Reading the history of various heroes and saints who fought against injustice and oppression can be an encouraging experience. From Wilberforce to Corrie Ten Boom there have been men and women who have stood against injustice and given all of themselves to bring about change. In the darkest and most horrific moments of history this gathered few seem to exist attempting to do the right thing despite the tides to the very opposite.
Yet as encouraging and as uplifting as these few saints can be, the contexts in which they find themselves brings an even greater sense of despair and sadness.
Recently, for example, I was reading Sharon Welch’s book, “After Empire” and I came across a deeply troubling, though not surprising, statistic that of all the non-Jewish Europeans during the Holocaust, (including Christians, Atheists, Socialists, Liberal-democrats… etc.), less than 1% stood against the grain and resisted the genocide.
Christians who ought to fight for mercy, socialists for equality, liberal-democrats for free speech all stood silent and allowed horrific and unimaginable atrocities to take place across Europe for more than a decade. When given the opportunity to help North America was no better, as exemplified by the tragedy of the MS St. Louis in 1939.
We can look back on history in judgement of the many good people standing by doing so little; yet the same questions could almost as easily be asked of this generation as it relates to continued inaction in the face of genocides and atrocities.
Much is being said today about the crisis in Syria and whether or not the US (and others) should get involved. My answer: “Most certainly let’s get involved, if anything involvement could have taken place decades ago as the same dictator was in power then as he is now.” That involvement however cannot and should not involve further atrocities by way of military attacks and political embargos that just end up hurting the very people who are already suffering.
Sweden is a wonderful example of how we can learn from the past in an effort to not repeat it. Instead of mounting a military operation against Syria, Sweden has opened its borders even wider to those seeking asylum. Sweden has done on a national level, what people like Corrie Ten Boom did on an individual level and what North America failed to do in the tragedy of the MS St Louis.
As the silent majority continues to stand idly by while people are slaughtered in Syria (and throughout the world), we ought to ask ourselves questions about how we, and perhaps our governments, can work with countries in crisis to alleviate poverty and human suffering.
We need to seek ways of helping others that are creative and imaginative as opposed to defaulting to imperialistic brute force. As Martin Luther King Jr. declared in his Letter From A Birmingham jail concerning the need for non-violent resistance, “Perhaps the South, the nation and the world are in dire need of creative extremists.” This being said as an outflow of his even more well known comments that “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
Wilberforce, Ten Boom, Martin Luther King Jr., Gandhi all fought injustice in imaginative and non-violent ways. So before this generation becomes another embarrassing statistic about inaction in the minds of future generations let’s try and actually do something about the suffering and pain of this world. 1% of people actually did something when 6 million of the neighbours were taken out and slaughtered.
Good people in every generation have stood by and allowed great atrocities. The world needs us to be more than good bystanders, it needs us to be participants in change, in non-violent and imaginative solutions to complicated problems.
So rather than hoping for more individual heroes in the world I hope and pray for heroic movements that include the majority in countries and communities, and not simply the 1% who have always stood against the tide of injustice.
Peter Lublinkis completing his Masters in Theological Studies with a focus on the peace teachings of Jesus while living and working in The Middle East with his wife Alison. Prior to packing up their bags and moving, Alison and Peter lived and worked in the beautiful city of Victoria, BC, leading a church community with The Salvation Army. Follow him on twitter: twitter.com/peterlublink
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