Laurens Hogebrink, a member of the board of the Dutch Interchurch Peace Council (IKV), has become a prominent figure in the European movement against nuclear weapons. He is chairman of the editorial board of Disarmament Campaigns, an English-language publication based in the Hague. As a member of staff of the Department on Church and Society of the Netherlands Reformed Church, he had a major role in drafting the 1980 Pastoral Letter which condemned the possession of nuclear weapons and supported the campaign for their unilateral removal from Holland. Shortly before the massive Dutch disarmament rally in November, and just after his return from travels in Malta and Italy, he was interviewed by Jim Forest on the train between Antwerp and Amsterdam.—Jim Forest
Jim Forest: What is the driving force in the European peace movement?
Laurens Hogebrink: Moral outrage. It is not so much a matter of anti-Americanism, or at least not in the northern countries. What is driving us is the feeling of being dominated and of not being able to conceive our own policies. It is a matter of being subordinated to others and also seeing that they are going in the wrong direction.
It is political wisdom as well. Possessing more weapons is simply bad politics. A lot of people know very well deep in their hearts that politicians are not telling the truth when they say that there is nothing to worry about.
This continent has known two world wars, in a very different way than the U.S. has. It may sound strange, but there has not been a single day in past years that I have not thought of the second World War. There is always a reason to think of it and to realize that what happened then is a part of history, of normal human history. That's the deceptive thing. The killing of six million Jews has been lifted out of history as something which is completely alien to human history. But it is not at all alien to history; it is very much part of it. Such things have happened in Europe before, and they can happen here again.
Forest: How was IKV founded within the Dutch Christian community?
Hogebrink: The widespread concern about the arms race in the '50s was shared by the churches. The Catholic Church received Pope John's encyclical, Pacem in Terris, and in my church more and more was being written about nuclear weapons. In 1962 the Netherlands Reformed Church published a pastoral letter that unequivocally condemned the use of nuclear weapons. We have called it a "no without any yes." Though I would say that it was also against the possession of such weapons, it left some ambiguity in this regard and thus could be interpreted in different ways. We later realized that the pastoral letter was not discussed in depth in the local congregations, and that was a factor in the decision to create a continuing structure, which became the IKV.
The IKV organized the first Peace Week in 1967. It served as a kind of umbrella for all kinds of local activities, including concern about Amnesty International, South Africa, and so on, but in the mid-'70s we discovered that the developments in the arms race were being virtually ignored in the Peace Week. So in 1976 we produced the first big annual IKV Peace Journal, which was completely devoted to the arms race and which provided a forum for many different views. This publication resulted in a lot of concern, but still no one knew what to do. Our basic motive for starting the campaign was pastoral, simply helping people do something about this problem. Another motive was shame—a shame that we and the rest of the world had let things move this far.
We were very aware that you cannot just call for conversion in a general sense without helping people find political alternatives. We thought that de-nuclearizing the Netherlands was such an alternative. We were not really excited about the slogan "Help rid the world of nuclear weapons—let it begin in the Netherlands." This was a program, not a slogan. But in the course of time we have discovered that it is, indeed, a very good proposal. We are convinced that this is a proposal that could have a significant political effect. So the three major factors behind the campaign were pastoral concern, shame, and simply a clear analysis of the developments in the field of weaponry and what political alternatives might be possible.
Part of our shame was also the realization that in spite of all the lessons we should have learned in this century in Europe, a new form of idolatry could arise. We realized that to behave as if this system of nuclear deterrence could exist forever should be interpreted as a modern form of idolatry because that really denies the meaning of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ. If you put your trust in fear and in building walls rather than sacrifice or love, that is idolatry. At the same time you must be very careful that you are not assuming the prophet's mantle for yourself and telling others that they are committing idolatry. You know too well that you are a part of the problem yourself.
Forest: One thing that has particularly impressed me about the IKV campaign is the pastoral attitude it expresses that everyone, especially ordinary people, can share this concern.
