I am ashamed to be called a Christian tonight.
Strong words indeed.
Please check this out
It is, quite simply, one of the most painful things I have ever had to watch on TV. And I know it is not fictional reporting. Trainers from this organisation have told me of similar things.
I wept and wept.
There are really no words of my own to explain how I feel about what I saw. The pain and misery on a child's face as a man, face full of hate, on camera, tells her he is going to machete her. She is about 6 years old.
Lord, Lord forgive us. Church, cry out a lament that such things happen in our name.
Liberty Films "End of the Wicked" is used as propaganda from village to village to turn adults against children "scream through the night; show signs of fever or a tendency towards ill health". This means, they claim, that they are witches. Pastors teach this as truth to be actioned. Children are tortured and killed. They are separated from their parents and abandoned, or worse. What must go through the child's mind as this harm is done to them?
In truth, the only comfort I find just now is in the words of Jesus in Matthew 18:
verse 10 "See that you do not look down on one of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven."
and in Lamentations 2:19 - a reminder that the Lord hears our cries in prayer for the abandoned children:
Arise, cry out in the night, as the watches of the night begin;
pour out your heart like water in the presence of the Lord.
Lift up your hands to him for the lives of your children,
who faint from hunger at the head of every street.
Consider writing to the Nigerian government to complain. According to the documentary, no pastors have been imprisoned for inciting child abuse, as yet.
Some other things this week have made me feel a similar shame about stuff done by so-called Christians, so I couldn't bear to watch the program on top of that. But your heart-cry in response to it is powerful.
ReplyDeleteOh Lynn, I too am ashamed to be in any way, however tangentially, related to this.
ReplyDeleteWhen this kind of thing happens, we have to stand up, be counted and say 'Not In My Name!' Sadly, it is happening in so many places: the current general in DRC, who is recruiting whole schools at a time to serve as child soldiers, butchering those who refuse, regards himself as an evangelical. The president of Guatemala who was responsible for a scorched earth policy that razed 400 villages to the ground was a lay leader in a big Penecostal church.
I am ashamed to be related to any of this, but I am NOT ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, which is the only way that we can respond to these atrocities.
Thanks for putting this out there.
these things done in the name of our wonderful God make me weep. What have they done to the beautiful gospel?
ReplyDeleteI pray God protects his innocent children...
hey guys thanks for your contributions. Lucy, all of this makes me think of one of your poem, which I would like to post.
ReplyDeleteDo I have permission to do this on the next blog posting? copyrighted to you etc
I give you permission ;) Glad you got them ok!
ReplyDeleteWe've been chatting about this over here....
ReplyDeletehttp://asbojesus.wordpress.com/2008/11/20/593/
It makes me feel ill to think that people think that's doing God's work.
PS hurrah for another mbc blogger!