Remembering Genocide

Do you ever stand up for your rights, even when it could get you in trouble?

Then Daniel asked the guard whom the palace master had appointed over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah: "Please test your servants for ten days. Let us be given vegetables to eat and water to drink. You can then compare our appearance with the appearance of the young men who eat the royal rations, and deal with your servants according to what you observe." So he agreed to this proposal and tested them for ten days. At the end of ten days it was observed that they appeared better and fatter than all the young men who had been eating the royal rations. - Daniel 1:11-15

Now I have to admit that I found this reading amusing today.

I couldn't help but think of the troubles we face when dieting.  In this case, eating only vegetables and drinking only water, they still gained weight.  How many can relate to that?

But as much fun as we could have with that, we know the message is not about dieting, but about standing one's ground, even if it means possible persecution.

On this day in 1915, in what is now Istanbul, Armenian intellectuals were rounded up and executed.

It was the first state-ordered genocide attempt, and it took generations before it was officially recognized as a day of commemoration.  Fear runs deep.

In 1975, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution to set aside this day as National Day of Remembrance of Man’s Inhumanity to Man.  But the president, Gerald Ford, didn't want to upset an ally, Turkey, so it failed to pass in the Senate Judiciary Committee.

In 1988, Soviet Armenia adopted it as a remembrance day, and in 1997, California followed suit.

Shouldn't we all be willing to stand up for such atrocities against humanity?

Some will remember the victims of the Holocaust on this day, and yet the crimes of humanity against humanity continue.  Perhaps we should be like Daniel and be willing to stand up and demand what we know is right, even if it makes our friends or others uncomfortable and may put us in danger.

But then, some would like to forget that we can be so cruel to each other and believe these things will never happen again.

Let us pray today for all victims of inhumanity and seek God's help in standing up against it.

More to come...