Get Your Fingers Out Of Your Ears

What is the chant about? It’s about the roughly 12,000 children that had been killed in Gaza at that point (now 18,500).

I know. I was there. Handing out flyers, trying to talk to delegates.

They knew what we were talking and chanting about. They didn’t want to hear it, because it was their job to ignore dead Palestinian children (follow the money). If they heard the names of babies slaughtered by Israel – hundreds of whom had not even reached their first birthday – they might begin to feel a twinge of conscience.

Those four people – and all the others who were similarly covering their ears – I hope they were deeply ashamed after this incident. I hope it was a turning point in their lives. I hope they’ve made amends for this disgusting show of apathy.

The truth is: we all know about these children. Some of us know more, some know less – but we all know this is happening.

Those of us who reside in the United States should be aware that this genocide is being paid for in part by our tax dollars and endorsed by our president.

Why are so many of us covering our ears, saying, “La, la, la, I can’t hear you”? – I’m addressing this question to people of faith, to Christ-followers.

Here are some recent “answers” I’ve heard – do any of these sound familiar?:

1. People are being killed every day. The world sucks.
2. I try not to listen to the news. It brings me down.
3. I don’t get involved in politics.
4. I can’t do anything about this, so I’ll just live my life.
5. I have enough negativity in my life. I don’t need another thing to worry about.
6. There will always be evil – until Jesus returns.
7. Only the Almighty God can bring healing to this world through our Lord Jesus Christ. Trust him.

These are all variations of “La, la, la, I can’t hear you.” They’re just different excuses for not caring.

These sentiments do not resemble Jesus in any way, shape, or form (even the last one).

1. Yes, people are killed every day, all over the world. Yes, the world sucks. We should be making it suck less. We should be fighting to get fewer people killed every day. This is not brain surgery. Nowhere are people killed at a faster clip than in a genocide.
2. Yes, there is a lot of bad news. Yes, it can be depressing. But we are on this earth to actively bring light and joy. The darkest, saddest corners of the world need the most light and joy. Why would we ignore the very places that need light and joy most desperately?
3. Politics is messy and divisive. What’s not divisive (and not political) is genocide. Imposed famine also should not be controversial.  Some issues are political, and some are framed as political when they’re really not. Take just a minute to think about this: on Judgment Day, will God ask you what political party you belonged to? Or will he ask what you did to help “the least of these“?
4. Are you sure there is nothing you can do about a genocide happening right now? (Please don’t say, “I pray, and that’s all I can do.” There’s more you can do – see below.) Do you suppose it’s really okay to just go about your daily life as if everything is fine, when you know for a fact that people are being annihilated (with your tax dollars, no less)? Can you really feel comfortable knowing there’s a genocide going on, all the while acting like there’s not? Is there anything even remotely Christlike about that?
5. What kinds of negativity are you dealing with in your life? Are you so wrapped up in those things that you can tell people dying of starvation as bombs drop on their heads, “Sorry, I have enough on my plate. I can’t deal with your problems too.”?
6. Of course, there will always be evil. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t fight against it – it means we should expect to fight against it every day of our lives. Fighting evil is disruptive and inconvenient. It can be costly. Here’s a secret: being targeted in a genocide is a lot more disruptive, inconvenient, and costly.
7. Trusting in God is a great idea – but not to do our job for us. God put us in charge of the earth to care for it. When there’s a fire, we don’t kneel and pray for God to put out the fire – we put out the fire and take the injured to the hospital. Then we pray that God would heal them.

We trust God to take care of things that are outside our control, and he expects to take care of the things that are our responsibility. We carry an issue forward as far as humanly possible, and ask God to bring it over the finish line.

There are things we can do – things we should do – to bring the Gaza genocide to an end. Here are a few:

1. Call your senators and your representative – (202)224-3121 – once every day, and just tell them to stop sending weapons to Israel.
2. Follow the news on Palestine just a little bit. You can get a good summary here every day. This is accurate and fact-based (something that can’t really be said about mainstream media). You can even sign up to get it delivered to you. I can personally vouch for the veracity of this site.
3. Learn a bit more about the Palestine issue. A good place to start is here.
4. Share what you learn with others. Just like you (probably) complain about other US government policies that you don’t like, complain about how your tax dollars are financing a genocide. Help others get smarter about Palestine. Ask them to call their Congress members.
5. Download and print a poster or some flyers from here – hand them out or put them up in a place where people will see them.
6. Have you done item #1 yet???