Hogebrink: I believe that one of our strengths is that we are open to people who think in a different way. But we have to be. Disarmament is a very emotional issue. Some people's life experiences have led them to think very differently about it, and you have to listen to their arguments. I have been to many parish meetings, and I have heard all the arguments again and again. But again and again you have to start by listening to these arguments because it may be the first time these people have ever exchanged thoughts about the issue. You can never fall back on your routine. You must always respond to each person and his or her own convictions.
Forest: Do you share in some process of biblical reflection within IKV?
Hogebrink: The kind of theological reflection that we do is much more an internal reflection than an attempt to convince others. We do not use the Bible as a weapon. When we talk with political parties we talk politics. If they are interested in what moves us, we are quite ready to talk about that.
But we could not do without our theological development. In the IKV Peace Journal last year the central pages were devoted to a reflection on the Eucharist and its meaning for the peace movement. In the Eucharist you celebrate the fact that an alternative is possible and in fact is already there. For the early Christian community, the remembrance and celebration of the Lord's suffering was an act of resistance against the principalities and powers who thought they had stopped the movement by killing its leaders. In this act of sharing, togetherness, and community, the Lord's Supper upholds an alternative to the world as it is now.
Forest: Why did you publish a reflection on the Holy Spirit in this year's IKV Peace Journal?
Hogebrink: We know that even if we succeed in stopping the NATO modernization, more emphasis will be put on the sea-launched and air-launched cruise missiles. So we tried to answer the question, what keeps you moving if you know that from any effectual point of view you may be fighting a lost cause? We have asked ourselves what kept people moving in similar situations in the past when God called his people to a future different from that toward which human nature is inclined.
In many crucial moments in the Old and New Testaments the Spirit has been a breath which brought people new life, which made them stand up. The most impressive scene of this kind is in Ezekiel 37, in which Ezekiel sees the whole valley full of dry bones. God's Spirit descends on them, and they begin to stand up and walk. Well, isn't that exactly what we are trying to do, to have our dry bones walking again?
There is no way to "use" the Holy Spirit; that would be a dead formula. But when you are aware that the Holy Spirit really means that God is present and gives flesh and blood to God's purpose in even the most desperate circumstance, then you are talking about something which you can see around you.
In the account of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in Acts 2, Peter quotes from the prophecy of Joel that all the people will receive the gift of prophecy. And that prophecy of Joel had come in the midst of the plague of locusts. So in the bitterest of times we find these biblical figures clinging to God's word and not giving up, not believing that the "facts" presented to them are the final word. We have learned that to believe in Jesus Christ is to disbelieve everything else, not to let your life be ruled by anything else.
Forest: To what do you attribute the rapid spread of Hollanditis?
Hogebrink: Our campaign is built on the conviction that we have a good idea. There have been many good ideas in the history of the world, so what we needed to do was to organize power behind this idea. First we concentrated on building up a base of power in Holland. Then we realized that the movement wouldn't mean a thing if it were limited to Holland, so we decided to concentrate on the two Germanies, both East and West.
In West Germany it was virtually impossible to discuss the peace issue. When I went to the Church Day in Berlin in 1977 there was a huge "market place of ideas" where you could find pamphlets and books on any imaginable topic, yet there was nothing, absolutely nothing, about nuclear weapons. When I asked people about this they said that it was impossible to think about this issue because of the nearby East German border. The anti-nuclear energy movement was very strong there at that time, so there was a certain nuclear awareness, but no awareness about nuclear weapons.
So we accepted every invitation we received to speak in Germany and established many contacts. Slowly things started moving. In 1979 the cruise missile issue suddenly brought West Germany's role into the international limelight. In time we developed a close relationship with Aktion Suehnezeichen, and in 1980 they organized their first Peace Week. They also produced a peace journal full of material from and about the Netherlands—too much, really! Their Peace Week was a great success. A lot of local congregations participated. Then together IKV and Aktion Suehnezeichen took the initiative for a demonstration in Bonn. Astonishingly, 300,000 came. It was the first of a series of marches in European capitals asking governments to withdraw from the NATO consensus on the new missiles.
Jim Forest was a Sojourners contributing editor and Laurens Hogebrink was a member of the board of the Dutch Interchurch Peace Council (IKV) and a prominent figure in the European movement against nuclear weapons when this article appeared.
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