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GENOCIDE

 

Prevention, "Mental Health" & Human Nature

 

How they all fit together

By Berit Kjos  -  October 2, 2004

Skip down to the key to social change:  A Culture of Prevention

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"I was sleeping when the attack on Disa started. I was taken away by the attackers, they were all in uniforms. They took dozens of other girls and made us walk for three hours. During the day we were beaten and they were telling us: 'You, the black women, we will exterminate you, you have no god.' At night we were raped several times. The Arabs guarded us with arms and we were not given food for three days."[1] A female refugee from Disa [Masalit village, West Darfur, Sudan], interviewed by Amnesty International delegates.

"When we tried to escape they shot more children. They raped women; I saw many cases of Janjawid raping women and girls. They are happy when they rape. They sing when they rape and they tell that we are just slaves and that they can do with us how they wish."[1] A 37-year-old woman from Mukjar


The tragic testimonies of starved and wounded refugees from the marauding militia of western Sudan break our hearts and defy simple answers. So do the horrendous atrocities, twisted ideologies, and collective cruelties that characterized 20th century genocide. How can we forget the shocking images of Hitler's death camps, Soviet pogroms and mind-twisting torture, Hutu slaughter, and Islamic Jihad aimed at the entire population of native Christians in southern Sudan? Those horrors refute today's positive notions about human nature and basic goodness. Instead, they affirm what God's Word told us thousands of years ago: "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?" (Jeremiah 17:5-10)

What have our global managers done to stop genocide?  The UN passed a law against it; nations around the world agreed to outlaw and punish it; countless commissions and conferences have discussed it; voices around the world have decried it; perpetuators have denied it; and most of the public has ignored it. Even the current horrors in the Sudan, where the Islamic government has been supporting heartless militia assaults on its non-Arab population, have not awakened enough of an outcry to stop the killing, rape and torture of defenseless villagers. Why not?

Could it be that the global management systems -- which have despised Biblical truth and moral standards from its beginning -- have no real solution to the problem of evil? Or are they just too weak, too biased, and too politicized to cope with problems that might offend some of their best friends. As David Brooks wrote in his September article, "Another 'Triumph' for the UN,"

"The United States said the killing in Darfur was indeed genocide, the Europeans weren't so sure, and the Arab League said definitely not, and hairs were split and legalisms were parsed, and the debate over how many corpses you can fit on the head of a pin proceeded in stentorian tones while the mass extermination of human beings continued at a pace that may or may not rise to the level of genocide. For people are still starving and perishing in Darfur. ...

    

"The resolution passed, and it was a good day for alliance-nurturing and burden-sharing -- for the burden of doing nothing was shared equally by all. And we are by now used to the pattern. Every time there is an ongoing atrocity, we watch the world community go through the same series of stages: (1) shock and concern (2) gathering resolve (3) fruitless negotiation (4) pathetic inaction (5) shame and humiliation (6) steadfast vows to never let this happen again.

    

"The 'never-again' always comes...." [2]

Actually, behind the ineffective visible response to genocide, there is a hidden plan. The UN has established a massive, worldwide, inter-agency program of "prevention." Through the coordinated efforts of Unesco, The World Health Organization, The World Bank and countless other UN agencies, it's effectively transforming not only beliefs and values everywhere, but also schools, churches, communities and nations. For the war and genocide "crises" have been used for more than fifty years to persuade the world to participate in "peace-building" ventures that strive to create a "climate of prevention" everywhere -- a cultural atmosphere defined by UN declarations such as Unesco's Declaration on Tolerance and Declaration of Principles on Religion in a Culture of Peace. It requires "cradle-to-grave" learning, re-learning, group-learning and service-learning along with continual assessments and monitoring for compliance with new global standards for human resource development. All minds must be molded to fit the utopian vision for the 21st century community.

