Why was I born in a safe, sanitised and stable Western country? What do I do when I see evil manifest itself in all its horrific guises? These were some of the questions I asked as I stared at the limed bodies of thousands of Tutsi who had been killed where they had taken refuge in a school in Rwanda.
As a recently qualified barrister, I went to Africa with clinical questions about the operation of justice in a post-genocide society and found that no amount of intellectual posturing could help me to rationalise the deaths of 800,000 Tutsi and Hutus who were killed in the space of 100 days in 1994. I came back with many questions but also with the conviction that God cares passionately about injustice and calls Christians to respond with compassion and practical action.
Nameless bodies
Traces of individuality could still be seen on many bodies: shreds of a blue dress, an arm twisted-up in self-defence, the foetal curl of the terrified. As each nameless, unidentified body rapidly becomes a historical statistic and the attention of the world's fickle media moves on to the next topical trouble spot of the moment, what is God's view? I am sure that if I was wounded and enraged by such a sight then God was more so. God does not forget the suffering of victims or the killing of children. 'God is a righteous God who expresses his wrath every day' (Psalm 7.11), and it is key to the core of his very nature that he is a just God who never grows weary, numb or indifferent to the suffering of the world.
