Enter Jason Russell, primary maker of the film. He decided he’s had enough of children getting abducted and making them to shoot their parents and if they don’t the children are shot, chopped up, boiled and their parents forced to eat it or the others in the family will all die. Or they get drafted into a nasty children’s army with their first act to shoot their parents. Or they become the child sex slaves of Joseph Kony and his cohorts. It’s been going on for 20 years. Tens of thousands of children it has affected. And the world has remained ignorant. And for the most part, uninvolved.
Enter again Jason Russell post-You Tube sensation. 100 million views in 2 weeks. Thousands of hate mail letters. And Jason loses it. It’s bad. And it makes Time magazine’s front cover. The reactions are all over the place.
Enter Noah. Well, actually Shem, Ham and Japheth. Call it PTSD from being on a boat too long with animals or having just witnessed the most drastic loss of life in recorded history. Noah lost it.
Gen 9:20 Noah, a man of the soil, proceeded to plant a vineyard. 21 When he drank some of its wine, he became drunk and lay uncovered inside his tent. 22 Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father naked and told his two brothers outside. 23 But Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it across their shoulders; then they walked in backward and covered their father’s naked body. Their faces were turned the other way so that they would not see their father naked.
24 When Noah awoke from his wine and found out what his youngest son had done to him, 25 he said,
“Cursed be Canaan!
The lowest of slaves
will he be to his brothers.”
26 He also said,
“Praise be to the LORD, the God of Shem!
May Canaan be the slave of Shem.
27 May God extend Japheth’s[b] territory;
may Japheth live in the tents of Shem,
and may Canaan be the slave of Japheth.”
One son saw the actions of his father, did not cover him but rather told others. Whether it was mocking or passing poor sentiment “poor guy” we don’t know. We just know that he didn’t cover his father. Shem and Japheth on the other hand even in their father’s embarrassing mistake, showed him dignity. They did not cover it up, they covered him. The one son was cursed. The other two blessed. And I fear with this issue with Jason that there are more sons of Canaan than those who are offering covering.
Enter Jimmy Swaggart. Known for his financial infidelity. He preached the gospel but he also made some serious mistakes. Thrown in prison because of them. Yes, they were wrong and it was bad. But while in that prison outside of his family less people than can be counted on one hand ever came to see him. One of those few was Billy Graham.
Covering. Not cover up. Grace is something we all ought to give because we just might need it one day–in abundance.
But let’s not miss the point: How many tens of thousands of children must be brutalized, abducted and forced to be murderers before we care more about the suffering cries of these children than that someone made a 30 minute documentary with a few supposed problems? Obviously not enough. Or maybe it’s not hit close enough to home. I hope it never has to hit home. But if it did, I bet we would be angry towards any world that didn’t take action. Especially one that was more concerned about a video than the fact that they were dying cruel deaths. And so I say thanks Jason. I’m praying for you. And also for the end of Kony’s brutality. May your suffering not be in vain.
