Us versus Them

This is a difficult post to write, but I cannot be silent. With the recent presidential decision to remove the United States troops from Afghanistan, the nation has collapsed into chaos and misery as the Taliban have taken control. Heartbreaking footage of Afghanis running alongside a departing U.S. Air Force plane highlights their desperation to escape. Video footage from Aljazeera.com shows several people clinging to the plane after takeoff, only to plummet to their deaths when they could no longer hold on.

Dear readers, when professional athletes disparage the United States, this is the video they should be forced to watch on a loop. If you have grown up amongst the privilege of Christianity, freedom, democracy, and capitalism, it is remarkably easy to forget that you are, in fact, privileged. America represents hope to people without any.

Here are few eye-opening statistics.

The poverty rate in Afghanistan is nearly 48%. In the United States, just under 14%.

The literacy rate in Afghanistan is only 43%, compared with 99% in the U.S.

Afghanistan has the highest fetal mortality rate in the entire world. 110.6 deaths per 1,000 pregnancies. In contrast, the U.S. has only 17.3 per 100,000.

The life expectancy in Afghanistan is 63 years old compared to 78 years old in the United States.

It is easy to dismiss the news. Turn off the television or your social media feed and the people “over there” disappear from view, from consciousness. The Covid-19 deaths, the drought and food shortages they have endured, the conflict with the Taliban…. all of it is easily ignored if you do not want to know.

I have a sweet friend in Afghanistan – a former interpreter to the U.S. military. His name is Hanif and he and his wife have five beautiful children, all with dark hair and the most sparkling blue eyes you could imagine. He has tried for years to ensure his children have a better childhood than he did. His girls were being educated because he knows this will give them a better chance at literally everything. We have sent school supplies to him and Hanif risked his life to deliver them to a poor village. Little children clutching their Crayola colored pencils just as eagerly as children here do on the first day of school.

If you are reading this blog post – you are literate, have electricity and internet access. You are blessed.

What can you do to help?   PRAY. Pray that there is divine intervention, that God will rescue these dear souls from danger, violence, terrorism. Pray that Jesus will come to people in dreams to lead them away from the Islamic faith. Pray that the leadership of the United States will provide desperately needed protection to the people of Afghanistan and that the Taliban will be defeated once and for all.

To provide monetary aid:

https://www.christianaid.org.uk/our-work/where-we-work/afghanistan

https://www.rescue.org/article/how-can-i-help-afghanistan

Dear reader, I leave you with the words of German pastor Martin Niemöller who initially turned a blind eye to the suffering of his fellow Germans during World War Two. He was an anti-Semite at the time and the suffering of others didn’t interest him. A meeting with Adolph Hitler himself changed Niemöller’s heart and showed him the errors of his ways.  Let us not see the world as “us versus them,” but as the human race that God created.

“First, they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out— because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.”  Pastor Martin Niemöller