THE LOUD SILENCE
By P S Khual

In Germany, they came first for the Communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.Then they came for the Jews,and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.Then they came for the trade unionists,and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist.Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant.Then they came for me, and by that time no one was leftto speak up.
~Pastor Martin Niemöller (1892–1984)

The events unfolding in Churachandpur since 31st August 2015 provokes our thoughts, haunts us as the imbroglio prolongs and keeps all of us on our toes, hoping and praying for an early solution. Or, any solution so that the nine dead bodies can be given an honourable farewell, befitting of the sacrifices they have made. To the utter dismay of many, a decision has been taken to bury the dead bodies on 13th February 2016 after an apparently "long deliberation on the good and bad of burying the nine tribal martyrs". The unholy motive behind such decision leaves many appalled, to say the least. Is this what we have come to after 163 days of seeking justice for the people who were mindlessly murdered and even the basic due process of law (filing of FIR) is yet to be done? As I ponder upon it, I cannot help but recall the systematic manner in which the power that be in Germany took control of the church establishment in the 1930s andannihilated itcompletely, leaving no institution in Germany to uphold moral values. Subsequent events in the late 1930s and early 1940s are well recorded in history.

There is no denying that various social evils have been plaguing our societyin the last three-four decades, one after another. It started with the heroin/ drug culture in the eighties, the communal discord and ethnic clashes coupled with the advent of illnesses associated with drug abuse in the nineties, the spread of gun culture along with the further deepening of the drug abuse and its associated illnesses in the first decade of the 21st century and the arrival of the digital age in the first few years of the present decade. Recall your memory and you will not miss the fact that all these stages were accompanied by the continuous decline in moral values, evenan open worship of satan by some groups in a Christian society. Further, there has been a continuous deterioration in governance standard, both at the government as well as the civil society level, which is too loud and clear for anyone to miss.

We are a religious people whose institutions presuppose a Supreme Being. Over the past few decades, we have forced the Supreme Being out of our individual as well as corporate lives. It is said that, "darkness is the absence of light and evil is the absence of God". There are several well-meaning citizens who conclude that, since we have greatly sinned, God is allowing all these misfortune to happen to us. Such conclusions may be misguided; if we do not allow God to be present in our lives, individual as well as corporate, evil is bound to rule and reign, it is a natural consequence. That is exactly what we are seeing now.We are created by a God who gives us the moral law. Hence, there is a core of truth buried in every heart, a truth we cannot escape. When morality collapses, both at the individual and corporate level, truth no longer prevails. When the systems in the society ultimately accepts the deteriorated moral state of being and the consequent mis-governance as a way of life, it leads to nothing but holy anger, holy discontent.However, the moral being within each of us refuses to die down, refuses to accept the way things are.

The present outburst in the society is nothing but a consequence of the culmination of the holy anger/ holy discontent in the hearts of people over the years. The problem of the people is much more than the three bills; in fact, the bills are the spark that ignited the fire of holy anger within every individual's heart. Most of the discussion on facebook or WhatsApp blames the present imbroglio on the failure of the political system or the mis-governance under the militants. I would say that it is true but the failure is much deeper; it is a collective failure at all levels starting from the individual and the church is equally culpable. The worst death for anyone is to lose the center of his/ her being, the thing he/she really is. We are fighting to hold on to that last bit of our being, whatever may be left of. Seeing the events that unfolded on 31st August 2015, subsequent developmentsand the unholy motive behind the decision to bury the dead, I cannot help but ask the question "where was the church then and where is the church now?"To ask the question, "where is God when it hurts?" is to ask the question, "where is the church when it hurts?" If the church is of the notion that it is above board in all this affairs, it also risk the chance of losing its relevance in the society. If we refuse to engage the society, the society will eventually refuse to engage us.That would be too high a price to pay for our indifference.

Regarding the failure of Britain to prevent the Second World War, history informs us that the church in Britain "put more faith in progressive politics and economics than in God". It went further to state that "the church in England failed to provide an independent moral voice" (Source: Faith in Conflict by Charles Colson).May the same never be said of us, the church of God in Churachandpur.

God bless!!