Witness for Peace

For centuries, people have sought a "moral equivalent to war." While risks have always been taken in situations of war, we are learning more and more that risks must also be taken for peace. We are beginning to discover what it means to wage peace with the discipline, sacrifice, and willingness to suffer with which people have waged war.

The Witness for Peace is an experiment in nonviolent action at the border between Nicaragua and Honduras, where an escalating war is causing great human suffering. The cause of the violence is the invasion of counterrevolutionary forces, or contras, from Honduras into Nicaragua, who employ tactics of terror, torture, and murder against the Nicaraguans who live in the frontier. The source of the violence is the U.S. government, which has orchestrated and financed this covert, and now overt war against Nicaragua.

This action by the United States is both illegal and immoral, but thus far all efforts in the United States to change this destructive policy have gone unheeded. Our protest having been ignored, we feel that it is time to take more direct action.

The Witness for Peace has grown out of the experience of both the many hundreds of North Americans who have visited Nicaragua since the revolution in 1979 and those who were present along Nicaragua's border with Honduras in July, 1983 (see "For Penance and Peace," Sojourners, September, 1983, and "A Shield of Love" on page 10 of this issue). This group that went to the border reported of their action for peace in moving words:

There we engaged in dialogue with Nicaraguan Christians in an atmosphere clouded by the imminent threat of an invasion by an army of expatriate Nicaraguan and Honduran soldiers trained and outfitted by the United States, and by the rapid militarization of Nicaragua itself as the Sandinista government mobilized its armed populace for the national defense. Those of us who were present were challenged by the faith of the Nicaraguans and were indicted by their cries for help. 'Please stop making war on us,' they said. 'Help us in our hour of need; stand with us so that together we can build a new society in Nicaragua. When you go home please do not forget us!'

... Our presence in the war zone was a source of great comfort to the Nicaraguan people, and offered some degree of protection for them while we were there. We decided that we should make this presence permanent, and that we should do so in a very public and visible way both to express solidarity with the victims of our foreign policy and to try to raise that policy for public debate ... There is a significant amount of danger to place such an international presence in this place, but the willingness to bear that danger and take the risk to life it implies is at the heart of this project.

Upon their return from the border area, members of this group began to work on their plan to develop a permanent peaceful presence between Nicaragua and Honduras. Two months later, Sojourners was invited to become involved in the project.

The Witness for Peace has been undertaken by North American Christians who believe that U.S. policy toward Nicaragua is simply wrong and is only making the situation there much worse. It is an attempt to focus conscience in a way that is politically costly to U.S. policy against Nicaragua. Some of us are sympathetic to the goals and accomplishments of the government in Managua. Some of us have real concerns and disagreements with the directions of Sandinista policy. Most of us have both supportive and critical feelings toward the Nicaraguan government, but all of us believe that the positive forces in Nicaragua deserve our nurture and support. We are convinced that the hostility of the U.S. government will only strengthen the forces in Nicaragua that tend toward ideological rigidity and military solutions.

All those involved in the Witness for Peace are committed to maintaining a posture of political independence in this project. We share a primary concern for the victims of military violence in the area. Nonviolence in word and deed is our central operating principle.

At an even deeper level, we are motivated by strong biblical convictions and by a faith in the God who demonstrates a special love and care for the poor and defenseless. We enter into this witness as an act of faith and a work of prayer. Because the Witness for Peace in Nicaragua may place people in life-risking situations, the unity, strength, and courage required will come from being firmly grounded in faith and prayer.

While begun by Christians and strong in its Christian identity, the Witness for Peace welcomes those of other faith traditions who would join hands with us and with the Nicaraguan people in this action for peace. We are moved not by any political ideology or program, but by the call of faith and Jesus' words, "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God."

We remember that the peace of Christ, which we have been given to share, was won through the cross. We have been called, after the manner of Christ, to become peacemakers in a violent world in ways that may entail risk to ourselves.

We also act in response to a clear invitation from Nicaraguan Christians, brothers and sisters who are also deeply rooted in biblical faith. Many of us in the North American churches believe that our bonds and fellowship in the body of Christ are stronger even than our national loyalties.

By entering into this action, we hope to be evangelized by the faith of Latin American Christians who are rediscovering the relevance of the biblical message to their concrete situation. We share the belief that God abhors injustice and oppression, that Jesus brings good news to the poor and suffering, and that the power of the Holy Spirit is available to those who hear the cry of the poor and work for justice.

We believe that U.S. intervention in Nicaragua and elsewhere is contrary to the witness of Scripture and the best of American values of democracy. We enter into the Witness for Peace in Nicaragua because faith compels us to, and we invite others to become involved out of their own faith.

We intend to position ourselves where the conflict is occurring. There we will hold vigils, pray, and act for peace by presenting ourselves as a nonviolent defense against military aggression. We also have plans for a constructive program of rebuilding and repairing the damage our government is doing.

By our visible presence in the area, we seek to protect innocent civilians who have been made victims of the military violence being sponsored by our government. Because the U.S. government is carrying out a violent and destructive policy toward Nicaragua, North Americans have a right and responsibility to be there to offer a different kind of presence. Our hope is that the Witness for Peace might help save lives, urge the U.S. government to reexamine and change its policy toward Nicaragua, provide access to eyewitness reports of the consequences of U.S. policy in the area, and show Nicaraguans that the policies of the Reagan administration do not represent all North Americans.

This is a bold and risky venture, one fraught with both many dangers and great possibilities. Above all it is a venture of faith and one which I'm sure will occasion greater and deeper conversion within and among us. That reason alone is enough to compel us to act in response to the cries of our Nicaraguan brothers and sisters.

We appeal to our readers and our friends to join us in prayer, in financial support of this project, and in active participation. Our involvement together will be, I believe, another step along the path toward becoming a more faithful people, a more faithful church in the United States.

Jim Wallis is editor-in-chief of Sojourners magazine.