Never mind the fact that most of the UN treaties and declarations violate the U.S. Constitution (especially the Bill of Rights) and undermine our freedom to express our beliefs, share our faith, and take a stand on the unchanging truths of the Bible. What counts is progress toward the envisioned global solidarity -- a world where no one holds a belief or takes a stand contrary to UN ideology -- and where everyone is willing to compromise their values, seek common ground, and flow with the group consensus.

The celebrated Universal Declaration of Human Rights illustrates this vision well. Like all the intrusive UN human rights treaties, it's written to please the public. Article 18 upholds "the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion..." Article 19 affirms "the right to freedom of opinion and expression... and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers." But Article 29 states that "these rights and freedoms may in no case be exercised contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations." In other words, these "rights" or "freedoms" don't apply to those who would question the UN or its policies. Your rights would be conditioned on your compliance.

As you will see later, Biblical Christianity hinders this new solidarity. In contrast, genocide supports it, because it provides the shocking crises needed to persuade the masses that they must change and sacrifice in order to fulfill the humanist vision of unending peace on this "evolving" planet.


DEFINITIONS

For the official meaning and practical implications of the word "genocide," let's look at the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. Its main points are covered in the first four articles. Pay special attention to the bold words in Articles II and III:

"Article I: The Contracting Parties confirm that genocide, whether committed in time of peace or in time of war, is a crime under international law which they undertake to prevent and to punish.

"Article II: In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:

(a) Killing members of the group;

(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;

(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;

(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;

(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

"Article III: The following acts shall be punishable:

(a) Genocide;

(b) Conspiracy to commit genocide;

(c) Direct and public incitement to commit genocide;

(d) Attempt to commit genocide;

(e) Complicity in genocide.

"Article IV: Persons committing genocide or any of the other acts enumerated in article III shall be punished, whether they are constitutionally responsible rulers, public officials or private individuals."[3]

In Article II b you find the foundation for several other UN treaties and programs. You won't read about the international Mental Health agenda in your daily newspapers; it is much too complicated and controversial to be covered by the mainstream media. But the growing body of US legislation on the issue of "Mental Health" and "Hate Crimes" is designed to work with the UN to create a world not only free from genocide or related crimes, but also from the kinds of offenses caused by politically incorrect voices that speak the unwanted truths of God. 

A growing network of NGOs (Non-Governmental Organizations accredited by the UN) are pushing local legislation and monitoring compliance around the world. Those new laws, based on UN guidelines, could criminalize sermons or comments based on Romans 1:22-32 or 1 Corinthians 6:9-11.


"A CULTURE of PREVENTION"

In 1999, the United Nations published a pamphlet by Secretary-General Kofi Annan titled, Facing the Humanitarian Challenge: Towards a Culture of Prevention. In it, Mr. Annan states:

"As must now be evident, the common thread running through almost all conflict prevention policies is the need to pursue what we in the United Nations refer to as good governance. In practice, good governance involves promoting the rule of law, tolerance of minority and opposition groups.... Above all, good governance means respect for human rights." [See what that means in "Trading U.S. Rights for UN Rules"]

"Long-term prevention strategies, in addressing the root causes of conflict, seek to prevent destructive conflicts from arising in the first place. They embrace the same holistic approach to prevention that characterizes post-conflict peace-building...."

Do you wonder what he means by a holistic approach? It has to do with the vision of unity, wholism, solidarity, interconnectedness or -- as the new global management puts it -- a systems approach based on "General Systems Theory." Since I wrote an article to introduce this new governance process three years ago, I suggest you read "Reinventing the World."

But "peace-building" implies more specific action than simply an holistic approach. An Unesco publication I picked up in Istanbul during the 1996 UN Conference on Human Settlements (Habitat II) clarifies the basic issues. Ponder the following excerpts from Our Creative Diversity: Report on the World Commission on Culture and Development. The first paragraph was written by former UN Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar:

"I have for some time been concerned with the 'culture of peace.' There is now considerable evidence that neglect of human development has been one of the principal causes of wars and internal armed conflicts.... The concept of state sovereignty which still prevails today has increasingly come under scrutiny. ...

