The Night Pol Pot Died: Excerpts from unpublished manuscript “SYMPATHY FOR THE DEVIL: A JOURNALIST’S MEMOIR INSIDE POL POT’S KHMER ROUGE” By Nate Thayer

Here’s a good article about Pol Pot’s last days written by Nate Thayer. Click the link and give it a read.

The Night Pol Pot Died: From the Jungles of Northern Cambodia

By Nate Thayer

EXCERPTS FROM SYMPATHY FOR THE DEVIL: A JOURNALIST’S MEMOIR FROM INSIDE POL POT’S KHMER ROUGE

(Copyright Nate Thayer. All rights reserved. No publication or transmission in whole or part allowed without express written permission of the author. Excerpts from the unpublished manuscript “Sympathy for the Devil: A Journalist’s Memoir from Inside Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge.”)

By Nate Thayer

I was alone in a hotel the night Pol Pot died, in the small, remote Thai border town of Surin, abutting the Khmer Rouge controlled jungles of Cambodia.

I had been urgently summoned by the Khmer Rouge a few days earlier in a phone call which betrayed no specifics of why they wanted to see me, only that it was urgent. General Khem Nuon, the Khmer Rouge army-chief-of-staff and top field commander for Ta Mok had said only:…

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Suppressing the Truth

I thought I’d write a quick article to support my last one.

First, take a look at Romans 1:16-32…

For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “The just shall live by faith.”

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man—and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things.

Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.

For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due.

And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting; being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful; who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them.
(NKJV)

This is a pretty hard hitting piece of writing. Notice what is not being said. It does not say that the wrath of God is being revealed against people who are doing depraved things. It says that the wrath of God is (present tense) being revealed against people who suppress the truth. And what does this wrath look like, which is being revealed now? God hands people over to the lusts of their bodies. He removes the restraints. So the cause of the wrath is not depravity, the cause is the suppression of the truth, the result of the wrath is depravity. We see that a suppression of the truth results in homosexuality, futile thoughts, darkened hearts, foolishness, and a bunch of other things as listed in the text.

And what truth is being suppressed? The knowledge of God which is manifest (evident) in all people. And added to this is an unthankfulness. So the truth that God created all things, and that He created all things to be something specific, is suppressed and even despised.

Think of a large spring. To push it down I have to use my whole weight. And once it’s pushed down, I can’t just walk away expecting it to stay down. I have to stay on top of it, always. Even if I let up just a little, that spring is going to pop out from my grip and smack me in the face.

When I write an article against atheism, I do not want to help hold down any springs. I want to kick away the hands holding the springs down. Because I know the world view called atheism is a lie, and people need to be woken up from it. A rude awakening seems to be the only thing that might work.

Careful, those springs have quite a kick.

An excellent book I would recommend at this point is “Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert~An English Professor’s Journey into Christian Faith” by Rosaria Butterfield.

When God Laughs He Laughs at Atheists

I was at this time of living, like so many Atheists or Anti-theists, in a whirl of contradictions. I maintained that God did not exist. I was also very angry with God for not existing. I was equally angry with Him for creating a world.
~C.S. Lewis

A couple of other good titles for this article could be: “Let Us Rage Against the Unicorn” or “When Atheists Lie They Lie to Themselves (and They’re Always Lying)”.

You’ve got agnostics, who are like the potheads of the issue–“Hey man, whatever man”. And you’ve got the atheists, whose two tenets are: 1) “I don’t believe in God”; 2) “I hate God”. Christopher Hitchens described himself as an anti-theist, which meant that even if he acknowledged the existence of God he would still rebel against God. At least he was honest. And this is the funny thing about atheists: the outright rage against something they claim doesn’t exist. It doesn’t make sense. Look, I don’t believe in unicorns, but I’m not seething in anger against those monokeros bastards. I’m pushed to conclude that atheists know God enough to hate Him.

