justice and mercy

I recently watched “Machine Gun Preacher,” the new movie based on the life of Sam Childers and his fight to rescue LRA-affected South Sudanese children. He operates an orphanage in Nimule, and for the last several years, has been on a mission to hunt down Joseph Kony with a contingent of Sudan’s People Liberation Army (SPLA) soldiers. Those in the church and outside of it have strong and conflicting opinions about this man and his methods. Everyone is entitled to their convictions, and no one is completely right or wrong.

Personally, I like the guy. In the midst of all the opinions, some things are certain. He is genuine in his faith. One doesn’t just go from being druggie and gangster to crusader for vulnerable children in a forgotten land. There was a real encounter with God, and there’s now a real relationship and sincere love. His mission of hunting down Joseph Kony and using arms to fight the cause of children is controversial. Dietrich Bonheoffer was a pacifist and man of faith and died in prison for plotting to assassinate Hitler. Being completely against violence, he wrestled hard with this conviction that he could not escape. He defended his reasons for doing what he did by saying that if you were a teacher, and someone came in to your classroom and attempted to kill all the children, would you not do whatever was necessary to stop that person?

In Yei, we care for several children whose worlds were shattered by the LRA. I think they will carry these scars for life. There are 3 siblings whose village was razed in 2009. Their eldest brother was abducted into the army; their mother was murdered with a machete with her 3-year old daughter strapped to her back. We have another child who spent several months in LRA captivity as a slave. We have corroborated with the UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) to rehabilitate and reintegrate 21 children to their families and home communities. I wrote about one of these kids in a previous blog post – a 16-year old girl. Her arms were scarred and temporarily not functional from being tied so hard to a tree. This was almost 2 years into my service in South Sudan, and it took a lot to make me cry at that point because I had almost grown accustomed to severe suffering. But when I saw this girl, I just burst into tears. Her eyes were so distant and forlorn, her whole countenance despondent.

I think great evil calls for extraordinary measures. I’m against guns and war. In general, I don’t condone taking up arms; I don’t think this decision should be reached lightly or impulsively. But in extreme situations, yes. As in the cases of Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, I believe the acts of Kony constitute such a dire situation. Few circumstances are black or white; there are both positives and negatives to any type of action taken against Kony and the LRA. But I think taking Kony out has greater benefits for the greatest amount of people…children. That’s just my opinion.

At the end of the movie, clips were shown of the real Sam Childers and his work. In the last clip, he is speaking to the audience. He says (paraphrased), “If someone came to your home and abducted your child or family member, and I told you I could get that child back….would you care how I did it?” This is a deeply thought-provoking statement and question.

I get Sam Childers, partly because I’ve seen some of what he has seen, and partly because I think I’m a similar personality type. I get his rage intertwined with pain at seeing first-hand the wreckage wrought by Kony, his hunger for justice, and his ardent pursuit of it. I believe God gets him too. Jesus’ strength is not only displayed in the Man bleeding on the cross, vastly, incomprehensibly merciful, but also as the One riding in on a white horse, armed for battle, avenging the ones He loves. We have to view God holistically like this, and try as best as we can to operate in that balance.

In regard to Mr. Childers, let us Westerners, who have not had to live in an environment where rape, brutal acts of violence, child abduction are the norm, who have not experienced such things ourselves, who haven’t even interacted with such children (most of us), not be so quick to judge. Only God is purely righteous and right. The rest of us are just trying to do the best we can to listen to Him and follow Him in executing mercy and justice.