I had the day off yesterday. By that I mean that I got to take my daughter to daycare and then clean the house 🙂 But, in the midst of that I was able to watch a movie that I had wanted to see for a little while now called “Machine Gun Preacher”. I am always curious how Christianity will be portrayed by the media and this movie dealt with those things.

As a disclaimer: the movie portrays both unsaved and saved lifestyles and it does both with much brass. The portion of the movie prior to the main character coming to know Christ is not watered down or blunted. Violence, profanity, and drug use are all present in an unapologetic way. Depending on your ability to tolerate the presence of those qualities in films, I would recommend that you look the movie up on the extremely helpful website kidsinmind.com

In the aftermath of watching this movie that deals with the burden of compassion and helping the marginalized, I was reminded of Elie Wiesel’s Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech. The power of Wiesel’s words have been in my mind in a prominent way for quite sometime and I wanted to share a bit of it. He is speaking in the context of remembering and learning from the Holocaust.

Who would allow such crimes to be committed? How could the world remain silent? …I have tried to keep memory alive…I have tried to fight those who would forget. Because if we forget, we are guilty, we are accomplices.

We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Sometimes we must interfere. When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities become irrelevant. Wherever men and women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place must – at that moment – become the center of the universe.

There is so much injustice and suffering crying out for our attention: victims of hunger, of racism and political persecution…in so many lands governed by the left and by the right.

Human rights are being violated on every continent. More people are oppressed than free. How can one not be sensitive to their plight? Human suffering anywhere concerns men and women everywhere.

-Elie Wiesel

Let these words soak in deeply. Recognize them as the heart of Christ.