Many of the descriptions and details in this sermon are drawn from the websites of Human Rights Watch and Worship in the Spirit of Justice.
"Save Darfur? Who's that?" I was asked just last Sunday. Ah yes, "Who's that" indeed! And we really must come to know the answer to that question—as was impressed upon me ever so strongly this past Monday, when we marked the tenth anniversary of the massacre of some 7,000 Muslim men and boys living in another far-off, mysterious "who's that" kind of place—the Bosnian city of Srebrenica. It is clear now that the massacre in Srebrenica ten years ago could have been prevented, had only enough people been led to care. And from that, we can learn that the massacre going on today in Darfur can be stopped, if only we, and others like us, can be led to care.
So, "Who's Darfur?" Well, Darfur is some six million people who live in a region in the northwestern part of the African nation of Sudan. Imagine the Mediterranean Sea and Egypt and Libya along its coast. Well, Darfur's territory begins some 900 miles or so south of the Sea and directly below western Egypt and eastern Libya. In square miles, Darfur's area is the size of France. Or, relative to some geography that's better known to us, its area is twice the size of the states of New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania put together—twice that size, immense!
Of the six million Darfuris, most are indigenous black Africans, whereas the power structure within Sudan's national government is overwhelmingly Arab. The Arabs' presence in the land dates back to their expansion into the region during the 7th to 15th centuries—as they migrated both southward from Egypt and westward, across the Red Sea, from the Arabian Peninsula.
It was two and a half years ago, in February, 2003, that a small, localized insurrection broke out against the national Sudanese government in parts of Darfur, and the government responded to this not just by squelching those who were the armed resisters but also by launching a massive campaign of "ethnic cleansing" against all black Darfuris. So, over these past two and a half years, government forces have overseen and directly participated in the widespread massacre and summary execution of countless civilians, and in the bombing and burning of whole towns and villages, and in the forcible depopulation of wide swaths of the land. The few African Union peacekeepers who've been sent to the area—so far, there're just 2,400 of them—have had relatively little success in protecting the remaining villages from ongoing attacks.
Now, in terms of religious identity, most black Darfuris are Muslim, as are also the government soldiers and the Arab militias—called Janjaweed—who have so ruthlessly attacked these civilians. So it's in spite of these peoples' shared Muslim identity that the soldiers and militia have been destroying many of the hospitals, schools, and even mosques used by black Darfuris, and have been killing a number of the black Darfuris' imams, and have even been desecrating some of the black Darfuris' Qur'ans.
Since the fighting began in 2003, more than two million Darfuris have been displaced from their homes and forced to become refugees. Yes, two million—that's one-third of Darfur's entire population. You see, the government soldiers and the Arab Janjaweed militias who assist them have bombed and bulldozed countless villages, destroying all of the villagers' livestock, food stores, wells and pumps, blankets and clothing—in short, everything capable of sustaining human life. In addition, many thousands of women and girls have been raped by these soldiers and militia. And then, of course, there are the corpses. In Srebrenica, some 7,000 died. In Darfur, some 200,000 have died so far, and that number continues to increase daily. Many of these have died directly from the violence perpetrated by soldiers and militia; and many have died indirectly from that violence—that is, from the various diseases that are spawned by the unsanitary conditions in the refugee camps and from all the other maladies that arise from forced displacement and lack of access to food and other humanitarian assistance.
So why don't the two million refugees gathered in camps just go back to their villages and farmlands and rebuild them? Well, first because they are constantly being intimidated from doing so by the never-ending attacks against all those who venture outside the camps—attacks, rapes, lootings, and assaults carried out by the government-backed Janjaweed militias. And second, because the whole economy of Darfur has simply collapsed, so much so that fully one-and-a-half million of the Darfuris living outside the camps are also starving and are as fully dependent on foreign humanitarian organizations for food and other assistance as are those living inside the camps.
And speaking of humanitarian non-governmental organizations (that is, NGO's), there are now some seventy-five of them that have staff on the ground in Darfur, trying as best they can to provide food, water, shelter, sanitation, and healthcare. But the staff of these organizations are constantly being harassed and restricted by the Sudanese national government. And the aid convoys they organize are being regularly assaulted by bandits, for the government does little to prevent such attacks. So it is that, despite the best efforts of the NGO's, they are able to supply only a fraction of the fresh water and food needed by these refugees, whose numbers now exceed the population of the whole city of Philadelphia.
In the camps, aid workers have been told numerous stories by refugees—stories about militiamen riding into villages on horses and camels, slaughtering the men and boys, raping the women and girls, and stealing whatever else they can find. And such atrocities have also been vividly portrayed in some drawings recently made by refugee Darfuri children and youth, 8 to 17 years old.
An exhibit of these drawings can now be viewed by all of us right here in New York City. From now through September 6th, the originals of the two drawings reproduced on today's bulletin covers, along with twenty-five other pictures by Darfuri children, are on display at the Bronfman Center for Jewish Student Life at New York University. (7 East 10th Street, NYC 10003; 212-998-4114. The exhibit is open Mondays-Thursdays, 7:30 a.m.-8:30 p.m. and Fridays 7:30 a.m.-4:00 p.m.)
How did these drawings come into being? Well, last February, two researchers from the independent human rights organization Human Rights Watch—Dr. Annie Sparrow and Mr. Olivier Bercault—gave crayons and paper to children and youth living in seven refugee camps along the border between Darfur and the neighboring nation of Chad. Sparrow and Bercault originally had only in mind that the task of drawing would keep these children occupied while the researchers conducted interviews with their parents—interviews about the attacks, privation, and sexual violence they had experienced.
