Haney,

With Brian's film, Paul Freedom's, and Mark Brecke's (which will be out soon), I wonder if there is some creative way to present these in some sort of festival or something that would draw attention to Darfur.

The trailer and website for film look so powerful! If enough people just see the film, become aware ... there may be enough minds, resources, prayers engaged to solve this crisis. Since more humans need to think, understand, love, I hope every single human being has a chance to see The Devil Came on Horseback

Since I am not smart enough to make that happen and I have not yet thought of exactly how to more aggressively, effectively attack this problem, I am stuck [for right now] trying to be better example to every human I encounter right NOW of prayer, faith, diligence, courage and action ... maybe I can do something in the next few moments that will prevent ... or, at least, not start ... the next Darfur, Rwanda, Bosnia that is going to happen 10 years from now or 100 years from now or 1000 years from now.

Just the existence of this film is very encouraging, but I remain sick with impatience about the sin, yet calmly patient with the cumulative effect of our actions. Genocide is one of those things that reminds me of the words of the anabaptist theologian John Howard Yoder:

"The key to the obedience of God's people is not their effectiveness but their patience. The triumph of the right is assured not by the might that comes to the aid of the right, which is of course the justification of the use of violence and the other kinds of power in every human conflict; the triumph of the right, although it is assured, is sure because of the power of the resurrection and not because of any calculation of causes and effects, nor because of the inherently greater strength of the good guys. The relationship between the obedience of God's people and the triumph of God's cause is not a relationship of cause and effect but one of cross and resurrection."

I know that Yoder's statements are true, but as an engineer [who was created and directed by the same God as John Yoder], my thoughts about this stuff gravitate toward investigations of root cause ... blame doesn't do any good whatsoever -- indeed, we NEED to patiently forgive the sinners! But we still need to impatiently hate, despise and understand the sin in able to eradicate it.

This film ... or wearing green ribbons, becoming well enough educated in order to appropriately divest from Sudan, going to rallies and taking friends along, time in prayer all ... is extremely important stuff, but I am not sure if the fixes are all that simple or if we should allow it to be as simple as blaming the Janjaweed as the devil. If that's all that happens, it might be better if nobody saw the film.

The truth of the matter is that each one of us as an individual probably carries some sort of psychocultural DNA in our consciousness that will sow the seeds of several future genocides. In other words, it's not only Darfur ... the problem of genocide is more endemic, probably even more embedded in our consciousness than we would prefer to think.

Why does genocide keep happening?

Why Darfur ... after Rwanda after Bosnia after Cambodia after crosses burning in Mississippi after Auschwitz after gulags after reservations after puritanical witch burnings? ... where is all the hate, judgment, prejudice, pigeonholing and need for isolation of others who are different, therefore dangerous coming from?

Hatred, anger, frustration, suspicion, jealousy arise in an environment devoid of compassion, awareness and mindfulness. Since, simplistic fundamentalism, nationalism, patriotism, humanism or even a belief in the supremacy of science provides the excuse or cover not to have the courage and compassion to think, to confront and stop hate ... genocide is tough to eradicate.

Only one thing is absolutely certain. Simply vilifying, stopping and imprisoning the 'bad guys' will not fix this problem.

It is tough to fathom why humans that were created by a loving God capable of spontaneously generating compassion, awareness and mindfulness ... perhaps realizing or actualizing that creation is what the love of the Creation is about. Getting the realization of the Creation to the next step will be about prayer, faith, diligence, courage, and action.

Esther Sprague said:

Haney,

With Brian's film, Paul Freedom's, and Mark Brecke's (which will be out soon), I wonder if there is some creative way to present these in some sort of festival or something that would draw attention to Darfur.

Sorry for the delay in response - no greats ideas here re: a festival - I imagine these movies make sense one at a time.

I'm thinking that if we do a big April 29th event in San Francisco perhaps we could include clips from all three and in doing so promote these movies.

The blurb says:

"...leads you through the tragic impact of an Arab government bent on destroying its black African citizens."

This seems like a pretty poisonous frame to promote. Very easy to misconstrue the geopolitical actors IMHO.

Esther Sprague said:

I'm thinking that if we do a big April 29th event in San Francisco perhaps we could include clips from all three and in doing so promote these movies.

That sounds like a great idea.

Lars Hasselblad Torres said:

The blurb says:

"...leads you through the tragic impact of an Arab government bent on destroying its black African citizens."

This seems like a pretty poisonous frame to promote. Very easy to misconstrue the geopolitical actors IMHO.

Lars, are trying to pick a fight in my personal news?

Actually I think you have a point - this sounds a bit like "of course they are bad, they are Arabs." The movie itself didn't have that attitude. I assume they were trying to express the racial aspect of the genocide.

Um, no definitely not trying to pick a fight, Haney. My apologies if I gave that impression. Sorry. I hope the screening and all goes really well.

Oh shoot, I was just kidding Lars, forgot to add the smiley face.

no worries haney. seems like the kind of film that would do well at the film festival circuit. we are putting the finishing touches on ours if someone can get us a copy maybe i can get it squeezed in.

Mark Bruns said:

It is tough to fathom why humans that were created by a loving God capable of spontaneously generating compassion, awareness and mindfulness ... perhaps realizing or actualizing that creation is what the love of the Creation is about. Getting the realization of the Creation to the next step will be about prayer, faith, diligence, courage, and action.

Maybe human beings were not created "by a loving God capable of spontaneously generating compassion, awareness and mindfulness."

Taking away the presumption that a loving God has a plan for US, might help US to broaden OUR views of what is possible in creating peace through looking at humans as completely fallible and flawed, but still capable of enormous human progress IF only incrementally.

Maybe, as humans, WE all have to work really hard to generate "compassion, awareness and mindfulness" and that those things, like genocide, have nothing to do with a loving, all-knowing, compassionate God.

Maybe the trick is doing the work to create humans who are more god-like in their goodness and compassion in this material realm, rather than creating gods that are more like humans in some spiritual realm.

Haney Armstrong said:

Lars Hasselblad Torres said:

The blurb says:

"...leads you through the tragic impact of an Arab government bent on destroying its black African citizens."

This seems like a pretty poisonous frame to promote. Very easy to misconstrue the geopolitical actors IMHO.

Lars, are trying to pick a fight in my personal news?

Hey, I'm totally comfortable picking a fight in your personal news! Whaddya wanna fight about? Are you really set on winning? That might be a drawback. I don't wanna look like I threw the fight just to suck up to the p'omidyar brass, but WE could work out something point-wise.