Exultate Justi

Tuesday, October 07, 2008

Let us not lose heart...

This is an entirely self-indulgent post that is largely introspective. Should my meandering apply to your own circumstances, I'll be gratified. If not, rest assured that I claim to speak only for myself. This is my stand - I make it for no one else.

We are ordered to persevere. Ordered to do good. Ordered to never give up.

The entire book of Galatians spills forth encouragement after encouragement, entreaty after entreaty; fight, struggle, and endure. The tides of culture, human nature, and our own frailty constantly hammer against us, and yet, we are told to stand once more, wipe off the blood and dust, and move forward yet again.

What does this mean to me, a 34 year-old middle class American Christian, in the run-up to yet another contentious election, and another session of Christ's name being claimed, sullied, appropriated, and tossed about by nearly every conceivable political cause, party, and professional? Where is the relevance?

I can't tell you how to vote. I'm also not going to engage in some sort of disingenuous hem-and-haw session wherein I tell you that I'm torn, and that both sides have their weaknesses and strengths, though neither the Republicans nor the Democrats should dare believe that they, and they alone represent the ultimate manifestation of Christ on earth, as sometimes seems the case. Each represents an imperfect melange of positions, assumptions, and unspoken biases that must be examined individually, and weighed against one's conscience and relationship with God.

I wonder, and I wonder, and I wonder. A few things I do know, however. I know that neither John McCain nor Barack Obama perfectly fits with my own political convictions. I know that I consider them both to be sincere in their desire to do the right thing, and that they're both probably good men, at the end of the day. I also know that neither good intentions nor good will can absolve us of responsibility for actions or choices that result in moral evil.

I'm not a single issue voter. Never have been. I come close, however, on the topic of abortion. I make no apologies for this. Nor do I insinuate some grandiose piousness as a result of my position. I have more than enough failings and weaknesses for two people, and I will never pass judgment on someone who's had an abortion (and yes, I have the proverbial "friends" who have). I also refuse to engage in the hideous and pitiful dance of the "personally opposed, politically pro" position, however. While I would hope that my six-plus years of blogging has conveyed my distaste for trafficking in needlessly inflammatory rhetoric, abortion is an outrage that mocks any attempt to downplay its scope.

As such, there is no way that I could so much as entertain the idea of giving Senator Obama my vote. He has planted his flag in support of a monstrous, hellish thing, and were I granted the honor of speaking with him face-to-face, I would tell him just that. He has my respect as a duly elected official, and if, as I believe he will be, he is elected President, I will lift him up in prayer, and cry out for the Lord to bless him with wisdom. I cannot turn a blind eye, however, to his unabashed support for the legalized slaughter of children.

Both of my kids, of course, would have been textbook "cases" for abortion, and without truly heroic women as their birthmothers, I'd likely never have known that they ever existed. I can't view this subject dispassionately, as a result, and to be honest, I worry about those who can do so.

Other innocent voices cry out in this campaign season, as well, and much like those of the unborn, they remain largely unheard by most politicians on either side. The hundreds of thousands of North Koreans imprisoned in their own country, the millions who have starved to death or been murdered by the Kim regime, and the innumerable North Korean women and children who hide inside of China - caught in limbo, functionally non-existent, and easy prey for sex traffickers - stand as shameful reminders of the hollow, self-congratulatory worthlessness of the UN and the International Community in general, and of our own inattention to the suffering of people other than ourselves.

The US State Department continues - despite the North Korean Human Rights Act of 2004 - to place countless barriers in front of those brave few who steal across the border between the DPRK and China, and dare attempt to seek asylum at the US Embassy. At present, there are only a few North Korean refugees who have actually made it to the US. We are complicit in the imprisonment or execution of those taken into custody at our embassies in China, and returned to North Korea. Despite constant denials of these activities, China continues to refuse to recognize North Korean refugees as legitimate asylum seekers, continues to repatriate them into North Korea (essentially dooming them), refuses to allow UNHRC access to refugees, refuses to legitimize the mixed-race children of North Koreans and Chinese (ensuring that they exist as non-people, with no schooling, employment, or health care available). The UN continues to do nothing about these matters, and refuses to classify orphaned North Korean children hiding in China as truly orphaned, and as such, prevents their adoption by US citizens (another instance in which our own State Department has done little to assist in this effort).

Someday, when the hideous regime in North Korea has finally imploded, and the gates of that nation-prison have finally been cast open, revealing the depths of the madness that has engulfed it for so long, we will encounter horrors unimaginable. We will also learn, little-by-little, of this generation's Dietrich Bonhoeffers, Corrie Ten Booms, Oskar Schindlers, and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyns. We will learn of their courage in the face of monstrous evil, we will learn of their willingness to suffer for the lives of others, and, to our shame, we will learn, as well, of how little we did to help them.

Senator Obama has never addressed the human rights aspect of the North Korean situation in anything resembling a significant manner. To his credit, Senator McCain has done so repeatedly, and forcefully. Neither man, however, has spelled out a concrete plan to address the unfolding disaster in North Korea, apart from constant calls for "increased diplomacy", and the governments of the US, as well as the EU (and most disturbingly, the government of South Korea) continue to ignore the suffering of the North Korean people.

As was the case with Rwanda, Sudan, Burma, and so many other instances of mass-scale slaughter after the Holocaust, the actions of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea have made a mockery of the West's cry of "never again".

I have to confess...in the face of evils that march ever onward - either ignored or encouraged by so many - efforts to avoid losing heart become more and more difficult.

(permalink) Posted by Jared @ 12:42 PM |

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