We have witnessed heinous hate crimes recently. All the news programs are talking about it.  “Why?” they ask. We are outraged by the death of the victims. “Why?” we ask. 

In spite of the death of one of their great leaders, the Mandaeans of John the Baptist's faith remained intact throughout the centuries.  That is until recent times.  Today, Mandaeans are experiencing genocide.  I never heard about it, have you? 

John, the Baptist, was murdered; it was a hate crime engineered by Herodius.  And we are still talking about it.  Why haven't we heard about the genocide of his faith? Could our relative lack of interest in the death of genocide victims be a clue to hate crime murders?

Stalin famously noted, “One death is a tragedy; a million is a statistic.”  And recent studies have confirmed this rather complacent attitude to the persecution and/or slaughter of groups of people. 

But how effective was it?  The world said, “Never Again” after the horrors of the Nazi Holocaust.  Why then did most of us just sit and watch?

·         In 1971, the Bangladesh atrocities, fueled by anti Bangalie racism, were responsible for the deaths of 250,000-3 million, especially among the Hindus.

·         1.7 million people were killed during the Cambodian genocide between 1975 and 1979, 21% of the country's total population-lost their lives at the hands of Pol Pot's extremist Khmer Rouge government.

·         In 1994 over 3-400,000 Tutsies were killed in 6 weeks in Rhwanda, another 2.5 million have been displaced. 

·         Between 1992-1995 the ethnic cleansing by the Serbs against the Muslims and Croats killed over 200,000.

·         In 2005, more than 24,000 Bosniaks were killed and over 100,000 expelled during the Srebrenica Genocide

·         It is estimated that over 1 million people have been killed in Tibet in the last 50 years.

·         And now, right now, the Mandaeans are being victimized.

Why is the story of John the Baptist's death such an important story in our faith?

Why isn't the story of the current genocide of the Mandaeans, John's faith, being preached in our churches? 

Has our lackadaisical interest in genocide victims fueled the fire of bigotry and hatred?

Think about it.