Unknown. Unnamed. Un-prayed for.
- This morning began with the news of a mass shooting at a mall in Louisiana, U.S.
- And of a special balloon release at a preschool, to commemorate two of its students who were killed over the weekend in another mass shooting, along with six siblings, also in the U.S.
- Yesterday, an Tanzanian official report documented over 500 deaths in that country in the widespread protests that followed last year’s general election.
- Yesterday, Israeli forces killed eight Palestinians in Gaza. One of the strikes killed 2 adults and 3 children near a mosque.
- The day before, an 18-year-old son of a friend’s friend committed suicide.
- Last week, a 14-year-old shot and killed 8 fellow students at a school in Turkey.
- Today, a Lebanese husband and wife who had fled the fighting there, heard that their village had been destroyed when Israeli forces attacked. And searching Satellite images, they realized in horror that the home they had built no longer existed.
How many more, O God, are there- unknown, unnamed victims of violence this week, every week? How can we pray when we don’t know who they are?
O Lord, you know.
- This week, we learned of the existence of a pornography web site that has a section that literally teaches men how to drug and rape women.
For how many people, in how many countries and cultures, is this considered part of “normal masculinity”? How many women live in constant fear and hypervigilance? In how many places – families, churches, societies – is it still taboo to even mention it? O God, In how many court systems and places are the victims of sexual assault still the ones who are blamed and ostracized and punished? How can we pray when we don’t know who or how many are being hurt?
O Lord, you know.
- This week, Vlad Plahotniuc, once Moldova’s richest man, has been sentenced to 19 years in jail for participating in the 2014-15 banking fraud which involved $1 billion (approximately 12% of the country’s total GDP). He was personally accused of receiving over $40m from the fraud scheme and ordered to pay around $60m to the state in damages.
- Also this week, the top police official in South Africa was charged with violating part of South Africa’s Public Finance Management Act. Specifically, he allegedly failed in his oversight duties in connection with awarding of a controversial $21m health contract, which has become the subject of a criminal investigation and has since been cancelled.
- And also this week, judges at the International Criminal Court (ICC) confirmed the charges against Rodrigo Duterte, the former president of the Philippines – meaning that he will now stand trial for crimes against humanity in the extrajudicial killing of thousands during his deadly “war on drugs” between 2011 and 2019.
O God, why does corruption rear its head in generation after generation, in place after place? Every child is born in your image, born with love in their hearts – why do some turn away? How can we build a world where all can flourish, when we don’t understand?
O Lord, you know.
- The world’s biggest condom maker, Karex, plans to raise its prices by up to 30% or possibly more if the Iran war continues to disrupt supplies of the raw materials used in its products. The Malaysia-based firm produces more than five billion condoms a year and supplies leading global brands like Durex and Trojan.
- A massive record-breaking ocean hot spot now stretches 5,000 miles across the Pacific, raising temperatures and humidity; the marine heat wave, linked to El Niño, may impact fish migration and hurricane activity in many countries. Southeast Asian countries such as Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, and The Philippines are already in the midst of life-threatening heat waves.
- Indonesia’s parliament has passed a law to protect the rights of domestic workers, more than 20 years after it was first introduced. The country is home to some 4.2 million domestic workers – of which almost 90% are women. They were previously not legally classified as workers, but will now be entitled to health insurance, rest days and pensions. Placement agencies will also no longer be allowed to implement wage deductions, and it will be illegal to hire children under the age of 18 as domestic workers.
- “Wilding”, a new documentary film from PBS that first aired this week, tells the true story of what happened when a couple allowed their failing 400-year-old British farming estate to return to its ancient, natural processes: the soil became healthy; the weeds disappeared without chemical controls; plants and animals flourished.
Why is it so hard for us to recognize that we are all connected? That what endangers one person, one nation, endangers all? That what heals one country, one person, helps all? How can we learn to spread this way of thinking – YOUR way of thinking, YOUR way of healing – throughout the world?
O Lord, you know.
O God, our God:
“You are home to the exile
touch to the frozen
daylight to the prisoner
authority to the silent
anger to the helpless
laughter to the weary
direction to the joyful:
come, our God, come.”
–Janet Morley
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