A drowned toddler, his lifeless body washed up on a Turkish shore. A Turkish police officer, himself a father, standing helpless, head bowed, just metres away.

The photo stunned me.

His name was Alan Kurdi, and he was three years old. His family, refugees from Syria, were trying to reach Greece by rowboat.

The photo stunned me, perhaps because Alan looked all-too-like my own three-year-old grandson. Perhaps because he reminded me of my sister, who drowned almost 50 years ago. Perhaps because of the flashback to a different child and a different war: Kim Phuc, fleeing the napalm fires of Vietnam, naked, horror written all over her face.

Whatever the reason, I couldn't hear the words of the newscaster. I couldn't speak. Speech seemed not only inadequate, but a desecration.

In the days since, policy-makers, pundits and politicians have filled the airwaves. What do we do? How can we keep our doors closed to people who have lost everything? We need more military presence to uproot ISIS. We need to get Canada's military out because it's only creating more refugees. Alan's only one of thousands of kids who have died; one of millions displaced by war. Et cetera.

I suppose these debates are necessary. In fact, I hear these voices in my own head as well as on TV. But don't you think the noise crowds out a needed silence?

I had the same reaction after 9/11. I had been part of the committee planning a national conference of professional ethicists to occur in Winnipeg in early October. The planes hit the Twin Towers and the shock waves sent our planning into chaos. Several colleagues suggested we scramble to organize a discussion session. And we did. But as I recall, the session began with a period of dead silence. And that was the most eloquent part for me.

We do need big picture responses that recognize Alan Kurdi was only one of thousands of drowned refugees. We do need to join others in effective, practical, large-scale response. I know that. But suppose Alan was the only one. Suppose only one innocent three-year-old died in his parents' arms today. Isn't that one too many?

Death is a rupture in the universe. The rupture is redeemed again and again by the grace of God who refuses to let sin and death have the last word. I believe that. I entrust Alan Kurdi to God's eternal goodness.

But the fact that divine grace overwhelms death does not mean it is inconsequential. Alan Kurdi may spend eternity with the angels and walk streets of gold, but he won't have a fourth birthday. He won't grow into manhood and have his own family. He won't form convictions that shape anyone else's thinking. These losses are monumental. And we shouldn't sweep them away with the comment that that's the human condition, get used to it.

I think there is a desecration whenever a human being dies. Any human being. Anytime. Anywhere. The Salvation Army has insisted from the very beginning that God does not want any of the infinitely valuable creatures who bear his image to perish. If we cannot be silent and bow our heads in the presence of an Alan Kurdi, like Command Sergeant Major Çıplak did, we have lost our way.

Dr. James Read is the director of The Salvation Army Ethics Centre in Winnipeg.

Comment

On Wednesday, December 23, 2015, S.Scott said:

that family was fleeing a safe address in Turkey. They didn't need to make the journey

On Tuesday, September 29, 2015, Ray Harris said:

Thanks Jim - yes, there is "a time to keep silence, and a time to speak." God grant us discernment for both.

On Wednesday, September 16, 2015, TheMatrixHasU said:

***The Salvation Army has insisted from the very beginning that God does not want any of the infinitely valuable creatures who bear his image to perish****

That is all true...but the problem is though I believe very much in extending a helping hand to refugees, be they Christians, Jews, or Muslims (provided Muslims leave their Sharia Law where they came from, and many do), the problem is we have enough of our OWN homeless starving people here in Canada or the US, and our own have to come first.

The Middle Eastern nations are amongst the wealthiest nations in the world (for obvious reasons), and they are more than able to take care of their own. What needs to be done above all is to destroy ISIS so these people can live in peace once more.

Many people, Christians especially, also come here thinking that Canada and the US are safe places for them. But the problem, is that is no longer so. Persecution of Christians is ramping up all over the world, including HERE with hate speech laws in place and people even being jailed for their faith.
And like it or not, the DEATH CAMPS are HERE, NOW, just waiting to be filled.

I am also in agreement with Stephen Harper who says that we cant just airlift refugees indiscriminately without doing security checks to make sure they are genuine refugees. Otherwise you risk letting in terrorists.

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