assassinated because of his anti-American ideology, I winced to such an extent my face got stuck that way.

He basically justifies the assassination by saying it would be cheaper to assassinate him now before he becomes a US threat (and obviously he would be because he criticizes President Bush, in which case I am a potential threat to national security because I have also criticized the President) than to wait until Venezuela becomes a launching pad of communism and Muslim extremists and costing us another $200 billion in war costs.

There is the breaking point of the preemptive strike that led us into Iraq. According to the pre-emptive clause we could assassinate somebody else before they even come into power and we would feel ourselves justified. The idea is not only morally corrupt, but it is not freedom, merely paranoid schitzophrenia.

When Bonhoeffer was trying to figure out if God would endorse the assassination of Hitler, he had his own personal war within his heart. He always believed that violence would not be the answer, but the consequences of Hitler dying before his height of power are far from negative. Millions would be saved. But even then the decision was not obvious for Bonhoeffer. It really was personal distress to come to the realities of war.

I do not see the same struggle in Mr. Robertson. In fact, he is willing to take one life because of the financial burden it would become to do it later. What kind of unbiblical, un-Christlike comments are those? Please Mr. Robertson, What Would Jesus Do?

I still have to believe in transformation. Not only for the sake of this planet, but for my wincing face as well.