In my Liberal Philosophy class... cough... (I mean "Social Ecology 63: Race, Ethnicity, and Nationalism") we watched a movie called "Stealing a Nation." This film is a John Pilger documentary of the depopulation-ing of the peoples of a little island in the Chagos Archipelago in the Indian Ocean called Diego Garcia. These islanders were forced off Diego Garcia in the years 1968-1973. The reason? It was declared that the islands were unsafe for habitation on account of the archipelago being subject to natural disasters and the effects of global warming. This doesn't stand to reason because (and I stand alongside my professor on this case wholeheartedly) immediately in these years the U.S. (scumbag of the world, according to liberal social ecologists) was granted permission from the British government to build a large naval base, which was used in many of the Middle Eastern/Asian wars as a launch site for bombing raids and missiles and stuff. It's pretty obvious the reason the Chagossians were banished wasn't anything to do with safety, as Navymen live on the base to this day. The islanders were shipped to the adjacent island, Mauritius, where they live lives of poverty and inadequacy.
Anyways.
Long story short, the islanders were sad. So sad they were that John Pilger documented several of them saying they knew friends and children who died of nothing other than "sadness."
Huh.
This sounds familiar.
Ah! So it is. Jesus said something of the sort.---
My soul is exceeding sorrowful unto death: tarry ye here, and watch (Mark 14:34, KJV).
Jesus knew this exact pain just as the Chagossians did-- the pain of unjust exile from one's homeland! He bore our sins and our death and schisms from God's holiness, but it was on our behalf and not His. It's one thing to be banished like Jacob or Moses, who usurped and killed their fellow men; it is another thing altogether to be banished like Hagar and Ishmael in consequence of the sins of another. But praise be to God! Jesus isn't just coincidentally banished as our Scapegoat, but He does it willingly; no, He was predestined to die like a lamb led to the slaughter, outside of the camp, on whose head all the sins of the people were laid, whose blood makes atonement once and for all.
As a side note: Jesus prays. He prays here in the garden in His passion and He prays elsewhere. He prays even now. This is answer enough to my doubting heart's struggle with the sovereignty of God and the role of prayer and people in the plan of God. In the eternal words of my friend Joel, "Prayer is like talking to your girlfriend. It's not much of a relationship if you don't ever talk to her."
Anyways.
Long story short, the islanders were sad. So sad they were that John Pilger documented several of them saying they knew friends and children who died of nothing other than "sadness."
Huh.
This sounds familiar.
Ah! So it is. Jesus said something of the sort.---
My soul is exceeding sorrowful unto death: tarry ye here, and watch (Mark 14:34, KJV).
Jesus knew this exact pain just as the Chagossians did-- the pain of unjust exile from one's homeland! He bore our sins and our death and schisms from God's holiness, but it was on our behalf and not His. It's one thing to be banished like Jacob or Moses, who usurped and killed their fellow men; it is another thing altogether to be banished like Hagar and Ishmael in consequence of the sins of another. But praise be to God! Jesus isn't just coincidentally banished as our Scapegoat, but He does it willingly; no, He was predestined to die like a lamb led to the slaughter, outside of the camp, on whose head all the sins of the people were laid, whose blood makes atonement once and for all.
As a side note: Jesus prays. He prays here in the garden in His passion and He prays elsewhere. He prays even now. This is answer enough to my doubting heart's struggle with the sovereignty of God and the role of prayer and people in the plan of God. In the eternal words of my friend Joel, "Prayer is like talking to your girlfriend. It's not much of a relationship if you don't ever talk to her."
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