Ben Favier Theology

Over the past three weeks in theology class I have really been exposed to the recent moral dilemmas that reflect the morality people and the nations of the modern world. Learning in depth about these conflicts has led to a peaking of my interest in not just the immediate world that directly affects me, but the rest of the world, whom I have not paid close attention to over the past few years.

The Rwanda presentation really opened my eyes to the blatant inhumane treatment of people throughout the world, where the civilized rich nations stand and watch terrible atrocities occur yet do not act because of politics and the countries national interest. A particular image stuck with me and really changed the way I viewed all of the projects. The image was the zoomed tape taken from the rooftop of a hotel during the Rwanda genocide. I blocked out the narrator as I took in all the details of the scene. The clip captured a killer in action, the man went down the line and mercilessly hacking people to death leaving them on the muddy roadside. Watching him cut through people with such speed and precision was shocking, machinelike. I had never seen anything like this in my life and immediately my mind was flooded with questions pertaining to the morality of humanity. As I watched this clip which had no sound I imagined the terrible screams, crunch of bones, and thud of bodies that must have accompanied this slaughter. I could not help but wonder, “were these real people?” and “is this really happening in our world?”.

I cringed as I watched, I wondered how in this chaos the United States and United Nations had decided against sending in peacekeeping forces. When I watched and learned bout these events everything seemed so clear cut. The acts were clearly morally wrong and evil to me, but then in the course, I was presented with an interesting and disturbing thought. The perpetrators believed they were right. How could this be? How could they believe this was right? What rationale could possibly condone these actions? How could regard for human life be so utterly destroyed? What extenuating circumstances could cause these people to want to do harm to their own neighbors and countrymen?

However I reflected on these questions which blamed others actions and morality. I began to ask questions about myself. How can I judge, them being thousands of miles from Sudan and Rwanda without complete understanding of the situation? What makes my morality the correct one? How can I accuse them of inhumane treatment when poor and homeless people live in St. Louis? Yet why can’t we solve these problems. Are we to lazy to respond? Are we incapable of implementing any real change? Can we shift through the complexities and bias’s and find truth and virtuous morality?

I have concluded that it is possible for humanity to change its maps and worldviews towards truth and virtue. For us to act out against injustice. Fist we must be informed, learning all the complex angles of a story until we understand exactly where the evil lies so we can remove it. I think however we need the “gadflies,”(the Socrates and the Martin Luther King Juniors) the people who will nag us and confront us until we solve the conflict with the proper moral response in order to achieve this state of justice. I know that I have a tendency to shy away from tough decisions and work. However, when someone gets me to do something most of the time once I have done it I am grateful that someone challenged me to better myself. The most important thing I learned over these past few weeks was the importance listening and true justice. We must listen to those who speak out against injustice such as Romeo Dallaire and Dr. king and we must dedicate ourselves to justice so completely that national and political interest to not overcome the simple freedoms, equalities, and rights all people are entitled to.