Weekly Coalition post

Each week I post the Coalition for Darfur post in its entirety, with a little disclaimer to point out that the authors of that post are the site owners of the Coalition blog. But this week's Coalition e-mail arrived yesterday with this disclaimer:

This week's post has a far more negative tone to it and many of you might not agree with it or even wish to post it. If you choose to significantly edit, rewrite or not post it at all, that is entirely understandable.

After having read it, which you can do here, (and probably should do now so the rest of this post makes sense) I was indeed reluctant to post it like I usually do. Not because it's "negative," but because it seems to be making a baseline assumption that I vehemently disagree with: that prayer is a waste and that calling people to prayer over this situation is effectively doing nothing. Obviously, I can't agree with Feddie and Eugene on that front, not a bit. I certainly do share their frustration at the lack of Congressional and Bush Administration action when it comes to Darfur, and I agree that it's hard not to be cynical when a bunch of politicians call for something like this. Anytime careerist politicians start laying on the public piety, it's hard not to shake your head. I can see where Feddie and Eugene are coming from and agree with them to a point.

Still, God has a long history of using unlikely people to be His tools. I think that anything that can raise awareness of the situation in Darfur is helpful, and national prayer campaigns like this might reach people who otherwise might not be hearing much about the situation. So having that kind of grassroots buzz going in churches, synagogues, and mosques is one way that this idea is potentially valuable. But of course, the real value would come from actually getting people to pray for the people in Darfur and to pray for an end to the genocide and violence and to pray for our governmental leaders to take more action. All of that can and should be in our prayers, and that most assuredly is not doing nothing. Given that it's a matter of faith, I can't expect everyone to agree with me on that front, of course, but that's my 2 cents on the issue.