    "An ounce of prevention is better than a ton of punishment. ...

    "Imagination, innovation, vision and creativity are required... It means an open mind, and open heart and a readiness to seek fresh definitions, reconcile old opposites, and help draw new mental maps." [pages 11-12]

 

"There should be a commitment to building 'a culture of peace'... 'a process by which positive attitudes to peace, democracy and tolerance are forged through education and knowledge about different cultures.' It is a process that is built on the proactive stance of peace building:....

     "Universalism is the fundamental principle of a global ethics." [pages 45-46]

 

"Religion... has affected and sometimes poisoned the relations between majorities and minorities.... Even today, politicized religion often appears to contribute more to the intensification of conflict than to the construction of peace....

     "Extreme doctrinaire views look to an imagined past, seen as both simpler and more stable, thus preparing the ground not only for a variety of overtly violent acts but also for the intimidation of individual and indeed entire communities in matters of thought, behavior and belief, coercing them into accepting a single 'orthodox' point of view....

     "The late twentieth-century present politicized, fundamentalist tendencies in all religions. ... The challenge today, as in the past is to... distinguish between the beliefs and activities of the peaceful majority... and a minority of extremists...." [pages 67-68

 

"To promote pluralistic societies and resolve existing conflicts requires the recognition of the variety of structures that acquire legitimacy for different aspects of social life." [page 72]

These phrases show an amazing consistency in ideology and vision within the United Nations since its founding in 1945. Some of the same words and anti-Biblical sentiments were used by the respective founding heads of both Unesco and the World Health Organization. You may want to compare the statements by Julian Huxley and Dr. Brock Chisholm with those above.

 

In a more recent UN report, Kofi Annan announced his plan to appoint a "Special Advisor on Genocide Prevention" and to launch an "Action Plan to Prevent Genocide." On the surface, his words sound reasonable, but keep in mind that his terms are grounded in a global agenda that has no tolerance for Biblical absolutes. In the context of UN pluralism and purposes, God's Word is considered incendiary. That's why "hate crimes" laws in a growing number of nations and states are directed at Christians who take a moral stand on certain issues. For example, relying on Biblical guidelines to evaluate moral behaviors such as homosexuality and adultery is now equated with hatred, intolerance, dehumanization, etc. Please ponder Mr. Annan's words:"

     "I wish today to launch an Action Plan to Prevent Genocide, involving the whole United Nations system. ... We must work together with the international financial institutions, with civil society, and with the private sector, to ensure that young people get the chance to better themselves through education and peaceful employment, so that they are less easily recruited into predatory gangs and militias.

     "We must protect the rights of minorities, since they are genocide’s most frequent targets. By all these means, and more, we must attack the roots of violence and genocide: hatred, intolerance, racism, tyranny, and the dehumanizing public discourse that denies whole groups of people their dignity and their rights. ...

     "Wherever civilians are deliberately targeted because they belong to a particular community, we are in the presence of potential, if not actual, genocide."[4]

Countless documents show the universal influence of this UN agenda. One such document titled "Holocaust, Genocide, & Human Rights" follows the same theme but adds some relevant details:

"We live in a time of unparalleled instances of democide, genocide and ethnocide. The Holocaust, the genocides in Turkey, Cambodia, Tibet, & Bosnia, the disappearances in Argentina & Chile, the death squad killings in El Salvador, Stalin's purges, the killing of the Tutsi in Rwanda... and the list goes on....

