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We look back at the Holocaust when more than 6 million Jews were exterminated by the Nazis over the course of a few years and say it could never happen again. We believe that our media presence will make it impossible. Yet nearly one million Tutsis were slain by the Hutus in Rwanda in a period of a few months in 1994. And it did not happen unknowningly. The West stood by - even withdrew from the country - in order for it to happen.
Hotel Rwanda is a powerful movie. The true story of how one man did what he could in the face of an immense surging tide of genocide. The movie is not gory, but is certainly confronting. If this is the results of Western democracies at work - and it is a story which has echoes in other places - then we ought to be very concerned.
A film I would highly recommend.
Posted by gary at February 20, 2005 07:54 PM
Yes Gary, Sandra and I went to a preview. Sandra got emotional and I wasn't all that far from it. I guess I had read some American comments as well as some history of the event so I was partly aware of what the film might contain.
Yes it is a film to be seem, especially by cynics as well as Christians who would prefer to leave such savagery to the jungles.
I have a friend who a few years back in Africa was air lifted out of the country when rebels took over the government. He came back to Australiam and when peace was restored went back. Months later the rebels attacked. They were asleep and the rebels entered their home and took them and many other out into the countryside that night, in their PJs.
He realised that the weapons pointed at him and the crowd were likely to be used. He and his wife prayed that God would be honoured in what was about to happen. When they opened their eyes the rebels had vanished. They were well aware of genocide.
I was interested in the questions posed by an American writer
Which film would Jesus most want us to see, and why?
Why did so many churches urge people to see Gibson's film, and why did so few (if any?) promote Terry George's film? What do our answers to that question say about us?
What were the practical outcomes of millions of people seeing Gibson's film? And what outcomes might occur if equal numbers saw Hotel Rwanda - as an act of Christian faithfulness?
In what sense could Hotel Rwanda actually be titled The Passion of
the Christ?
What do we make of the fact that a high percentage of Rwandans who participated in the 1994 genocides were churchgoers?
What do we make of the fact that a high percentage of the Americans who ignored the 1994 genocides (then and now) were and are churchgoers?
What kind of repentance does each film evoke in Western Christians? Why might the kind of repentance evoked by Hotel Rwanda be especially needed during these important days in history?
I came home on Saturday afternoon and the film made it hard for me to finish Sunday's service. It was on my mind as I went to sleep and when I awoke on Sunday.
At the moment I am doing some reappraising of what I hold to be dear and my values in the light of that film.
I didn't see Mel Gibson's movie, because I've read the four original accounts, and I know how it ends. But this film again makes it clear that as a nation, as individuals and churches we have a responsibility to quickly speak out against all forms of injustices in Australia as well as overseas.
Today, Monday I pulled from the internet Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" speech. Though dated it still echos a warning and a hope to us all, that we are to pursue social Justice for all as an integral part of the Gospel of Jesus.
Could such a holocaust occur in Australia ?
And if it did who would care ?
Would other nations only come to our aid if the prize was our wealth, or would they come to our aid out of pure compassion.?
During WW2 an ex - German sub-marine captain wrote of the Nazis, "First they came for the Jews and no one spoke up for them. Then they came for the insane and we kept silent. The writer then went on to name several other clases of people and finished of each class with the phrase, and we didn't speak up for them. Then finally they came for us and there was nobody to speak up for us." (Words to that effect. You might know the original statement.)
We went because we had two free passes given to us from who knows where. It was the best money I've spent al year. It is not an entertainment movie, as you said it is confrontational to those who have a heart.
I also recommend it
Yours in Christ
Brian Hogan
bhogan@dcsi.net.au
Longwarry Baptist Church
Posted by: Brian Hogan at February 21, 2005 10:49 PM
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