On February 12th, 2014, young students peacefully took to their streets of Caracas, Venezuela. It was National Youth Day and a day that the student community organized to respectfully demonstrate their dissatisfaction with the government. Rather than their concerns of living in a daily reality of heightened crime rates, food shortages, censored media- in the midst of having the highest inflation rate in the world- Venezuelan students were met with deadly backlash that resulted in an estimated 11 deaths within the first two weeks of the protests. Venezuelan nationals have continued to die over the past two months throughout the ongoing protests.
Yet we have more Christians whom are more upset about the recent Noah movie than they are with what has happened in Venezuela.
Why do we always do this, brothers and sisters? Why do we often find ourselves placing our anger and protest into the wrong places?
A quick Google search shows the world what Christians are more concerned about. There have been more blog posts- along with outrage and debate over social media- about whether or not Noah is biblical, if Christians should support this movie. People are angry because this film was directed by an atheist. Another quick Google search shows that there has been very little response from the church about the crisis in Venezuela.
Why are we more upset about a movie than we are over civilians being killed in neighboring Venezuela? Why haven’t we expressed more outrage about injustices being committed against other human beings created in the image of God?
I am not saying that you do not have the right to be upset if you have some sort of qualms with the movie. We are allowed to have our opinions, yet my concern is with our tendency to put our focus on an issue that seems so trite in comparison to so many injustices in our hurting world. If we are that concerned with how folks who are not Christian will interpret the Noah movie, then why not reach out to them and invite them to actually read over the actual story in Genesis with us as a way to eventually share the Gospel? Is that not what we are supposed to be doing as Christians anyhow? Shouldn’t we invite others to take a look at Jesus and his love for the world and not just write angry social media posts and blogs, leaving it at that?
How many of us have prayed for Venezuela? How many pastors have we heard express outrage what has been happening? How many of us have mourned over the lives lost there over the past two months, lives that were lost over simply demanding basic human rights? How many of us in the church have stood in protest and solidarity with Venezuelans and demanded that justice be brought?
It’s not just with Venezuela that we have done this with. It’s also been the garment sweatshop that collapsed in Bangladesh last year and the crisis in Ukraine. Injustices pass by us daily on quick news headlines on Twitter and Facebook, beckoning for our prayers and action, yet we have chosen to keep scrolling down the screens of our smartphones.
It’s time to reflect on what we focus our attention and prayers on. Do we not see that God is waiting for us to cry out these kinds of prayers for justice and transformation? What are we waiting for?