Lately, I've been thinking a lot about the importance of names. Names impart a sense of identity. When our name is unknown to those around us, we feel disconnected and alone. On some level, we all long to hear our name, to be recognized, to be seen. But what about those whose names are erased by acts of evil? Or those whose names are known only to God?
Recently, I had the opportunity to tour the S-21 Prison, which is now the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Conceptually, I knew what happened in Cambodia between 1975 and 1979. I knew about the Khmer Rouge's reign of terror and some of the horrifying statistics, but when you come face to face with actual torture chambers and photos of the people who were tortured and executed there, it is no longer about statistics. It is about real people. People with names. People with families. People with their own unique stories.
A common feature of genocide is the dehumanization of its victims. Most of us know about the way the Third Reich employed every conceivable form of evil to strip its victims of their individual identity. In Auschwitz, this took the form of tattooing serial numbers onto prisoners. In Cambodia at S-21, prisoners were similarly stripped of their individual identity and assigned identifications numbers, which, unlike at Auschwitz, were frequently recycled. Photographs were taken of each prisoner, but even after the atrocities ended, many were never identified.
Both the Nazis and the Khmer Rouge went to great lengths to engender the belief that those whom they opposed were subhuman. Cambodian victims were referred to by a vulgar word that means "things" and were treated worse than animals. Similarly, European Holocaust victims were categorized as "the eternal subhumans" by Reinhold Heydrich, one of the main architects of the Holocaust.
When we begin to view ANYONE as less than human, we are denying the fact that all human beings are made in the image of God. This is to cross over into the deepest form of darkness. A darkness that allows for all manner of evil. ALL human beings, born and unborn -- not just the ones who look like us, think like us, worship like us, vote like us -- have intrinsic value because they bear the indelible image of their creator. Every human is known by God. They matter, and He knows their name.
He knows your name and He knows mine. And He alone knows the names of all of those whom the Khmer Rouge, Nazis, Hutu Supremacists, Ottoman Turks and others have tried to erase. Human history is drenched in the blood of those who were viewed by their neighbors as subhuman. And yet, we cannot live without hope.
Our hope lies in the fact that we ARE known. Known by a God who loves us. We are each uniquely made in his image. And we are made to love. We are made to love God. We are made to love our neighbor. We are made to love creation. We are made to speak the names of those who are forgotten. We are made to bring light into the darkness and hope from despair. He lovingly calls us by name to stand against the darkness. When He calls, how will you respond? Will it be with love or with fear? Will it be with hope or with hesitation?
We have an opportunity. An opportunity to change the world with love. Perhaps this sounds saccharine and idealistic; but friends, we can't just sit here and complain about everything that has gone awry in our world. Love is a powerful weapon -- one we too often fail to wield. Are you willing to heed the call to love fiercely and wildly? To be the person you are created to be? If your answer is yes, you just brought a little more hope into the world. Who knows? Perhaps you were created for such a time as this.
