Good guys and bad guys?

Richard E. Stearns President, World Vision US For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes. He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the alien, giving him food and clothing. And you are to love those who are aliens, for you yourselves were aliens in Egypt. -- Deuteronomy 10:17-19

I grew up in the 1950s on a steady diet of movies and TV shows featuring cowboys and Indians. I always rooted for “the good guys,” the cowboys, as they valiantly fought “the bad guys,” the Indians. There were no shades of gray, only black and white, as the good guys defended helpless settlers and fought for American sovereignty over the land. The bad guys were lawless and godless in their savage attacks on helpless men, women, and children.

I never really thought twice about this view of American history until my college years, when I read Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Alexander Brown. In this account, Native Americans had flourished for centuries before the arrival of European colonists, who helped themselves to the land with little or no regard for the rights of the people already living there. Many tribes sought peaceful coexistence with the settlers, but the treaties they signed were broken as new demands for land and expansion arose. While tribes indeed committed violent acts, they were often provoked by the colonists’ actions. We know that this story ultimately ended in the near extinction of Native Americans as they were forced onto reservations, their lands stolen, their homes and herds destroyed.

Recently, I had a similar adjustment to my belief system when I met a remarkable community of Christians living in another land. These people are suffering great persecution. They must carry I.D. cards with them at all times. Their license plates must be a certain color. They can be imprisoned without cause. They cannot vote or travel freely. Their land can be confiscated, their homes bulldozed without warning or compensation. They are denied even the most basic human rights, not because they are Christian, but because they are Palestinian.

I was shocked by what I saw as I traveled to Israel, Gaza, and the West Bank a few months ago with 12 pastors from the United States. We worshiped with Palestinian believers and even stayed in their homes, listening to their stories of suffering and injustice. They asked, “Why don’t our Christian brothers and sisters in America care about us?”

I found this hard to answer. I said, “Most do not know that these things are happening, or that Palestinian Christians are suffering. Most of us support Israel without question because of past atrocities against Jews and because of our interpretation of biblical prophecies about Israel.”

Although only a small percentage of Palestinians are Christians, they help us see that human rights abuses are wrong, no matter who – Christian or Muslim – is injured by them. The United States has denounced such abuses in other contexts, such as South African apartheid and the persecution of Muslims in Kosovo. But the Palestinians’ plight has been consistently overlooked as our government has steadfastly supported Israel. We must not look the other way when our friends violate basic human rights, letting the ends justify the means.

Let me state clearly that neither side in this immensely complex situation is without fault. Both parties have committed unthinkable atrocities over the past 50 years. I do not claim to know the solution to this exceedingly tragic situation, but I have learned that there is another side to this modern-day story of “good guys” and “bad guys.”

My heart was broken by what I saw in Israel, not because I favor the Palestinian cause over that of the Israelis, but because I am to love all my neighbors – especially the downtrodden – regardless of race, religion, or politics. Let us pray for a solution to this conflict – a moral solution, not just a political one – that sees both parties living together as neighbors in this sacred land.