Some of my earliest memories involve watching the Olympics with my mom – in our household, during Olympics weeks, we would spend every evening and weekend watching events coverage. I remember, at age five, seeing Greg Louganis hit his head on a diving board. I remember, more clearly, the Magnificent Seven gymnasts of 1996 – at age thirteen, I cried when Kerri Strug (after spraining her ankle) stuck the landing on her second vault attempt and sealed the U.S. women’s gymnastics victory for that year. In our household, and across the world, Olympics have always meant high drama.
And so it continues, but on a broader stage, with more dire consequences. I recently read a post by Nicholas Kristof, entitled The Genocide Olympics. A latecomer to some human-rights issues, I only became aware a few years ago of China’s poor human rights record via the controversy surrounding “Bodies … the Exhibition” in which many worried about the origin of the displayed bodies, obtained from dubious Chinese sources. In his post, Kristof raises questions about the upcoming Beijing Olympics, especially in light of China’s unapologetic underwriting of the Sudanese genocide. In a later post, Kristof outlines his reasons for opposing a boycott, but gives few suggestions of how the average citizen can proceed.
I believe that the Beijing Olympics, and China’s support of the Sudanese genocide, are issues that Christians cannot ignore. So here are a few ideas:
We must educate ourselves, first thing, if we are not already informed. A good place to start is Amnesty International, which is tracking China’s progress in the leadup to the Olympics.
We must pay attention to see if there is one aspect of this very large injustice which catches us: is it the economic participation in entities that support the Sudanese genocide? Socially responsible investing in general? The location of the Olympics in China in the first place? If you are concerned about socially responsible investing, I would suggest visiting Amy Domini’s website – she received an honorary doctorate from Berkeley Divinity School last year, and is a powerful force for good in the investment world. If you would prefer to target investment that supports genocide in Sudan, I recommend visiting this Sudan divestment page, which gives a map of the United States and various divestment efforts happening in them. Finally, if you are opposed to the location of the Olympics in China in the first place, I encourage you to start up discussions with friends, to raise the question from your pulpits, to write about it on your blogs. I hope to preach about an aspect of this issue during my work as a camp chaplain this summer, and I also plan to raise the question of human rights in every conversation I have about the Olympics (and there will be many, since my love of the Olympic games has not waned since childhood).
What is the best way to use this Olympics to spur just action on behalf of the persecuted people of Sudan? How can we best raise awareness and respond to the needs of our brothers and sisters? Let us see this broad stage of controversy as an opportunity for advocacy and justice, and to not allow the opportunity to pass without our voices being heard.
Emily Bloemker is a middler at Berkeley Divinity School at Yale, Emily has traveled in Haiti and Sudan with the Roman Catholic and Episcopal Church.