     "It is imperative that a greater understanding of the psychological, cultural, political, and societal roots of human cruelty, mass violence, and genocide be developed. We need to continue to examine the factors which enable individuals collectively and individually to perpetrate evil/genocide and the impact of apathetic bystanders as fuel for human violence. While an exact predictive model for mass violence/human cruelty is beyond the scope of human capability, we have an obligation to develop a model that highlights the warning signs and predisposing factors for human violence and genocide. With such information, we can develop policies, strategies, and programs designed to counteract these atrocities."[5]

Gregory Stanton has developed one such model.  "Written in 1996 at the Department of State," his paper on the "Stages of Genocide" was presented at the Yale University Center for International and Area Studies two years later:

 

 

Stages of Genocide

"Genocide," wrote Gregory Stanton, "is a process that develops in eight stages that are predictable but not inexorable. At each stage, preventive measures can stop it." These stages make sense. They do trace the advance of collective or national genocidal tendencies, but their progressive steps toward prevention should sober us. In the early stages, they are designed to establish laws and social guidelines that silence those who clash with politically correct standards.

1. CLASSIFICATION: "All cultures have categories to distinguish people into 'us and them' by ethnicity, race, religion, or nationality."

Prevention: "...develop universalistic institutions that transcend ethnic or racial divisions, that actively promote tolerance and understanding, and that promote classifications that transcend the divisions.  ...search for common ground."

To understand how this step is used to undermine Biblical truth, see: "Twisting Truth Through Classroom Consensus" and "Brainwashing in America."

2. SYMBOLIZATION:  "We give names or other symbols to the classifications. We name people 'Jews' or 'Gypsies,' or distinguish them by colors or dress; and apply them to members of groups. Classification and symbolization are universally human and do not necessarily result in genocide unless they lead to the next stage, dehumanization. When combined with hatred, symbols may be forced upon unwilling members of pariah groups: the yellow star for Jews under Nazi rule."

Prevention: "...hate symbols can be legally forbidden (swastikas) as can hate speech. Group markings like gang clothing or tribal scarring can be outlawed.... The problem is that legal limitations will fail if unsupported by popular cultural enforcement. Though Hutu and Tutsi were forbidden words in Burundi until the 1980's, code-words replaced them. If widely supported, however, denial of symbolization can be powerful, as it was in Bulgaria, when many non-Jews chose to wear the yellow star, depriving it of its significance as a Nazi symbol for Jews."

To understand how this step is used to limit freedom, see these three illustrations:

"French school bans girls over scarves:" "Muslim headwear said to violate religious neutrality.... French law imposes strict religious neutrality in public institutions, but the conservative government of Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin is split on whether to ban them the headscarves."

      Once again, the socialist vision of "equality" and conformity eclipses personal  freedom. Perhaps French "neutrality" forbids all religious expression unless they agree with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights -- which bans everything not permitted by the UN. See the first part of  Trading U.S. Rights for UN Rules and the next link: 

"Muslim girl suspended for head scarf:" "An 11-year-old Oklahoma girl has been suspended from a public school because officials said her Muslim head scarf violates dress code policies." (CNN.com, 10/11/03)

"Hate-crimes law worries pastors:" "Canada recently added sexual orientation as a protected category in its genocide and hate-crimes legislation, which carries a penalty of up to five years in prison. Opponents fear the Bible will be regarded as 'hate literature' under the criminal code in certain instances, as evidenced by the case of a Saskatchewan man fined by a provincial human-rights tribunal for taking out a newspaper ad with Scripture references to verses about homosexuality."

3. DEHUMANIZATION: "One group denies the humanity of the other group. Members of it are equated with animals, vermin, insects or diseases. Dehumanization overcomes the normal human revulsion against murder. ...hate propaganda in print and on hate radios is used to vilify the victim group." [The latter would include written or spoken Scriptures concerning homosexuality].

Prevention: "...incitement to genocide should not be confused with protected speech. Genocidal societies lack constitutional protection for countervailing speech, and should be treated differently than in democracies. Hate radio stations should be shut down, and hate propaganda banned. Hate crimes and atrocities should be promptly punished."

