Wednesday, January 14, 2009

The power of the news brief

According to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, over 1,000 people have been killed in Gaza and more than 40% of them women or children. What are we to do?

It's so easy to read articles and watch news clips about the Zimbabweans dying of cholera and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and to believe the appropriate response is sympathy. Somehow feeling bad when we see these images fulfills our humanitarian part. Yet, because we are doing something - i.e. feeling sorry for them - we often times stop there, taking no other actions.

Why do we respond in this way? Perhaps it is because we are constantly bombarded by terrifying images and stories. We are overwhelmed by the problems of the world and, so, feel helpless to do anything at all.

I'm not sure what should be done. But I do know that we must start praying, fervently praying for peace and reconciliation. May the peace of the Lord fall upon both sides, may the wisdom of the Lord guide Israel, Hamas, and the UN, may the hand of the Lord guard the innocent as well as the guilty.