Hi, I subsribe to the BreakPoint E-mail transcript mailing list and I just received this today (Friday 9/24).
If you don't know anything about Sudan, read on.
If you're in a hurry, just skim through the main part.
This is for info only, and BreakPoint may or may not contain views that agree with Southeast Christian Church or the Gamos class.
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BreakPoint Commentary #90924 - 9/24/1999
Touched by Compassion: A Producer Takes on Slavery
by Charles Colson
In this day and age, what's the quickest way to reach
millions of people with a message?
Put it on television.
And the most effective way to get your point across?
Tell a story.
If you turn on the TV this Sunday, you'll find one of the
most important stories of our time dramatized on the
top-rated program, "Touched By An Angel." It's the
story of how our brothers and sisters in Christ are
being persecuted in Sudan, and the storyteller is
Martha Williamson, executive producer for the
program.
Williamson got the idea for the segment after
watching a news program that exposed the slavery and
genocide taking place in Sudan. The faces of those
suffering people haunted Williamson, and she began
researching the issue. She contacted the offices of
Senator Sam Brownback and Congressman Donald Paine,
both experts on Sudan. She even took the trouble of
attending a meeting in Washington, where she learned
that a civil war has been raging in Sudan for some
15 years. A war that has taken the lives of some two
million people. A war that has displaced another
4 million people, creating the largest refugee
population in the world.
And yet, few people seem to know or care.
Williamson knew she was in a unique position: As the
executive producer of one of the most popular
programs on television, she could educate millions of
viewers about the tremendous suffering of Sudanese
Christians.
She came up with a story line about a fictional
senator named Kate Cooper whose young son, digging
through her briefcase, discovers the shocking details
of Sudanese slavery--of mothers and children who are
kidnapped and sold to Muslim masters. He begs his
mother to help, and the senator wants to get
involved--but she knows if she does, it will
jeopardize her chances of getting re-elected.
Will she put her own needs first--or those of the
suffering Church?
For the roles of slaves, Williamson cast some 60
real-life Sudanese people who escaped from slavery
themselves. Many of them wept during the filming,
recalling not just the horrors of slavery, but of
loved ones who are still in Sudan, being tortured,
raped, and killed for their faith.
It's a deeply affecting episode, and I hope you'll
watch it. And then I hope you'll do something else.
I hope you will call your senators and representatives
and ask them, "What are YOU doing to bring an end to
slavery and genocide in Sudan, the bombing of Christian
civilians, the forced conversions, and the government-
manufactured famine against them?" Ask them to support
the Sudan Peace Act, which has been introduced in both
houses.
And then call the White House, and ask why the president
won't even speak out to stop the slaughter.
Remember, it will take more than a television drama to
end the suffering. It will take millions of telephone
calls and letters. Our object must be nothing less than
putting an end to this evil regime.
So even if you don't normally watch "Touched By An Angel,"
please gather your friends together and watch it this
Sunday.
And then, get busy.
[The number for the capitol hill switchboard is
202.224.3121. To contact the White House Opinion
Line, call 202.456.1111]
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