(writing from Phnom Penh, Cambodia)
The other day I sat and had lunch with one of Food for the Hungry’s staff here in Cambodia. He was nine years old during the Pol Pot/Khmer Rouge/Killing fields’ era, when his family fled to a refugee camp. During the time in the camp, circumstances separated the family from each other. While I do not remember a great deal of the details of his story (due to the language barrier), I found, in his story, something very interesting.
Paulo Friere wrote a book titled, Pedagogy of the Oppressed. While there are great deals of complex thoughts and propositions put forth in this book, at a very basic foundational level, the book discusses issues with oppressed peoples. Friere proposes that throughout history those who have been oppressed, when freed, become oppressors themselves (for they know nothing different).
This is seen in much of the Cambodian culture which is filled with corruption, the sex trade, and wide spread crime. This is of course an overly simplistic explanation, but bear with me.
This FHI staff member has not fallen into the cycle that much of his country and even many in his family have. It was a church which reached out to this man and changed his ideas and perceptions with the Kingdom of God. It was this transformation in his life that he was able to end the cycle of oppression and speak out with the peaceful words of Christ!
While Friere’s study of the oppressed can be seen in a dim light, the answer, to ending these cycles of generations growing up with no other knowledge than that of violence and oppression, is the transforming power of the Kingdom of God! For the gospel is not some simplistic salvation message for an individual to go to heaven but a very powerful force filled with grace and peace which can transform people and redeem all of the broken aspects of life!
