Hate

Anger. Righteous anger. What a valid emotional response to the issue of sex trafficking! When we hear about the abuse and damage and coercion used in the sex trade, how can we help but become angry, even outraged, at the people who are causing so much hurt in the lives of young, innocent girls??


When our team was in Phnom Penh, we faced another issue that was equally shocking and wrong: the genocide of Cambodians under the Khmer Rouge. For those of you who don't know, Cambodia recently went through a time of internal terror when an extremist communist party called the Khmer Rouge took over the country and systematically slaughtered thousands of people in an ideological purge. Many people died because of forced hard labour and starvation... but many others died because the Khmer Rouge took them as prisoners and murdered them brutally with machetes and other farm tools. One commander-- considered to be one of the heads of the whole operation-- was reported to have ordered his soldiers to kill babies by knocking them against trees.

It is a painful thing to think about... so disturbing it almost seems wrong to talk about it... there is nothing we could do to even begin to respond to that magnitude of horror and evil. No punishment on the people who authorized this is even close to enough.

The United Nations recently backed a trial against 5 leaders of the Khmer Rouge-- including the commander called "Duch" who I mentioned above. One of the people my team visited called the trial a farce.... Duch was only sentenced 19 years. Jenny admitted that when she heard that, she got angry. A righteous anger. How can someone who caused so much pain and suffering get off so easy? That doesn't seem like justice.

But then we learned something else that challenged our perception of justice. In the years between the fall of Khmer Rouge and the trial, Duch became a Christian. At the trial he admitted his guilt and apologized for what he had done... incidentally, he was the only one of the 5 leaders to admit any guilt and take responsibility for his actions.

That still doesn't seem like enough. How can an apology erase so many deaths??

And yet... we know, as hard as it is to admit, that God forgave him. We know that Jesus' death on the cross is powerful enough to cover even that magnitude of sin. We know that if we don't accept that God forgave him, we are hypocritical... because the good news of the Gospel is just that-- no matter what we've done, repentance is all God requires of us: Jesus has done the rest. The mystery of God's justice is that the same rule applies to those of us who are guilty of a lie or a lustful thought and to those who are responsible for thousands of deaths.

And to those who rape and kidnap and abuse young girls. It's something that we'll never understand.

Jon, Jenny, and I had to ask ourselves... how often does our righteous anger about sex trafficking actually become hate? In our hearts, can we step back and acknowledge that God has the love and even the right to forgive the men who exploit girls? The pimps who control them?

Friends, God's heart is so much bigger than we can ever comprehend. And if we are going to call ourselves soldiers who fight for His justice, we have to embrace His love and forgiveness. Our challenge is to recognize and hate the evil that is being committed, but to allow room in our hearts for the miracle of redemption.