Dear Freedom Fighters,
Afghanistan has been in the news recently. Seeing people storm planes just to get out of their country was heart wrenching to watch. I know very little about Afghanistan’s history and the dynamics of their politics. But I know about the Taliban and that they have now taken over. I know they stand for Syria law which among other things, places harsh restrictions on woman. They aren’t allowed to drive, play sports or go out in public heavily veiled, to name but a few. Can you imagine?!
I did some research and came across a book by Fazel Ahmed Afghan. It was too voluminous to read in full but my browsing through it gave me a better understanding of the country’s history and politics. I found what he wrote about the Taliban especially interesting. “Taliban”, literally means “students”. The Taliban consists of orphaned boys, schooled in madrassas in refugee camps (especially those in Pakistan) and villages by Urdu and Pashtu speaking Mullah’s. They weren’t taught things like basic math, sciences or even history. Their education comes down to religious indoctrination and brain washing. They are trained to be freedom fighters. Many of these boys have had no or very little natural contact with woman like mothers, sisters, and cousins. Their idea of women is that they are sexual distractions from worthy God-ordained causes. Afghan writes about them:
“They were literally the orphans of war, the rootless and the restless, the jobless and the economically deprived with little self knowledge”
Why do I share this with you? Well, first of all where there is suffering, we dare not look the other way as followers of Jesus. Yes, we cannot attend to all wounded everywhere but at the very least we can educate ourselves about the plight of people suffering. Many Afghans fled to Canada. My barber is from Afghanistan. They are our neighbors. Paying attention is the proper thing to do. Secondly, it is in the extremes that we find valuable guidance for our own lives. Guidance that will benefit us when we heed it.
If one of the most tyrannical ruling groups in the world (who by the way is responsible for 84% of the worlds opium produce), are boys unloved, poorly educated and alienated from another group (in this case women and also the rest of the world), we can learn from it. If alienation, poor education and a lack of basic affection and care produces people who send fear and terror into the world, it follows that the opposite of that will have the opposite effect on people and send loving compassionate and balanced people into the world. I look at the awesome opportunities my children get at school and how the curriculum develops them holistically and comprehensively. I notice how they have the confidence to challenge even me on issues of racism and equality. I think back how they were held by a loving mother, cared for by family and further loved by an extended church family. I look at these things and I get both hopeful and excited about the future.
Let us never take for granted what we get to have in Canada and many other places in the world. Let us be inspired to spread love and kindness and crossing boundaries by reaching out to people across divides. Even a little love and kindness has so much power to transform any recipient of it, even those who never knew proper love. What we teach our children, who we reach out to and open ourselves up to, literally save lives in ways we are unaware off until an extreme like the Taliban reminds us of it. Let us ourselves remain students of our Good Teacher, Jesus. Let us be freedom fighters who fight with the weapons from our faith arsenal which are things like love, grace, kindness, forgiveness, care, gentleness, and hospitality. For whoever is in power, these things will have the last say. May the opposite one day be written of us and the people of Afghanistan. Something like this:
“They gratefully understood themselves to be God’s adopted children, rooted and at peace, self aware, on mission and included”
This Sunday we will explore how to shrink the gap between our confession and our practice in word and deed. Jesus gave three specific instructions regarding this in Mark 8: 1) Deny yourself, 2) take up your cross and 3) follow me. What exactly does it mean to do these three things? Come find out this Sunday at 10 am. If you can, come and attend in person. If you are unable to, join us on Facebook live.
In Christ
Gabriel J Snyman
September 9th 2021