A people threatened with disaster

Exodus 32

In the Book of Exodus, the Lord tells Moses that he will destroy the people of Israel for their decadence and for worshipping idols. Images of places laid waste by natural disasters of the kind that threatened by God in the Old Testament are an all-too-common feature of modern life. Most of us saw pictures of the catastrophic scenes in Mozambique, where Cyclone Idai caused storm-surge floods of up to six meters that almost completely destroyed the port city of Beira. It is a hard thing to make sense of. How could a loving God punish these people in such a way. They must be among the poorest on the planet, and many are likely to be devout Christians.

Eight years ago, I had the opportunity to witness first-hand an event that was rather biblical in its own way, in a country not too far from Egypt, to which it is in fact connected by the Nile river. I was a journalist based in Khartoum, and I reported on the mass migration of the South Sudanese diaspora back to their homeland, to celebrate independence after a 50-year liberation struggle. It was an exhilarating time, made particularly poignant by the fact that this destitute, mostly Christian people had achieved their dream against all the odds, after decades of fighting a racist and well-resourced Arab-Islamic regime in the north. At the birth of the new nation, July 9, 2011, in the capital Juba, I saw people weep for joy. The fighting was over, the prayers of South Sudan had truly been answered.

Just two years later, a civil war of unimaginable savagery broke out that left hundreds of thousands of people dead and forced more than a third of the entire population from their homes. Unlike the cyclone that hit Mozambique, this was a man-made disaster, driven by tribalism, corruption, weapons everywhere, and a desperate failure of the country’s leadership.

It remains a baffling paradox that Sudan, north and south, where you will find some of the warmest, most hospitable, and good-humoured people that you are ever likely to meet, has suffered such appalling conflict and hardship. Responsibility weighs heavily on their leaders (and I should mention that South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir is Catholic). But what the ordinary Sudanese – or Mozambicans for that matter – have done to deserve their fate is a real conundrum, a question to which there is no clear answer. Surely we in the west are more deserving of biblical retribution!? Indeed, it’s difficult sometimes not to agonise about how decadent and self-centred our society has become, about the idols that we worship freely – the best in fashion, the latest smartphone, the biggest car.

A friend and former colleague reported extensively on the conflict in South Sudan, and in his coverage over the years, something I noticed him mention a number of times was the authority of the Church. As he says, it is just about the only organisation left that continues to try and make people see sense, and which is actually listened to, if not by the country’s leaders. A voice trying to intervene on God’s behalf to straighten the ways of His people. Throughout the fighting, it has berated the soldiers and politicians that perpetuate this senseless war.

One particular memory stands out from the independence day celebrations back in 2011. The morning afterwards, I remember waking to find the streets completely empty, only to discover large crowds gathered at churches around Juba – some of them open air, with little shelter from the burning sun – giving thanks to God.

A reflection written by Simon Martelli, a parishioner of St Augustine's Hammersmith, London

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