To understand how this step is used to stir hatred toward Christians, see these two illustrations:

Example: "Sweden's Hate Speech Law:" "The prosecution of a Christian pastor for the crime of preaching a biblical sermon sets a new low for the culture of political correctness. ... The logic of this prosecution is driven by the ardent determination of homosexual activists to make all criticism of homosexuality illegal. The logic of many hate crimes statutes plays right into this ideological strategy. By silencing all opposition, advocates for the normalization of homosexuality have the public square entirely to themselves, with defenders of biblical sexuality and the traditional family left without a voice and risking prosecution for any language or argument deemed offensive by the guardians of political correctness...

    "...the prosecutor in this case, Kjell Yngvesson, justified the arrest and prosecution of Pastor Green on these grounds: 'One may have whatever religion one wishes, but this is an attack on all fronts against homosexuals. Collecting Bible citations on this topic as he does makes this hate speech.'...

    "The recent expansion of hate crimes laws in Canada, intended to outlaw all criticism of homosexuality, is convincing proof that these trends are not limited to Europe. ...Earlier this year, the U.S. Senate passed a hate crimes provision attached to a defense appropriation bill. ...Where this leads, of course, is to the eradication of all criticism of homosexuality itself.... We are now witnesses to the criminalizing of Christianity." See Ban truth - Reap Tyranny

 

"Hate crimes' bill: Prescription for tyranny" (U.S): "Seeking federal dollars, police and prosecutors will define more and more cases as 'hate crimes.'... In a media- and dollar-driven situation, your grandmother's mugging will not receive as much attention as the 'hate crime' committed against a homosexual....

    "But the real danger of 'hate crime' laws is that they criminalize thoughts and beliefs. The law should concern itself only with actions. Prosecutors must prove intent, but examining underlying beliefs goes far beyond that.... The federal 'hate crimes' bill lays the groundwork for persecution of Christians in this country. Homosexual activists have redefined any opposition to homosexuality as 'hate speech.'...

     "In Tulsa, for instance, someone wrote the words 'kill' and 'death' on the walls of a Catholic elementary school. According to civil-rights attorney Leah Farish, the perpetrator also wrote 'messages referring to devils and to sex with Christian girls. Pentagrams and the number 666 appeared as well. But the police said, 'It is not a hate crime per se. In order for it to be a hate crime, it has to be an act of malicious intention.'" ...This isn't a slippery slope; it's a luge ride toward totalitarianism."

4. ORGANIZATION: "Genocide is always organized, usually by the state, though sometimes informally...."     

Prevention: "...membership in these militias should be outlawed. Their leaders should be denied visas for foreign travel."

5. POLARIZATION: "Extremists drive the groups apart. Hate groups broadcast polarizing propaganda. Laws may forbid intermarriage or social interaction."

Prevention:  "Security protection for moderate leaders or assistance to human rights groups. Assets of extremists may be seized, and visas for international travel denied to them."

6. PREPARATION: "Victims are identified and separated out because of their ethnic or religious identity. Death lists are drawn up. Members of victim groups are forced to wear identifying symbols. They are often segregated into ghettoes, forced into concentration camps, or confined to a famine-struck region and starved."

Prevention: "...a Genocide Alert must be called. If the political will of the U.S., NATO, and the U.N. Security Council can be mobilized, armed international intervention should be prepared, or heavy assistance to the victim group in preparing for its self-defense. Otherwise, at least humanitarian assistance should be organized by the U.N. and private relief groups for the inevitable tide of refugees."

7. EXTERMINATION: "Extermination begins, and quickly becomes the mass killing legally called 'genocide.' It is 'extermination' to the killers because they do not believe their victims to be fully human. When it is sponsored by the state, the armed forces often work with militias to do the killing."

Prevention: "...only rapid and overwhelming armed intervention can stop genocide. Real safe areas or refugee escape corridors should be established with heavily armed international protection. The U.N. needs a Standing High Readiness Brigade or a permanent rapid reaction force, to intervene quickly when the U.N. Security Council calls it."

8. DENIAL: "The perpetrators of genocide dig up the mass graves, burn the bodies, try to cover up the evidence and intimidate the witnesses. They deny that they committed any crimes, and often blame what happened on the victims. They block investigations of the crimes, and continue to govern until driven from power by force, when they flee into exile."

