Blood Diamonds

We just finished watching the Leonardo DiCaprio and Djimon Hounsou movie, "Blood Diamonds". It tells the horrific story of the carnage created in places like Sierra Leone where the mining of diamonds has been used to pay for bloody civil wars and genocide. Meanwhile, those of us in the West go blindly shopping for diamond rings and baubles that have been bought with the blood and suffering of millions.
In the course of the movie the depiction of the torture inflicted upon the people of Sierra Leone by their own rebel forces results in the amputation of young men so that they are unable to either vote in elections or carry arms against the rebels. It is not just Hollywood drama but an accurate depiction of the real thing. The picture of this young man with no hands attests to the maiming that has been done and is still being done by rebels and opposing forces on the citizenry of various African countries. How can someone do that to their own countrymen and women? How can you kill a mother or child in cold blood merely for the benefits some mineral can give you? Of course, this is just Africa where backward people with no real morals kill each other for sport, isn't it?
We who are white and from the West look down on those peoples of color who do horrible things to each other. Blood Diamonds, the Killing Fields of Pol Pot in Cambodia, the Rwandan massacre depicted in Don Cheadle's "Hotel Rwanda", the Rape of Nanking by the Japanese Imperial Army in 1937-38, etc. There are no shortages of people of color killing themselves. How conveniently we forget the millions who died at Stalin's hands in the Gulags, or the holocaust ovens of Hitler, or the genocide of Turks against the Armenians, or the ethnic cleansing of Bosnia, or the death toll at the dreaded Andersonville Prison during our own Civil War. These were not people of color killing themselves, these were basically white, Euro-Centric people who did unspeakable things to one another. No, the color of your skin does not dictate the level or depth of inhumanity one group accomplish. It is sickening.
Yet, there persists in the vacuum of postmodernistic thinking the idea that sin is a universal constant. We seem desperate to hold on to the idea that humankind is "basically good". We want to believe that such things only happen far away from us and never in a civilized society. But the biblical picture of the world still rings true in spite of the assault against it. In a world that hates itself, sin is the predominant force that drives the relationship of human beings, countries, and the world. I'm afraid that Sally Fields statement at the Emmy's is naive: ""And let's face it; if the world was run by mothers, there would be no...wars." No, I'm afraid there would be. Because human beings, regardless of gender, have the same problem - we are invested in sinful living. And the cure isn't thinking good thoughts or trying self-help books. Dr. Phil may help some but he is fighting a losing battle. The sin in our society is not a social issue but a spiritual one. And sin cannot be eradicated by tolerance, acceptance, and non-judgmentalism. It can only be changed by the power of God changing the soul of a person. Anything else that we try creates the same sad situation that was depicted in "Blood Diamonds".