Burma right now, or why being Rip van Winkle is so very hard

I realize that I haven't written here in almost 6 months: so, my apologies. I'm supposed to be starting a sabbatical, and have had so much "busyness" just getting the thing approved (my tardiness coupled with Murphy's Law), getting my daughter off to college, NSO, writing papers for the first time in 15 years for a summer course, and trying to get the leadership of RGCF handed off in a responsible fashion: that when I heard about, and later saw, the violence in Rangoon: I was outraged, grieved, and most of all: awakened.

It's not as though the people of Burma got upset last week and decided, "Oh, what the hell: let's head to the streets to make our discomfort known." Folks: the oppression of the military began in 1962 with a military coup d'etat.

Suffice it to say, my eyes are wide open right now. I surfed around blogdom among some of the theologically sophisticated, and the evangelically-minded types, as well as some of the misnomered emerging folk: nothing. Nada. Zip. Exceptions: Scot McKnight, GetReligion, and Sojourners. Help me find some other blogger that knows Jesus and puts this kind of stuff on their site!

Here's another matter that made me alert: American media. Now, I need to state up front that I first saw the video on CNN; you can see the same video from this link. But, as I trolled around to other web sites, I was shocked to find the links to this slaughter of Burmese civilians stuffed way down on the web sites. Of course, how to look like Angelina Jolie or Kid Rock refuting Pamela Anderson's announcement of a miscarriage is prominently displayed.

Surf over to the English site for Al Jazeera or the BBC Asia-Pacific page, or the South China Morning Post, and there is no such ambivalence or reticence: this kind of political activity by the citizens of Burma is not merely news, but influences life in all of the communities these news sites serve from Asia to Africa...and even in "the nation of Texas"... well, at least one citizen there is now wide awake.

Lord: open our the eyes of our hearts that we might see you in all of your glory on the cross, all of the mystery of your resurrection, and pray we would not be silent nor slumber while injustice-especially the kind in Burma right now- continues. Amen.