The Cry from Sodom

The Cry from Sodom
Genesis 18: 16-20

Any day I write, there are cries arising from the world. To test that statement, I just went to get today’s newspaper. On the front page is a photo of a woman who lost a leg and whose husband and son died in a NATO bombing in Afghanistan. In the inside pages are further photos and accounts of people who lost limbs and/or family members. Other news items report the fighting between government and Tamil rebels in Sri Lanka and between opposing forces in Darfur. Their cry arises to people who read newspapers or watch television reports or documentaries, and we (at least I) find it hard to watch or read them properly partly because it can seem we can do nothing about the horrendous human suffering they bring to our attention. Earlier today I went to seminary chapel and heard one of my colleagues describing her involvement in supporting and counseling aid workers in such contexts. The cry gets to them, and they have to know what to do with it and how to live with it...