Thoughts on Egypt, Part II

In 2011, I gave my thoughts on the crisis of government in Egypt, and how I felt the Coptic community could best respond. I predicted that there would not be a governmental solution, but that the key to everything for the Christian community lay in our own conduct towards others and our obedience to God's call for our lives, most specifically in the love of our enemies and our solidarity with those who suffer at the hands of others. I laid out a few ways in which I felt God's call to His people applied in this case.

Last year, in the midst of horrifying persecution of Muslim radicals by the military government and horrifying persecution of Coptic Christians by the Muslim radicals, I wrote a hypothetical news story detailing what I felt a Christian response would look like in such a bad situation. My fictional story assumed not only consistent brave and sacrificial Christ-like love in action, but a history of such behavior over the decades. That story became one of the most-read things I ever posted. Unfortunately, the fictional nature of the story was missed by some, and the article was posted on twitter and re-tweeted by a number of people as an actual news story. Sadly, the specific actions of love and solidarity, and especially the language used, was not taken up by the church at large, and to this day Egyptians in general still believe that the church stood behind the military during the transition, rather than standing alongside the victims of violence on both sides.

This year we are back to square one. Once again we have a military (some would say fascist) government in total control of all aspects of power, and looking to cement its authority by imprisoning and/or killing all elements of the opposition by the thousands and tens of thousands. (And, for what it's worth, by trampling on all rights to free speech, free press, free assembly, free elections, and fair trials.) Once again we have a large segment of the Muslim population who is violently angry. And once again we have a Coptic population that is largely viewed as siding with the dictator in charge because they believes that violent power, however unjustly wielded, is the only thing that can protect them. It's just like Mubarak was back again, only more so.

As I say, this cannot end well.

As long as this branch of fundamentalist Muslims believe that the solutions to their problems are found in violence, they will bring more violence upon themselves. They die in suicide bombings and riots. They kill others in these bombings and riots. And they ensure that the government response to their violence will be even greater violence; that members of their own community, including thousands that didn't even participate in violence themselves, will be killed or imprisoned by a government that is willing to use the same violent tactics. No matter their rights to elected office or their appeal to the unjust nature of the government rampage, it must be said that a great deal of blame lies within the violent elements of their own movement.

As long as the military/government believes that violence is the means of control, it will continue to ensure a violent response from the population it governs. This government has run over people with their tanks, shot them with their guns, and threatened execution by the hundreds. It is an open secret that Egyptian prisons are warehouses of torture, and that this torture is condoned at the highest levels of government. Not only Muslim radicals, but foreign journalists, democracy activists, and unfortunate young men just pulled off the street have been imprisoned and tortured by a military bent on bloodshed. If the military says, “We can do whatever we want because we have the most power and we use the greatest violence”, then aren't they encouraging their opposition to do all they can to match that violence? As long as the government says that violence is the appropriate tool, then the government will be to blame for all the violence it sees, both the violence it inflicts and the violence inflicted upon it in response.

As long as the Christians of Egypt believe that their salvation lies in those who inflict violence, then they bear responsibility for the violence and bloodshed alongside those who are inflicting it. We are told not to rely on the might of Pharaoh's army, but in the strength of God's promise. We are told that those who live by the sword will die by the sword. We are told to never seek vengeance, to feed and care for our enemies, to turn the other cheek, and to visit those who are in prison. That is our response to a violent world who does not know the saving love of the One who died rather than respond to violence in kind. We are to stand with Jesus, the one who stood against both the violent Roman government AND the violent tendencies of the population who wanted to rebel against that government. We are to love the least, both theirs and ours; to take care of widows and orphans, both theirs and ours; to speak out for those who are not being spoken for, both theirs and ours. As long as we're failing to do those practical acts of love, as long as we're responding to those who hate us with hate-filled words, and as long as we're supporting the violent enemies of our enemies out of fear of man, then we are to blame for the hate and the violence that comes back to us in turn.

I do not believe that this is easy. It goes against the ways of the world. It involves self-sacrifice, and potentially suffering. I only believe it is possible because of what I've seen Christ do in the hearts of those who follow Him.  But in the long run this narrow path will be easier on our souls, and better for our lives, than responding the way the world responds.

We do not know how long this government will stand. Perhaps General Sisi, like Mubarak, will hold the reigns of power for decades. Perhaps, like Morsi, he will fall in a year. But what we do know is that he will not stand forever. And what happens when he does fall, and in all the time before then, depends partially on us. How can we blame those who do not know our Messiah, when we know him and yet act as we do?

Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who persecute you, and pray for those who spitefully use you.

If your enemy hungers, feed him; if he thirsts, give him a drink

Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress,and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.

Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Not returning evil for evil, or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary blessing.

When the people of Egypt choose their next government (whether that choice is made at a ballot box or at the point of a gun), will they know the Copts as those who love them? Will they know the Copts as those who stood with them in their time of suffering? Will they know the Coptic Church as the ones who fought for their fair trials in the courts, who supported their women and children when the men were killed or imprisoned or disappeared, who provided sanctuary for them when they were being unjustly hunted down, who loved them even when they were not being loved back? Will they know that we have been blessing them? Will they believe that we have been praying for them?

Will they?

Every day counts.  Worldview perceptions do not change overnight.  We need to plant more seeds, and water them abundantly.