KONY2012 Vs. Evangelist JASON RUSSELL2012

Jason Russell: [A] a lot of people fear Christians, they fear Liberty University, they fear Invisible Children because they feel like we have an agenda. They see us and they go, "You want me to sign up for something, you want my money. You want, you want me to believe in your God.

 
[The Black Star News]

With KONY2012 Jason Russell has done the world a huge favor and he deserves to be praised with hallelujahs.

By
producing a short film that’s gone viral there’s now global hunger for
information about the story of Uganda’s tragic conflict of more than a
quarter century and about Russell himself. He appears to be on his own
Christian crusade, while using KONY2012 as cover, judging by remarks
he’s made at Liberty University
.

With KONY2012 Russell
also wanted to promote his own simplistic propaganda narrative which
holds that: Joseph Kony is “evil,” and, by omission, Yoweri Museveni and
Uganda’s military are “good.” Russell breaks it down in a
biblical narrative. The reason for this construct becomes more clear
when one hears what he says at Liberty University. 

In fact,
The Black Star News
has argued for years that Kony and Gen. Museveni are
two sides of the same coin. Museveni begat Kony.  The  International
Criminal Court only indicted one side of the same coin. Both Kony and
Museveni must be held accountable.

Yet Museveni’s Western
supporters, especially the United States, have turned a blind eye to the
deaths and destruction caused by the general’s militarism in Uganda,
Rwanda, Congo, and now Central Africa. He has a blank check because he’s
sent Ugandan troops to Somalia on behalf of Washington, which fears
that broken country may become a haven for Al-Qaeda. Even Luis Moreno Ocampo at the International Criminal Court has given the general a pass.

So to
expose Gen. Museveni  and Invisible Children is not to extol Kony. On
the contrary it’s to provide a better and more rounded picture for
people who really want to do something to end the conflict. The region
does not more U.S. troops: it needs democratization, the rule of law,
and de-emphasizing militarism. Can you imagine the global demand for peace negotiations if Russell had used some of his cinematic skills to expose some of the atrocities by Museveni’s troops, especially in the Congo?

Americans who are serious and really care about children should not be promoting warfare on Africa. If the U.S. can be in secret negotiations and then open ones with the Taleban, why not try the same in East and Central Africa and compel all combatants to come to the table? Of course there are those that suspect the U.S. objective is to use Kony, even with his decimated army, as an excuse to deploy in Africa to protect resource-rich regions against Chinese encroachment. Africans have rejected basing AFRICOM, the U.S. Africa Command on the continent–so KONY2012 would allow the U.S. military to come in through a side door.

What about Jason Russell himself? What
is his agenda? It’s unlikely that it can primarily be the capture or
killing of Kony, whose forces have already been decimated: he’s not even
been in Uganda since 2006.

Russell seems to be on an
evangelical crusade, judging by the promos for the films Invisible
Children has made in the past, judging by KONY2012, judging by the
zealotry of some of his supporters, and by his Liberty University
remarks on November 7, 2011. Russell also effectively uses images of
global masses coming together, holding hands. He tells them they are
holding hands in unison against Kony.

Are they in fact holding
hands and praying to Jason’s Church? Is Jason Russell –with an unwitting flock– the Elmer Gantry of the 21st Century and the viral video era?  
 
As
readers know, Liberty University, in Lynchburg Virginia, was founded by
the late Jerry Fallwell , who opposed sanctions against the apartheid
regime in South Africa and called Bishop Desmond Tutu a “phony” and
opposed Desegregation and Civil Rights legislation. 
 
The
simplistic manner in which Russell clowns around in discussing the
Ugandan calamity, during his Liberty University appearance, is
breath-taking but reveals much about his state of mind. For example, he
says things such as “we can have fun while ending genocide,” “We’re gonna have a blast doing it, hoo-hoo!” and “God
calls us to be joyful in the work that we’re doing….” 
 
And,
in his own words, unsolicited, Russell reveals that while most people
view Invisible Children as a non-profit organization, they saw
themselves as “a business.”  This is a critical remark and answers a lot
of the questions that have been raised in terms of how “selfless” the
group is considering that apparently only a small fraction of the
substantial sums raised go towards helping children in Uganda. 
 
But
the most revealing information about Russell came when he was asked the
following question from the audience: “How do you motivate
hypocritical, apathetic Christians to, kind of, `get in the fight'”? 
 
Here’s Russell’s messianic response: 

“I
think the challenges that we have as followers of Christ is putting on
the lens of ‘are you a  Christian or are you not’? And people have asked
me that since day one. They come to me after the screening and they ask
‘do you believe in Jesus?’ and I’m like, ‘yeah,’  and they’re like
‘yeah, I knew it. I  got a win.’ They’re like ‘ah, he’s one of us.’

“I
don’t ever remember Jesus kind of doing that you know. I don’t ever
remember him being like ‘hey fishermen are you going to believe in me?
You are? Okay; then you’re in.’ The thing about Jesus that was so
different was he was so magnetized. The people who were not like him,
were magnetized to him.

So as a generation–as a human being that
follows Christ, his mandate is that we do love our neighbor, we all know
this. But he also calls us to love our enemy.  And therefore there
should be no judgment or, no–There should be no question that says
‘you’re a hypocritical Christian,’ right? It should be like ‘maybe I
don’t like that in you. I don’t like the things you’re doing. But I’m
going to continue to love you as a friend because it mandates me to love
my enemy,’ right?

That, I think is the biggest ‘wow’ for me and the work that I’ve done in my life.

People
are scared of Liberty University. You guys know this. They’re scared
because they see the power and potential in this room, the conviction
you have, the connectivity you have. And they look at this arena and
they go, ‘that’s scary – if they realized what they could do, it would
revolutionize the world.’ That’s why you’re here.

And so I think
that it is that insecurity or that realizing, ‘I don’t have what it
takes’ – but you do. We do. And, the trick is to not go out into the
world and say, ‘I’m going to baptize you, I’m going to convict you, I
have an agenda to win you over.’

Your agenda is to look into the
eyes, as Jesus did, and say, ‘who are you? And will you be my friend?’ –
Like he did to the prostitutes, the tax collectors, the fisherman. The
biggest mistake that we make is to saying, we make a line and we say,
“black, white, are you in or are you out?”

I just–I have a hard
time digesting that mentality. And I think that’s why a lot of people
fear Christians, they fear Liberty University, they fear Invisible
Children because they feel like we have an agenda. They see us and they
go, ‘You want me to sign up for something, you want my money. You want,
you want me to believe in your God.

And it freaks them out. So
figure out a way, you know – I have totally been there. I have been
there so many times. I’m like, ‘I wonder if they know?’ I wonder if
they’re in the group.’ ,And it’s like, ‘No! That is judgment, itself.'” 
 
The world is a dangerous place when Jason Russell controls U.S. foreign policy in Central Africa.

[email protected] 
“Speaking Truth To Empower.”

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