Rape.
Slavery.
Genocide.
Trafficking.
Torture.
One mention of any of these words and my skin starts to crawl.
However for the Karin, a farming people group living in Burma, these are not just words with violent definitions. Instead they are real, live, horrific events that have now become "normal" in their life. Everyday the Karin live with a fear that the Burmese army could, in the blink of an eye, set their homes on fire, murder their men, take and force their boys to be soldiers, and rape and then murder their women.
Right now, I am in Mae Sod, Thailand, a town 15 minutes from the Burmese/Thai border, and all of those horrific things that I mentioned (rape, slavery, genocide, trafficking, and torture) are happening with in an hour radius drive of me.
One hour. That's it.
But here is the kicker; I could go about life not letting the stories and images affect me one tiny bit. In fact in the past, I have. I have chosen to live a life of ignorance. I have chosen to flip the channel when a commercial has made me feel uncomfortable or guilty. I have walked out of chapels and done nothing after feeling broken for someone. For my entire life I have not responded to any of the violent cries from the helpless and needy.
No longer can that happen.
I can't sit by and just allow this injustice to go on.
For the past few days I have been in, what Kaj Munk calls a "holy rage". I have been in a holy rage over this “hell on earth”. This rage has driven me to cry out to God for justice! It has made me plead to God for His love to rain down and flood the streets. It has made me beg God to come and allow the parentless children to run into His arms and call Him daddy. In this rage I’ve called out for the hearts of the Burmese soldiers to change and their eyes to be open to the madness! However, the part that makes me want to tear my clothes the most though has nothing to do with Burma, but rather with the world. I burn with an intense anger, different then I ever have had, at all of the countries and people that have heard the Karin’s cries and yet have done nothing. There are millions of people that are crying out, in what could be seen as a literal hell on earth, and yet there seems to be no reply back. Maybe a faint whisper from protestors.
It is because of this lack of response that I now echo the prayer of Pastor Kaj Munk:
“What is, therefore, our task today? Shall I answer ‘Faith, hope and love?’ That sounds beautiful. But I would say- courage. No, even that is not challenging enough to be the whole truth. Our task today is reckless. For what we Christians lack is not psychology or literature… we lack a holy rag- the recklessness which comes from the knowledge of God and humanity. The ability to rage when justice lies prostrate on the streets, and when the lie rages across the face of the earth.
…a holy anger that things are wrong in the world. To rage against the ravaging of God’s earth, and the destruction of God’s world. To rage when little children must die of hunger, when the tables of the rich are sagging with food. To rage at the senseless killing of so many, and against the madness of militaries. To rage at the lie that calls the threat of death and the strategy of destruction peace. To rage against complacency. To restlessly seek that restlessness that will challenge and seek to change human history until it conforms to the norms of the kingdom of God. And remember the signs of the Christian church have been the Lion, the Lamb, the Dove, and the Fish… but never the chameleon.”
So I now invite you to holy rage with me. Cry out for justice. Cry out for God’s love. Cry out with holy rage.
