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How can Christians in America make a difference in such faraway places?

Rwanda was so vivid in 1994 for me. You could see at the end of the investigation that the Rwandan genocide was completely stoppable. It was this massive human tragedy, an intentional one of great atrocity, and we knew about it and clearly could have stopped it. The military histories have all been written about this. It would have taken a very modest international intervention. But our government was working hard to make sure that we did not get involved in Rwanda. Why? Because they thought it would be a political liability among the American people who were afraid to be stuck in some quagmire in the middle of Africa.

We had a relatively small but vocal minority of Christians in America who found it completely unacceptable that the United States would just stand by and do nothing when 800,000 people were butchered in eight weeks. They could have changed the political calculation and drawn the U.S. into an engagement that actually would have been effective. American Christians have this incredible stewardship-of-power issue that is before them in the struggle for justice in the world, in the confrontation with violence.

So we sit on this pivotal point of history. Will American Christians find rescue for their own lives and move into the more abundant life that God has called them to—one of joy, courage, and strength? And will American Christians seize the opportunity to steward the power God has granted them in a way that actually serves millions of people being crushed by oppression and abuse in the world? It's a fascinating, marvelous focal point for the American people—and American Christians—that relates not only to their most intimate, personal spiritual formation but also to the largest forces of history at work in the world today.

Copyright © 2009 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

Haugen's books, Good News About Injustice, Terrify No More, and, most recently, Just Courage: God's Great Expedition for the Restless Christian are available from ChristianBook.com and other book retailers.

Christianity Today also has more articles on social justice.

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January 2009, Vol. 53, No. 1