But why, you may ask, would one choose to confront such an awful reality? Perhaps you buy into the modern fable that mankind is inherently good and getting better each day—now with the help of education, multiculturalism, and Prozac. Perhaps you have come to believe our postmodern myth that it doesn’t really matter what you believe, as long as it makes you happy. And maybe you don’t quite understand the Biblical narrative that tells us Jesus had to suffer a violent penalty to reunite us with God. Couldn’t a short prison stay (à la Martha Stewart) earn us sufficient atonement for our white lies and white collar crimes? Surely we’re not that bad!

Staring genocide in the face, whether in Nazi Germany, Yugoslavia, or Rwanda, will move you closer to the real truth about the human condition. We have been a murderous race from the dawn of time, from the moment Cain killed his own brother. We, ordinary civilians, continue to be capable of torture and murder on a huge scale. Those of us who claim to be followers of Jesus are not exempt from this guilt. In the politically motivated Rwandan genocide pastors and priests killed or betrayed to death their parishioners. Family members professing to be Christians and related by marriage killed one another. In the100 day-period which began April 7, 1994, the Hutus of Rwanda killed at least 800,000 of their Tutsi countrymen using long knives called machetes. This was no long distance, mushroom cloud massacre. Many of the Tutsis were killed one by one as they took refuge in churches and town halls and hospitals. Mercifully killed, many of them, after they had been raped, mutilated, and tortured.

The movie, Hotel Rwanda, is merciful to the viewer as well. There are murders occurring in the distance, and rivers choked with bodies, but the dramatic tension comes not from grisly scenes, but from the intense threat of danger to characters we come to know and care about. I was awed by the practical courage and resourcefulness of the hero, Paul Rusesabagina, in protecting his Tutsi wife and over 1,000 others in a posh hotel until they could be freed by the Tutsi rebel army. The Hutus had been ordered by the government to kill Tutsis or be killed themselves. That didn’t seem to sway Paul, himself a Hutu. He bought off the murderers with cash, jewelry, and liquor—anything to keep his family and the others alive a little longer. We need more stories of such generous and heroic people, lest we succumb to fatal despair in the face of our world’s tragedies and needs.

The take-home message of this movie is that we can and should make a difference in the face of need. We must act, whether we ourselves are thrust into tragedies like those currently facing our brothers and sisters in the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, or whether we witness it from afar. Inaction is a sin, one that the church of Christ has committed all too often. We must not wait to act until we have some definitive solution, or until success is assured. Like Paul Rusesabagina, we must take risks and do the little possibles in front of us, so that God, through us, can accomplish the big impossibles.

I was motivated, after watching this film, to do a little web investigation. I found a few ways that we wealthy North American Christians can respond to the many tragedies that still stem from those awful 100 days in Rwanda. World Relief, a Christian aid organization headed by Gordon MacDonald that works through existing local churches, has multiple projects in Rwanda. These projects include Solace Ministries, a church-centered counseling program primarily for widows. That has been paired with Essential Oils, an income-generating project involving cultivation of geranium and eucalyptus plants and distillation of their oils for export. (Visit www.worldrelief.org, go to “Where we work,” “Africa,” then “Rwanda.”) They offer opportunities through their Catalogue of Hope to give your family and friends gifts like a year of sponsorship of a student for $45, or a mosquito net for a child for $2.50. Another useful website
is www.survivor-fund.org.uk, maintained by a British organization called SURF which is dedicated to the survivors of the genocide. Here you can read about the history of Rwanda, the genocide, and testimonials of survivors. SURF also partners with Solace Ministries and has opportunities for donations on line.

Don’t be afraid to watch this movie! You will be inspired to transcend yourself and follow Christ’s call more faithfully. The suffering world waits.