A Step Toward Global Justice

Yesterday I rejoiced upon hearing the news of the arrest in Serbia of Ratko Mladic. Mladic is the former commanding general of the Bosnian Serb army during the Bosnian War of 1992-95. He is most notorious for commanding the troops that massacred 8,000 Bosnian men and boys in the town of Srebrenica in 1995. Mladic has been on the run ever since. That year the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) indicted him for genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. He will now stand trial before that tribunal.

The acts committed under Mladic’s leadership schocked the world. They still shock us 16 years later. They also remind us of the depravity of the human heart if unchecked. The same depravity led Hutus to kill 800,000 Tutsis in Rwanda in 1994 and leads others to enslave at least 26 million fellow human beings today.

As you read this, though, do not despair. As dark as the human heart is, there is a God of light who brings justice, compassion, and rescue. And he is raising up a generation of young men and women to confront injustice on a global scale. They are taking very literally the command to “Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow.” Isaiah 1:17.

Many of you know of Regent Law’s Center for Global Justice, Human Rights, and the Rule of Law. Through this Center we seek to equip this generation that God is raising up. As I write, 12 Regent students are serving as interns with human rights partners all over the world—in Russia, Korea, India, France, Mexico, and the US. They are combating human trafficking and protecting religious liberty. I am confident that this summer will be a life-changing experience for them and the men and women they have gone to serve.

So when you are tempted to despair, please just stop and pray—to a God who knows and cares and acts. Please pray for our students and the work of the Center. And please partner with us in any way that God leads. Check out the Center at Regent.edu/globaljustice. Thanks!