Madu Ethical Issues

"Can we really be friends of war criminals and girls who abuse their unborn children? What does it mean - for us, for them, for mission?" (pg. 96). Madu at the age of ten was kidnapped and trained to fight for the Revolutionary United Front. He fought alongside the rebel army, and joined in the victimization of innocent civilians in Sierra Leone, he was a perpetrator, yet as a coerced child, he was also a victim of the rebel army (pg. 94-5). In a situation where one has horrendously exploited others and has been terribly exploited personally, where do we draw the line- should there even be a line? In one way or another, we all have been on both sides of exploitation. This is the difficult ethical/moral dilemma presented in Ch. 4, how do we

Jesus tells us in the context of the whole passage that all have perpetrated (sinned), and we shouldn 't be so hasty to cast a stone (judge/condemn) others before taking an introspective look at ourselves and where we fall short. To foster this spirituality for incarnationally serving those on the margins is to "choose the way of Jesus, laying aside all the earthly resources that give us power - in order to be present to those we love" (pg. 97). Doing this, we humble ourselves and serve people like Madu as friends, since the textbook answer won 't make the impact necessary for change, but living it out, showing love and bestowing friendship upon them will be the example and the relationship they need that will cause a deep transformative impact. However, we mustn 't become calloused to the evil actions in these ambiguous situations, if we do, then the loving-correction needed to move past perpetration may never be accomplished. Jesus displays the forgiveness and the call to action beautifully "Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more" (John 8: 11b), so in highly ambiguous perpetrator/victim situations, we must love them through friendship in order to address their and our wrongdoings, in order to live out and obey Jesus 's