But, of course, the atheist would argue that he does not hate God; he hates Christianity, Christians, and Conservatives. He’ll blame war, human suffering, and intolerance on Christianity. “Remember the Crusades?!”

But when we judge the actions of people, we have to ask if their actions are in line with who they say they are and what they say they believe. A Catholic priest who molests young boys does not represent the heart of Christianity, he is a troll. Let’s use the crusades as an example. In the eleventh century, peace had been imposed by the church in Europe, which was supposed to stop the bloody feuds between competing lords and knights. It was not wholly successful. So when the Eastern Orthodox Church appealed to the European Pope for help in holding back the invading Muslim Turks, Pope Urban II saw a fortuitous occasion to rid Europe of its violent fighting men and to save the Holy Land from the Muslims. The crusaders sent south on those missions were like a bunch of Hell’s Angels bikers who had just completed a six month vow of alcoholic and sexual abstinence. They did not act Christ-like, they acted a lot more like…well, atheists. And the results were devastating, driving a deeper wedge between the Western and Eastern church, and fueling the misplaced rage of atheists for centuries to come.

Jesus said, “Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation.” If I want to convert a village to Christianity, I’m not going to recruit a bunch of 20 year old, single, male, atheists to do the job. And 30 years later, when the old village women lament to the atheist documentarian about all the half-breed children they had to raise by themselves, I would rightfully be criticized for being shortsighted in regards to my team selection, but no one could accuse Christianity for being the cause of the village’s distress simply on account of my ineptitude.

A lot of atheists attempt to take the moral high ground and describe themselves as being tolerant, loving, and a bunch of other self-righteous spew. At this time the atheist needs to be reminded that the word ‘atheist’ simply means to not believe in God, that’s it. There is no moral scheme attached to the word. And so, again, when the atheist gets moral, it’s just more fist shaking aimed at the vacant skies. As an example, when someone (atheist or not) says that gay marriage is all about individual happiness, I have to say, “But, if God created us male and female, then should we not strive to remain within those boundaries?” And the response is either, “There is no God, throw off your chains!” or “God is love, throw off your chains!” Both those responses are just unqualified created beings redefining that which was defined by the Creator. Not smart. “So there is no God, and all things can change and morph, and there are no boundaries? Great! Now excuse me while I try to impregnate this chihuahua.”

Consider Psalm 2…

Why do the nations rage,
And the people plot a vain thing?
The kings of the earth set themselves,
And the rulers take counsel together,
Against the Lord and against His Anointed, saying,
“Let us break Their bonds in pieces
And cast away Their cords from us.”

He who sits in the heavens shall laugh;
The Lord shall hold them in derision.
Then He shall speak to them in His wrath,
And distress them in His deep displeasure:
“Yet I have set My King
On My holy hill of Zion.”

“I will declare the decree:
The Lord has said to Me,
‘You are My Son,
Today I have begotten You.
Ask of Me, and I will give You
The nations for Your inheritance,
And the ends of the earth for Your possession.
You shall break them with a rod of iron;
You shall dash them to pieces like a potter’s vessel.’”

Now therefore, be wise, O kings;
Be instructed, you judges of the earth.
Serve the Lord with fear,
And rejoice with trembling.
Kiss the Son, lest He be angry,
And you perish in the way,
When His wrath is kindled but a little.
Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him.
(NKJV)

Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, “If you board the wrong train, it is no use running along the corridor in the other direction.” The second psalm is a no nonsense, ultimate, statement of reality, and if you’re opposed to it, you are on the wrong train.

God has created all things, and not just that, He has created all things to be something specific. Accepting that fact is freedom. A fish in the water is free. A rebellious fish out of the water is dead, and God laughs at it.

“If you ask why we should obey God, in the last resort the answer is, ‘I AM.’
To know God is to know that our obedience is due to Him.”
~C.S. Lewis

Further reading: Bestiality brothels are ‘spreading through Germany’ warns campaigner as abusers turn to sex with animals as ‘lifestyle choice’

Slum Dog Missionary Kid~Part Two

I’m writing up some articles about life in Cambodia. I don’t know when I’ll be done with them, so I’ll just keep posting them in these segments as I go. This article is number two. Click here to read part one.

