Kony Case

The Kony 2012 movie, while not new, has over the past two weeks become an Internet sensation. It is an attempt by The Invisible Children and Jason Russell to make the Ugandan warlord Joseph Kony infamous. It is their quest to make Kony famous so that people will unite behind a movement to take action to bring him to justice. When the Kony 2012 movie is taken into account with the four statements in the assignment it is apparent that they are related in a subtle but definite way.

First, the person behind the Kony 2012 movie is Jason Russell. He is an ordinary person, like us, but one who is doing remarkable things. He is creating a movement to pressure governments to help him with his quest to remove Kony from power. Each of us, like Jason Russell, is capable of remarkable and good things but only if we if put our feelings and beliefs into actions. Each of us possesses the ability to correct injustice in the world. It may not be on a scale as large as the Kony 2012 movement but if we believe and follow in Christ's teachings we will all do good in our lives.

"It is the zeitgeist of our culture that we need an enemy", is a comment that our culture needs a cause to rally behind. It defines our culture, our quest to right a wrong that has been done. Russell's movie infuriates and motivates people behind his mission. Russell plays to our notion of fairness and goodness, he has created an enemy that our culture will rally behind. It has given our generation something to fight against, something that focuses us and feeds our need to protect and to do well. He gives us an enemy in the form of Joseph Kony.

However, despite how horrible Kony may be as a person, Christ does not teach us to "hate". Rather, he teaches us to love our enemies. This simple statement is one of the hardest things for most people to follow. Loving your enemy? It is an act that requires complete selflessness and devotion to something or someone other than yourself. While the Kony 2012 movie can instill a hatred for Joseph Kony and his horrible crimes against kids and adults, it is not God's intent that we should hate him. Yes, Kony may be an enemy, someone we can all agree should be arrested and held responsible for his actions. He may be the enemy that our culture needs, the enemy my generation needs to have so that we can feel a part of a bigger world. A movement that we can get behind like the generations before