This was a
post I had originally planned a week ago, but alas, my master’s thesis got in
the way. Thanks for your patience; hopefully I can blog more frequently in the
coming months now that it is complete.
Freedom isn’t
free. Elections in America are something that we take for granted, a routine,
sometimes even almost annoying, cycle that comes up every few years. We spend
months (or years) talking about the candidates, debating the issues, raising
funds, and eventually casting ballots for our candidates. Sometimes they win,
sometimes they lose, but invariably, life continues until the next election
cycle.
In many other
developing nations around the world, this process is nothing like it is in the
US. In many places it is tumultuous as best and deadly at worst, and nothing
exemplifies this more than the recent elections in the Democratic Republic of
Congo (DRC). Only the second elections in the country’s history, on November 28th,
this country undertook the task of polling its 70 million citizens for
presidential and house seats. Over 18,500 people were on the ballot, and
distributing materials across a country the size of Western Europe with no
roads is a mammoth task.
Leading up to
election, violence spread in many areas, usually from mobs rallying to support
their candidate and clashes between parties. Human Rights Watch estimates that
18 people died directly from violence at polling stations on election day.
Following the election, all of the ballots were shipped to the capital in
Kinshasa, where millions of paper ballots were spread in warehouses and
counted. It took over a week, but it was announced, not surprisingly, that the
incumbent, Joseph Kabila, had won the presidency. Immediately the other
candidates claimed that the results were fraudulent, and several even declared
themselves to be president.
So far, the
situation has yet to erupt into widespread violence, as it did following the
2006 elections were the opposition leader marched his army into the capital,
but things certainly been anything but smooth.
I write all
of this to say that we are certainly blessed to live in a place where freedom
and peace go hand-in-hand. But this also means that we have an obligation. An
obligation as a nation to stand up for the oppressed, the silenced and the
forgotten. An obligation as individuals to stand up for our brothers and
sisters around the world. An obligation as Christians to pray for and serve the
least and lost.
Christ
said in Luke 12:48 “Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be
required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more.”
As we are in this Christmas season, I challenge you to take a long, hard look
at the things that you have been given: family, friends, home, job, car, health,
church. Now ask yourself “If I have been given this much, what has Christ
demanded I do with it?” This Christmas, let’s do more than just give iPads and
Xboxs to each other, but let’s truly do what Christ has called us to do, which
is “to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself
unstained from the world.” (James 1:27)
