In 1994, genocide put Rwanda on the map for most of the world. It also exposed one of the most shameful scandals of the Rwandan churches--the complicity of the Christian churches in the genocide. Genocide in Rwanda: Complicity of the Churches provides a variety of perspectives through which to assess the complex questions and issues surrounding the topic, and, even raise some new questions that could provide some new insight into this historical event. Contributors have tried to face as carefully, sensitively, and honestly as possible some of the questions about the Church and 1994 genocide in Rwanda many have been asking in the media, and in other places as well. For example, Why were priests ethno-biased? Why did the churches allow clerics to preach ethno-hatred? Did they? What about the nuns and priests who assisted in the killing of Tutsis? Did the Roman Catholic Church, the Pope or the Vatican or did the Church of England--the two Christian denominations with the largest number of adherents--speak out against them? Did the Church protect, reprimand, punish, excommunicate their adherents--clergy, religious, and lay--who were genocidaires before, during, and after the 1994 genocide? Do the Churches have a moral duty to engage in tikkun olam, healing, and repair? If so, how? If not, why not? These, are only some of the questions, and they are questions we must ask for the sake of the future. Otherwise, how can the Church, its members, and its leadership begin to make moral restitution, begin to change structures and behaviors, and once again reveal the human face of God in our fragile world?

Religious practitioners, scholars, and political figures explore the possibility that churches contributed to the 1994 genocide in what is officially the most Christian country in Africa. They look broadly at the relationship of churches to power, people, and responsibility as well as at specific evidence for and against complicity.
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