I’ve just finished reading Left to Tell, Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust by Immaculée Ilibagiza,  survivor of the horrendous massacres in Rwanda in the 1990’s. Ethnic groups in that country, some calling themselves Christians, allowed themselves to be filled with unreasoning hatred that led them to commit these atrocities.

Much of the book deals with the author’s journey into forgiveness after hiding in unspeakable conditions during the massacre, then discovering that her parents, two brothers, and numerous friends and relatives had been brutally slain.

So-called Christians are not the only ones who commit atrocities, nor are wrongs committed only in the name of religion. We marvel, however, when countries with a Christian witness allow the Holocaust or bombings of Catholics and Protestants or the lynching of black Americans.

Jesus himself was killed because the religious leaders of his day sent him to die.

Yet a remnant may chose a different path, like Joseph of Arimathea, who dared disagree with those leaders. Dietrich Bonhoeffer in Germany worked against the Nazis until they killed him. Some brave Rwandans defied their neighbors and hid members of the despised ethnicity.

What it says to us is that Christianity may be only skin deep, the seed thrown out in Jesus’ parable that seems to produce fruit at first but then is overcome with the desire for wealth or the fear of persecution. Yet some endure, make the hard choices, and produce the fruit of life and forgiveness.