The genocide of Mideastern Christians

Peggy Noonan on what is being ignored by the media in Obama’s falling numbers: the genocide of Christians

“Evangelical Christians and conservative Catholics who would normally back strong military action [in Syria] were relatively silent in 2013. Why? I think because they were becoming broadly aware, for the first time, of what was happening to Christians in the Middle East. They were being murdered, tortured, abused for their faith and run out of the region. And for all his crimes and failings, Syria's justly maligned Assad was not attempting to crush his country's Christians. His enemies were—the jihadists, including those who became the Islamic State.

In the year since, the brutality against Middle Eastern Christians, and Islamic State's ferocious anti-Christian agenda, has left many Christians deeply alarmed. Jihadists are de-Christianizing the Mideast, where Christianity began.

An estimated two-thirds of the Christians of Iraq have fled that country since the 2003 U.S. invasion. They are being driven from their villages in northern Iraq. They are terrorized, brutalized, executed. This week an eyewitness in Mosul, which fell to Islamic State in June, told NBC News the jihadists were committing atrocities. In Syria, too, they have executed Christians for refusing to convert.”

http://online.wsj.com/articles/the-genocide-of-mideastern-christians-1410474449?

Why it's called the Massacre River

My husband is still hoping for a mission trip to Haiti this year--now probably postponed to April. The Massacre River separates Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Why the unusual name? In today's letter, Pam Mann, a missionary/teacher in Ouanaminthe from Upper Arlington Lutheran Church writes:

". . . Why the river's name was changed to Massacre. Before the arrival of Christopher Columbus, the indigenous Taino and Arawak people called the river Guatapana. However, in 1936, the centuries-old name was changed. Dominican Dictator Trujillo ordered the genocide of all blacks living in the DR who could not pronounce the Spanish verb, pereir, “to perish”. Spanish r's are tricky for Haitians as are English r's. In a few days time, an estimated 25,000 were slaughtered by machete, knives or bullets. Haitians fleeing to their homeland were tracked down and butchered by machetes when the bullets ran out. The waters of the Guatapana River ran red with Haitian blood and a horrified nation renamed it.

Led by Faith

Immaculee Ilbagiza has an amazing story. I've been watching her today on book TV. Her website. Her story of neighbor killing neighbor and friend murdering friend is chilling. She and 7 other women lived in the bathroom of a pastor for 91 days, hiding from the Hutus. But her story of forgiveness which she knew she had to do to survive is inspiring. It looks like she will be in Columbus in February; Clearwater, FL this coming week-end.

Armenians in my family tree

When the Democrats decided an apology from the Turks for the slaughter of Armenians nearly a century ago was the way to defeat our troops in Iraq, I began to check the family tree. There wasn't much mixing until the 1920s and 1930s when the Scots-Irish Protestants and German-Swiss Anabaptists started finding each other, but we're quite a stew now. Native Americans, Alaskan First Peoples, Mexican Americans, African Americans. And sure enough, with the click of a mouse I see the west coast Kerkorians descended from the Pennsylvania Danner/George group as did I. However, I got bogged down with the Woos and the Lams, the Chinese "cousins" who are also in the Danner/George branch of the family (I have over 3500 names in my Family Tree Maker database).

What the Turks did to the Armenians was awful. Millions died or fled their homeland, leaving behind families, culture, churches and businesses. However, a much higher percentage of Irish died at the hands of the British through famine and immigration, going into exile in North America, Australia and New Zealand. Because Ireland is a tiny island, the Irish lost half its population to bad government and agricultural policies--far more than Africa did to the slave trade a century before the great famine.

So where do you start when demanding reparations and resolutions about old wrongs? The people who perpetrated them or suffered at their hands are gone. Should the American blacks go after the Arabs and African tribal chiefs because they initiated the slave trade needing an outlet for war booty? Can the Irish go after the British who were just going after the descendants of the Celts and Vikings who had earlier invaded and enslaved Ireland? Their descendants, those who survived those difficult times, have a better life in their new lands than the descendants of those who stayed behind.

Also, it is unthinkable that a powerful American ethnic lobby group, whether La Raza or descendants of WWII internment camps or descendants of the plantation slaves would ever stop with an apology, no matter how heartfelt, soothing and useless. The bar would be raised demanding more reparations for loss of culture, personal humiliation of great-grandpa and God only knows what other indignities difficult to quantify.

Today's opinion page in the WSJ pretty well summed it up:

If Nancy Pelosi and Tom Lantos want to take down U.S. policy in Iraq to tag George Bush with failure, they should have the courage to walk through the front door to do it."

For another view, see Silvio Canto Jr's blog