Complaint #026: Kony 2012

If you have not seen this video yet, I'd rather you spend your time doing so than reading my little rant (although reading my post is a nice afterthought).



That being said, I do not want Joseph Kony brought to justice. You read that right, I do NOT want Joseph Kony brought to justice. Do I want his crimes to come to an end? Yes. But do I want him brought to justice? No. Before you get out your pitchforks and torches, let me explain why.

I'll first define what bringing him to justice means. I'm thinking it; you're thinking it; we're all thinking it, and even if someone weren't, I'll prove, to the best of my ability, that to bring justice upon him is to kill him. He deserves it right? I mean, he's killed and raped large numbers people, abducted tens of thousands of children and forced them to act as soldiers, and he has displaced millions from their homes. The only thing worth doing to him is ending his life, correct? The wages of sin is death therefore he deserves to die. The problem is that we all deserve to die. We have all chosen a path that leads to death: me, you, Joseph Kony, and yes, even Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson. We have all chosen to sin and deserve death for that. We are all sinners to be stoned, and none of us is worthy to throw the first stone.

Take a look at your Bible. It's written by a bunch of murderers. Moses, who wrote the entire Torah, killed an Egyptian. David, a man after God's own heart, had an affair with a woman and had her husband killed to hide the resultant pregnancy (you could probably categorize his sexual intercourse with her as rape, as well). Paul, writer of much of the New Testament, was the leader of a group that hunted down and slaughtered Christians. Would you have brought these people to justice for their crimes? I'm pretty sure I would have, but it's not the mentality I should have.

No man is beyond redemption. This is why we should love the sinner (hate the sin? yes, but more importantly, love the sinner). This is why we are not worthy to cast the first stone. This is why an eye for an eye leads to the whole world going blind. This is why Atomic Opera, in their song "Justice", sung "I pray that I will never ask for justice". Yes, this does mean that Joseph Kony, Osama Bin Laden, Muammar Gaddafi, Joseph Stalin, and Adolph Hitler do not deserve justice served to them from fellow humans. Just because each treated others without regard to their humanity does not give us the excuse to act that way towards him. Justice comes from the King on High and He has already sent someone that redeemed all of us from our crimes.

So don't get me wrong, the video is fantastic. The plans it lays out are good, but let us focus on stopping these crimes for the sake of saving those being terrorized and not on bringing Joseph Kony to justice.