A must-read today: an excellent article by Allen D. Hertzke about the Darfur crisis and the church. The picture Hertzke paints is a frustrating one: evangelicals worked hard to stop the civil war in southern Sudan earlier this year, but have lost focus and momentum now that the crisis has shifted to Darfur in the west... where genocide is now taking place.

The Christian movement to stop the civil war in early 2005 seems to have been an honest-to-goodness effective union of Christians from all over the spectrum--liberal, conservative, and everywhere in between. Hertzke cites a number of reasons for the movement's failure to address the current genocide crisis with the same zeal that characterized earlier efforts to stop the civil war: distraction by cultural debates here in the U.S. (think the gay marriage debate), distrust between the liberal and conservative elements of the movement, and a fear that too much interference in Sudan might do more harm than good.

The article is long, but well worth the read; it does a good job of explaining an extremely complex situation. Hertzke believes that American evangelicals have the power to make Darfur a national priority, and calls on Christians to wield their political influence to get the ball rolling again.

Personally, I'd prefer to see items like this on our agenda rather than a lot of our endlessly-debated pet cultural issues.

Thoughts?