Fast forward to the future, and I’m raising a family in Cambodia. Cambodia: one of the poorest countries, sub-standard schools, unnerving health care, corrupt law enforcement, and dirt roads.

In Cambodia I encounter a whole new kind of poverty. This is third world poverty. This poverty is deeply pervasive, affecting the whole culture. If western poverty were compared to a light sunburn on one’s arm, Cambodian poverty would be a full body, third degree, heretic’s execution burn. And it’s not just material poverty, in fact materialistic lack is the smallest part of the problem. This is a deep spiritual poverty. If you’re hungering for a spiritual experience, don’t waste your time at the Angkor Wat temple, just visit a slum. The material world and the spiritual world intersect more strongly at places of extreme poverty. The utter spiritual poverty of man is seen and understood most clearly in places riddled with garbage and open sewage.

But I don’t want to portray too dismal a picture. Here’s what else you’ll see in the slum…

I actually don’t live in the slum myself. My family and I live in a house that’s nicer than what we would live in if back in Canada. There are some missionaries who feel its necessary to live right in the mud with the locals, and that’s cool, I’m just not one of those missionaries. I don’t need to change who I am in order to share the gospel or make disciples. I’m not one of those prosperity gospel guys, but I’m not one of those poverty gospel guys either. Rich or poor, you’ve got to go where God calls you. Wealth is a relative concept anyways.

This brings me to my son, Noah–the slum dog missionary kid.

My wife’s parents, Noah’s grandparents do live in the slum, right in the heart of it. They have had opportunity to get out of it, but I think it is where they feel they belong for now. Noah’s grandmother, Srai Sim, serves God in her own way there. Noah spends a lot of his time at their home, eating, sleeping, playing with the oodles of kids in the area. He gets right into it and couldn’t care less about this place or that place. Noah, when he grows up, will be able to spend time with the rich and the poor, and not feel out of place in either situation. A long-term missionary friend told me recently that the US military likes to recruit missionary kids because they grow up in difficult, poverty stricken situations, and won’t be taken off guard when encountering it in some overseas combat mission. Makes sense.

It is not a sheltered life, thank God. Noah is being, and will be, exposed to things that the wisest of the west have never dealt with. I’ve seen near mega-church pastors mortifyingly stripped of their “know-it-all-ness” when crossing the Poipet border into Cambodia. It’s very refreshing. A well rounded wisdom–that’s what Noah is growing up into here in the third world.

to be continued…

Srai Sim’s Story

On April 17, 1975, the Khmer Rouge army marched into Phnom Penh. Over the next few frantic days, journalists covered what they saw before they were forced to leave. They watched, astounded, as Khmer Rouge soldiers, young peasants from the provinces, mostly uneducated teenage boys who had never been in a city before, swept through town. For them, Phnom Penh offered many mysteries. The boys didn’t know what to make of telephones, or toilets. But they set to their job right away, evacuating Phnom Penh, forcing all its residents, at gunpoint, to leave behind everything they owned and march toward the countryside. Hospital patients still in their white gowns stumbled along carrying their IV bottles. Screaming children ran in desperate search for their parents.
~Joel Brinkley, “Cambodia’s Curse”, pg. 40

Srai Sim is my wife Makara’s mother and a survivor of the Khmer Rouge regime. This is her story.

Early Life and Marriage

Born in 1954 in Phnom Penh, Cambodia’s capital, Srai Sim was the only daughter in a family of five children. Her father worked for the government, while her mother was a homemaker.

At sixteen, Srai Sim married a hardworking young sergeant in the army. Together, they welcomed their first daughter, Srai Dtop, and looked forward to a promising future.