As the researchers passed out the crayons and paper to the children and youth, they offered no instructions about what should be drawn. Yet, quite spontaneously, the children began portraying scenes of the warfare they themselves had experienced: attacks by the Janjaweed militia, bombings and shootings by government forces, the burning of entire villages, and their families' flight to the refugee camps. Dr. Sparrow comments on these remarkable pictures in this way (quoted by Felicia R. Lee, in The New York Times, July 6, 2005, p. E3): "When I first started collecting them they were so shocking. It's not just that the children are scarred and traumatized by awful atrocities but [it's] the way they're devising this unique visual vocabulary that corroborates all the testimony we've taken from adults. These are not generic guns that a 10-year-old boy would [ordinarily be expected to] draw but guns they've actually seen. I sat down with a weapons expert who identified [exactly] what the[se] weapons [really] were."
The two pictures on our bulletin covers—front and back—were drawn by a 13-year-old boy. To protect his privacy, the researchers have given him the pseudonym Abd al-Rahman—which, in Arabic, has the ironic but hope-filled meaning, "servant of the Compassionate One." The youth's verbal description of his two pictures is printed inside your bulletin on p. 11, and I'll read it to you now while you look at these pictures.
Abd al-Rahman says: "I am looking at the sheep in the wadi [riverbed]. I see Janjaweed coming—quickly, on horses and camels, with Kalashnikovs—shooting and yelling, 'kill the slaves, kill the blacks.' They killed many of the men with the animals. I saw people falling on the ground and bleeding. They chased after children. Some of us were taken, some we didn't see again. All our animals were taken: camels, cows, sheep, and goats. Then the planes came and bombed the village."
So why is my sermon focused on Darfur today?
Well, first, the United Nations describes the Darfur conflict as one of the world's worst humanitarian crises. Yet the frightful deaths ten days ago of some fifty-four people in London have garnered far, far more attention from the American public than have the frightful deaths of over 200,000 people in Darfur. And by an actual media count, the Michael Jackson trial got 50 times more coverage on network television than Darfur has received, and even Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes got 12 times more coverage. And while we Americans have been busy squabbling over whether the Ten Commandments should be displayed in and around our public buildings, we have all the while been failing to live out the spirit of these commandments. For first, we have been failing to even notice these African neighbors of ours who are suffering the atrocity of a genocide, and second, we have been failing to provide for them the justice and compassion of our active aid.
So, to try to turn around the massive American indifference to what is going on in Darfur, people of faith throughout the United States are gathering during this period from Friday, July 8th through next Thursday, July 21st in order to pray for Darfur, to bear political witness to the genocide that's going on there, and to try to speak truth to the powers-that-be in Washington.
And within this two-week period from July 8th to 21st, today is part of "The National Weekend of Prayer and Reflection" that has been declared by both the Save Darfur Coalition and a bipartisan group of United States senators led by Democrat Jon Corzine of New Jersey and Republican Sam Brownback of Kansas.
You see, next Thursday, July 21st is the first anniversary of the bold and unanimous declaration by our Congress that what's going on in Darfur is in truth a "genocide." That declaration, made a year ago, was a great start. But as we all know, an initial proclamation becomes worse than meaningless if it's not followed up by actions, and so far there have been very few concrete actions taken to save Darfur, either by Congress or by our President. So this "National Weekend of Prayer and Reflection" is being held in order to help turn last year's proclamation into this year's action.
So again, why is my sermon focused on Darfur today?
Well, "The National Weekend of Prayer and Reflection" is certainly one reason, but the second and more important reason is this: our actions on behalf of those who are in desperate need is commanded by Jesus. In today's Second Lesson, John the Baptist sends to Jesus asking, "Are you really the Messiah?" And Jesus gives answer to John by pointing to the many deeds of justice and compassion that he's performing: "the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them." (Matthew 11:5)
What if today black Muslim Darfuris were to send to us a similar question—asking, "Are you American Christians really following Jesus, the one whom you call Messiah?" If they were to ask us that, would we be able to respond by pointing to our own strong deeds of justice and compassion and saying: "Look, those who are virtually dead are being raised by us, and the poor are having good news brought to them by us"?
Well, what are some strong deeds of justice and compassion that we can begin enacting today to save these black Muslim Darfuris themselves?
First, we can, today, begin praying, both here and at home—praying that the justice and compassion that God commands people to carry out may indeed come to be done by us and others.
Second, we can, today, add our individual voices to the corporate voice of our own Session. Last Tuesday, our Session signed on to a letter to the President, calling on him to assume a role of leadership among the nations in working to stop this genocide. And the Session also voted to ask our individual members to sign the petition that Sue Spears will be holding at the door as we go out—a petition that urges President Bush to work through the United Nations both for the mandate, and the financing, needed to deploy a larger, more effective international peacekeeping force in Darfur, a force under the auspices not of us but of the African Union. What's more, Sue will be asking each of us to take a copy of this petition home, so that we can ask our friends, our neighbors, and our fellow workers to sign on also.
Third, if not today then sometime this week, we can write letters to our local media, urging them to increase their coverage of this genocide in order to raise Americans' consciousness of the crisis.
And finally, I'm sure that once we really begin to focus on what's going on in Darfur, a number of other actions will suggest themselves to us as well.
Dear people of God, the power and the means to stop this genocide that is occurring "on our watch"—during our lifetime on earth—the power and the means to stop it are available to us. What is lacking has been our commitment, our courage, and the fullness of our love. And we can begin remedying that this very day!
Let us pray:
O God, forgive us our past indifference, and empower us this day to begin our work of helping to save Darfur. In the name of Jesus, who is our Messiah, we pray this. Amen.