The Church's Potential to Fail Again...

Throughout history, the Church has been involved in many things. Some good, some bad...

The Church protected Jews in Europe during World War II.
The Church has always given help to those who need it...

But the Church has also not helped at some points in history...especially when it was needed most.

An example of this occuring right now...but we'll get to that in a second...

In today's world, the Church is quite powerful, in more ways then one.
Financially, the Church has access to hundreds of billions of dollars as a whole.
Many leaders of coutries seek out advice from the Vatican.
The Church is one of the greatest humanitarian outreaches on the planet.
No matter what your beliefs, it cannot be denied that Christianity is a major part of this world.


Now, to the point...
Christianity weilds quite a bit of power, both monetarily and politically. It has a track record of helping when needed.

But the Church is needed greatly now, and the Church is doing nothing.
And now to the topic I've written about before...

Within the past few years in Darfur, nearly 400,000 people have been murdered and 2.5 million people displaced by war, famine, and strife.

The situation in Darfur is messy situation.
The government backed Janjaweed are raping and murdering innocent people in Sudan (and recently in Chad).
Rebel forces that used to be fighting each other in Sudan have now joined together to rebel against the Sudanese government, which is preventing international intervention.
And the deployment of the United Nation/African Union hybrid force, which will soon be 25,000 strong, has been delayed from bringing peace to this region of the world which has been declared "genocide" by the United Nations...

And in all of this, what is the Church doing as a whole to end this genocide?

The answer: next to nothing.
Some churches are giving money, and some are helping to tell the world about Darfur, but these churches are few and far between.

My opinion, the Church is in the process of failing at what it should be doing.

What should the church be doing?
The Church has the power politically to put pressure on Sudan, the United Nations, and China (which has very close ties to Sudan) to put an end to this 21st century Holocaust.
It has the money to at least help support the new UN/AU hybrid force.
And it has the missionaries to bring the Gospel to those who need it the most.

The church IS failing here...

But God isn't. In all of this mess, God's miracles and mercies are beginning to appear.
The militias that used to be fighting each other have now joined together to go against the Janjaweed and Sudanese government, because they believe the events in Darfur are wrong.

Janjaweed soldiers are beginning to leave the evil they are doing and joining the rebels that are slowly pushing their full military and political pressure onto Sudan.

China is beginning to use its political leverage to deal with the Sudanese government, after activists started calling the future Olympic games in Beijing the "Genocide Games."

And the few missionaries that are in Darfur send reports out that some are accepting Christ.


The Church is failing...but God isn't.
If the Church had done its job from the start, hundreds of thousands if lives could have been saved. Or at least more of those that were killed could be in Heaven right now...

The Pope, a key leading figure of the Chruch as a whole, made a comment the other day that Protestant churches are not "true" churches. While just across the Mediterrainen, the killing in Darfur continues.
I guess that shows how much the Church is ignoring the bigger picture when the Pope cares more about Catholic supremecy than the people who are being raped and murdered everyday just a few flight hours away...


The Church is failing, but there is still time to change that fact. Darfur needs to end, now. The more political pressure there is on the countries involved, the sooner this genocide ends.You can get your church involved by going to www.savedarfur.org and have your members sign the petiton there, which is updated to the United Nations, White House, U.S. Congress, and other organizations that have the political power to end the genocide daily.

All you have to do is sign a petition, it takes less than two minutes, and you will be doing something to help save lives. If you believe that your one name won't count, think again. The United Nations didn't even start considering to do something about Darfur until people started signing petitions to put an end to this genocide.

www.savedarfur.org is also a place where you can make donations and it lists other ways you can get more involved.


Today, the Holocaust is remebered as something horrible that happened because humanity did nothing to stop it until it was to late...
How will Darfur be remembered 60 years from now? Will it be taught in history classes as a Second Holocaust, or will it be remebered as a bad situation in which many were killed, but humanity did something to put an end to it before it could get worse?

The answer to that question is up to all of us. We are all responsible for this, because none of us did anyting to stop it.
And when I stand before God after I die, I don't want to hear the words "You had a chance to help save lives, why didn't you take it?" come from His mouth.

Sign the petition, at least do that much...you never know how much impact we all together can really have...

In Christ,
Hackett