From time to time, SouthCon readers will mention news stories to me, and I always appreciate it because I don't do as good a job of keeping up with the news as you might think.

Recently, Lorna thoughtfully took the time to leave me a comment mentioning this horrifying news story, which I hadn't heard about:

Reports of Iranian plans to force Jews, Christians and other religious minorities to wear color-coded badges in public sparked a flurry of outrage in the Bush administration and elsewhere yesterday, despite an emphatic denial by the only Jewish member of Iran's parliament.

Canada's National Post newspaper reported in yesterday's editions that a law passed Iran's parliament earlier this week that would require Jews to wear a yellow strip of cloth, Christians red and Zoroastrians blue.

Iran's only Jewish member of parliament, Maurice Motammed, denied the report late yesterday, calling it a "complete fabrication" and "totally false," according to a dispatch by Agence France-Press from Tehran...

Emphasis above was mine.

I read that and my heart literally leapt into my throat. I didn't even know how to go about addressing it at the blog. It just struck me as an overwhelming and absolutely depressing act of evil.

Surely the world has learned the lessons of the Holocaust, right? Surely we can't and won't get back on that slippery slope, right? I mean, even Iran, a nation that seems backward and downright barbaric to many of us Westerners, wouldn't really do something like that, right?

Well, it turns out (Thank God in Heaven) that there is increasing evidence that Iran really isn't considering such a plan... or else, it might simply be that Iran has had the good sense to back down from from it:

Representative of Iran’s 25,000 Jews in the nation’s parliament, Maurice Motamed, the only Jewish MP there, told the western press that the report dealt a severe blow to the Jewish image in Iran. “I was there when they discussed the law, and it was about the dress of Iranian Muslim women. Restrictions for minority or other religions were not mentioned,” Motamed said.

So I read that and I breathe a sigh of relief, thanking God that we're not headed toward the next Holocaust.

And then I remember that the next Holocaust is already going on in the Sudan. I've written about Darfur before, and I am still as baffled and as confused, and feel just as directionless about the situation now as I did then.

I honestly started this blog with the intentions of commenting on politics, culture, and the world around me. But, the more I pay attention to the world around me, the more I just want to write about candy bars.

And the more I think about it, the more I realize that simple escapism really isn't the solution. I call myself a Christian, and I'm sure that Christ wouldn't approve of me just pretending that Darfur doesn't exist. But is writing about it at my stupid blog doing enough? No. Is giving a few bucks here and there to Darfur relief groups doing enough? Probably not. What exactly is doing enough, then? I don't know.

When I think about one of my heroes, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, I feel ashamed at how comfortable and safe I am. And that shame leads to a feeling of uselessness, which leads to depression and that depression leads to doing even less.

So, clearly, as much as I pontificate and blog from my soapbox, I'm still totally full of crap.

My gut reaction is that if there's any nation state in the world forcing Christians to wear a red armband, I should wear one, too. And if there's a nation state forcing Jews to wear a yellow armband, then I want to wear one as well. If they start forcing homosexuals to wear a pink triangle again, then I want to wear a pink triangle. If they force anyone to be separated, mistreated, and backed into a corner simply because of who they are, then I want to be in that corner with them.

Big talk, huh? It's so easy for me to sit here in my comfortable home and write words like that. Even if I did start wearing armbands and triangles, etc, I'd still really be doing nothing. Symbolic support is no real support at all. It's like all those yellow ribbon magnets people have on their cars these days. How is putting a magnet on your car really helping anyone?

It's like all those the hippies who disgust me so much; driving around in cars covered with 50 bumperstickers: Free Tibet! ... Think Globally, Act Locally! They're really convinced that putting a bumpersticker on the back of an old Ford Tempo (for instance) is supporting the cause. And here I sit, complaining about the hippies and doing absolutely no more than they are doing.

And there I go again, chasing my tail.

Anyway, thanks to Lorna and to everyone who leaves comments and sends e-mails about these kinds of stories. I mean that sincerely. I think that comfort is an impediment to faithful Christianity... and even if I don't yet know what I should be doing, at least I know that I should be doing something.

Something other than enjoying my comfort.