Prevention: "...punishment by an international tribunal or national courts. There the evidence can be heard, and the perpetrators punished."[6]


HUMAN NATURE

 

In spite of human sentiments and noble goals, no man-made plan or UN agenda can end the cruelties and horrors that flow out of our human nature. As the United Nations gathers more strength -- and as nations around the world bow to its legal mandates -- more power will be concentrated into fewer hands and minds. The roots and tentacles of this monstrous global management system are socialist and communitarian -- a modern blend that balances communism with capitalism and systems management with totalitarian aims.

Listen to this warning from Dr. Thomas Sowell, Senior Fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution. In his review of Friedrich Hayek's expose of socialism, Road to Serfdom, he writes,

"At the heart of the socialist vision is the notion that a compassionate society can create more humane living conditions for all through government 'planning' and control of the economy....

"The rule of law, on which freedom itself ultimately depends, is inherently incompatible with socialism. People who are free to do as they wish will not do as the economic planners wish. Differences in values and priorities are enough to ensure that. These differences must be ironed out by propaganda or power, if socialism is to be socialism. Indoctrination must be part of the program, not because socialists want to be brainwashers, but because socialism requires brainwashing.

"Idealist socialists create systems in which idealists are almost certain to lose and be superseded by those whose drive for power, and ruthlessness in achieving it, make them the 'fittest' to survive under a system where government power is the ultimate prize.... The issue is not what anyone intends but what consequences are in fact likely to follow."[7]

In this article, aptly titled "A Road to Hell Paved with Good Intentions," Sowell points out that "Marxism as an ideal continues to flourish on American college campuses, as perhaps nowhere else in the world." The exception may be the various UN campuses -- in New York, Geneva, Vienna, Paris....

Communism proved that central controls lead to tyranny and poverty, not peace and equality. Yet, our global managers continue to pave the path to lifelong management of minds and hearts at the cost of the wonderful freedoms Americans fought so hard to preserve. But people all too easily forget that none of those freedoms can exist apart from an abiding faith in the only Lord and King who can quench the raging fires of man's human nature and collective cruelties.

God's Word is full of such warnings. We would be fools to ignore or deny it, for our only hope for peace and freedom is in Jesus Christ. Prayerfully consider the following selections:

"But Jesus did not commit Himself to them, because He knew all men, and had no need that anyone should testify of man, for He knew what was in man."  John 2:24-25

"Professing to be wise, they became fools...

     "And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased [depraved] mind, to do those things which are not fitting; being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness.

     "They are whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful; who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them." Romans 1:22-32


UNESCO's Declaration of Principles on Tolerance | Declaration on the Role of Religion in a Culture of Peace


Endnotes:

1. A female refugee from Disa [Masalit village, West Darfur], interviewed by Amnesty International delegates in Goz Amer camp for Sudanese refugees in Chad, May 2004. See "Darfur: Rape as a weapon of war: sexual violence and its consequences"  at http://www.mafhoum.com/press7/203S30.htm

2. David Brooks, "Another "Triumph" for the U.N.," New York Times, September 25, 2004.

3. http://www.preventgenocide.org/law/convention/text.htm

4. "Action Plan to Prevent Genocide" at http://www.preventgenocide.org/prevent/UNdocs/KofiAnnansActionPlantoPreventGenocide7Apr2004.htm

5. "Holocaust, Genocide, & Human Rights" at http://www.webster.edu/~woolflm/holocaust.html

6. Gregory Stanton, "Eight Stages of Genocide," 1996. Part of a longer paper titled "How We Can Prevent Genocide: Building an International Campaign to End Genocide." at http://www.genocidewatch.org/HOWWECANPREVENTGENOCIDE.htm

7. Thomas Sowell, "A Road to Hell Paved with Good Intentions," Forbes (January 17, 1994); 62, 63, 64.


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