The Khmer Rouge Takeover

In 1975, as the United States withdrew from Vietnam, Cambodia was already in turmoil, plagued by political instability. That April, the Khmer Rouge (KR) took control of Phnom Penh, ordering its residents to evacuate under the false pretense of an impending American bombing. In reality, the KR sought to eradicate urban life and transform Cambodia into an agrarian society.

Seven months pregnant with their second child and with a three-year-old daughter in tow, Srai Sim and her family were forced to march out of the city. They were herded like cattle to Kampong Speu, where she gave birth to Srai Owne. A month later, they were relocated to Moung Roussei in Battambang province, given a week to rest, and then sent to Phnom Thippadei to build their own shelter and work under grueling conditions.

Tragedy Strikes

Two months after settling in, KR soldiers began identifying former government workers. Srai Sim’s husband, a soldier under the previous government, was among those selected. The KR claimed these men would return safely to Phnom Penh, but only the men were taken.

A month after her husband’s departure, Srai Sim’s eldest daughter, weakened by starvation and illness, passed away before her fourth birthday. With little food herself, Srai Sim could no longer produce breast milk, and just three weeks later, baby Srai Owne also died. Soon after, a KR soldier visiting his mother in Moung Roussei revealed the truth—Srai Sim’s husband had been executed along with all the other men.

With no children to care for, Srai Sim was assigned to hard labor in the rice fields. Each day from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., she worked under the threat of death, surviving on meager portions of rice soup. Malnourished and exhausted, she began to lose her eyesight. A friend had to guide her, and she feared being executed if the soldiers discovered her blindness.

When the rice season ended, she was reassigned to transporting wood by ox cart. The work was less physically demanding, and over time, her eyesight returned.

A Forced Marriage

At the worksite, Srai Sim met Heang, a former farmer. The KR leaders, intent on forcing city dwellers and rural workers to intermarry, ordered them to wed. When Srai Sim refused, insisting her husband was waiting for her in Phnom Penh (though she knew he was dead), a soldier threatened to kill her. Resigned to survive, she relented. Along with 22 other couples, they were forcibly married on the same day.

Though Heang was happy to have a wife, Srai Sim remained distant. He feared she would leave him and would cling to her at night to prevent her escape. Soon after, she was sent back to the rice fields, while Heang was relocated 40 kilometers away to cut trees. Despite the grueling distance, he would walk all night just to visit her before making the return journey.

Escape and Survival

By late 1978, the Vietnamese invaded Cambodia to overthrow the Khmer Rouge. The fighting made its way to the Moung Roussei area. KR soldiers began killing many Cambodians rather than letting them escape during the chaos of the fighting. The KR soldiers rounded up Srai Sim and all the other workers and took them into the forest where Heang was working. They sent everyone up a small mountain to create a stronghold against the Vietnamese soldiers. It was extremely hot up the mountain, and they began to run out of drinking water.

Dehydration and heat took their toll. Those who attempted to flee were shot or caught in crossfire. Realizing they would die if they stayed, Srai Sim and Heang made a run for safety. As they sprinted, bullets flew past them. Miraculously, they reached Vietnamese soldiers, who ushered them to safety. By early 1979, the KR had fallen, and the couple settled in Moung Roussei.

A New Beginning

In 1980, Srai Sim and Heang had their first son, Sarin. Over the years, they welcomed more children: Makara, Petra, Seyha, Gunya, and Dtolla.

When Sarin was 17, he joined a Christian church and became deeply involved. Though Srai Sim remained devoted to Buddhism, she allowed him to practice his faith. However, financial hardship struck, shaking her beliefs. With her family struggling, Sarin invited her to church. She agreed.

At the service, she was overwhelmed by emotion, crying throughout. Though she didn’t understand why, she felt she had encountered God. She soon chose to follow Christ.

Serving Others

In 2002, the family moved to Poipet, where Sarin found work at a casino to support them. Trusting fully in God, Srai Sim started a house church, sharing her faith with her neighbors.

Today, she continues to serve as the director of a school in Poipet, strong in her Christian faith, working tirelessly to guide others to the truth she has found.