Imagini ale paginilor
PDF
ePub

harass peasant settlers on request from the powerful. The owners are finding that a previously pacified or desperate population is expressing some hope and is willing to work to gain some legitimate ends.

If this were happening in an entirely secular society, there would be no question of religious persecution. However, what I have briefly described is occurring in a nominally Roman Catholic society. It is also an area where revitalized Christian awareness is stimulating such activity within devout, renewed church communities. Here religious persecution is essentially the same as political repression since the victims are suffering at the hand of government authorities. The communities suffer because their religious beliefs encourage them to seek justice.

Thus the communities disrupt a system and bring punishment--or rather persecution--down on their own heads. They suffer, regrettably, for reasons similar to those for which political subversives suffer. However, with the number of Christians growing in Latin America, it appears that the ranks of the "subversives" are growing too. Although religious persecution for simply being a Protestant or a Roman Catholic has largely disappeared in Latin America, a new religious political persecution is taking its place. Today Christians are being persecuted not for cultic worship practices, but for attempting to be faithful Christians in every area of their lives.

The implication of such a religious walk is that it often threatens the status quo, including the system of land ownership, in many countries of Latin America. Poor Christians, long a supposedly apolitical force, become involved in political issues once they are genuinely reborn in their faith.

IV. Suggested Solutions

Any attempt at suggesting solutions to the problem just described would be pretentious. Understanding the foregoing as genuine religious persecution is nevertheless a crucial first step. The religion that suffers persecution in Latin America

today--and I speak with most conviction and knowledge about Guatemala--bespeaks a spiritual strength that has come to be very threatening. What is lamentable about the situation is that many Christian brothers and sisters themselves disagree about what to do.

That is seen no more graphically than in Guatemala today where a self-professed Christian President is in power. President Efanin Rios Montt has recruited large sections of the Fundamentalistic community into his government's and his own congregation's campaign to stop communist subversion and help Guatemala's poor. Many of these Christians are getting on the government's bandwagon in what I consider a most dangerous and compromising adventure. Those Christians currently committed to the government's programs, were, until the coup of March 23, 1982, the most adamantly opposed to any kind of political involvement. Yet, with a Christian in the driver's seat--even though Rios Montt is there at the behest and tolerance of the army--suddenly large groups of Christians in Guatemala and in the U.S. see God's hand revealed in the political realm. The attitude of many such Christians bespeaks a profound political naiveté and

an ignorance of the situation in Guatemala. They do not realize that a long history of human rights abuses carried on by the Guatemalan army against its own people has not stopped overnight. Regrettably they often do accept allegations levelled by the governmental authorities against Christian pastors that they are involved in guerilla warfare and organization. But saddest of all, they do not realize that in wishing to support the Guatemalan government's thinly disguised aid program, they are doing more than being loyal citizens. They are hopelessly mixing governmental policies with their own churches' practices. They are thus falling into a not so subtle trap of neoConstantinianism as bottomless as the one in which the Roman Catholic Church had wallowed during the years of the Spanish Conquest and before.

The proper role of a congressional subcommittee and U.S. citizens is not clear in such a complex process. Nevertheless, the extent to which U.S. Fundamentalists are involved in supporting Guatemala's governmental policies shows the lack of understanding on their part of the crucial separation of church and state in a free society. I do not advocate that Christians remove themselves from political issues, but partisan politics is no place--in the U.S. or elsewhere--for denominations to sell their birthrights.

BOLDENOW AND DEKKER FORCED TO LEAVE GUATEMALA 1

Two Christian Reformed missionaries had to leave Guatemala last month to protect their lives. CRWRC's Central America Director Jim Boldenow and World Mission's Jim Dekker are no longer safe in that Central American country.

The American embassy instructed Boldenow and Dekker to leave after Boldenow was kidnaped by men whom he described as "professionally trained hit-men." His captors apparently mistook Boldenow for Dekker because he was driving Dekker's car. Boldenow insisted that he was not Dekker. A gun was held to his head.

Forced from the car, Boldenow was eventually driven to a field outside the city where his captors divided his money and took his watch and other valuables. He was then taken to a room where he was shown clubs tipped with lead and a rack on which victims are "stretched" if they don't comply with their abductors' instructions. He was blindfolded and questioned.

While Boldenow was undergoing his ordeal, a witness to the kidnaping had notified Dekker who immediately went to the US embassy to describe what had happened. The embassy questioned both Dekker and the eyewitness in detail; embassy personnel acted immediately to ensure Boldenow's safety. Intense pressure on the Guatemalan government by the US embassy and the State Department in Washington, D.C., resulted in Boldenow's release some six to eight hours after his abduction. Embassy personnel took Dekker, his wife, Rose, and their children to a friend's house to spend the night, strongly advised them to leave the country, and escorted them to the airport the following morning for a flight to Costa Rica.

Boldenow, under embassy protection after his release, also flew to Costa Rica the morning after the incident. Aside from a chipped tooth and a thumb numbed by bailing wire that had bound his wrists, Boldenow was unharmed. Neither Boldenow nor Dekker believes he can safely return to Guatemala. Church activity or action on behalf of the poor in that country is often considered reason for suspicion.

Boldenow, who is responsible for CRWRC activity throughout Central America, lives in Costa Rica. He was in Guatemala only for a brief visit. Dekker had been teaching church history and Old Testament at the Mariano Galvez University in Guatemala City.

The Dekkers' plans for the future are still uncertain, though they will continue with World Missions. The Boldenows will remain in Costa Rica to carry on their work there.

Reformed Bible College faculty and students are giving money for local poverty and hunger programs through Coit Community Outreach.

Trinity Christian College, which has its own Bread for the World chapter, regularly urges the US Congress not to forget the needy and hungry in its lawmaking. Christian Schools International has also published a study unit on world hunger for grades 4-6.

The denomination's World Hunger Sunday in November provides a focus for much of this activity.

[blocks in formation]

PUBLISHER'S NOTE.-On September 9 CRWRC's Central American director was abducted in Guatemala (News & Features, 10/25/82). Although he was released eight hours later, Banner editor Andrew Kuyvenhoven, who had been watching events unfold in Guatemala for several years, decided that the Banner could no longer be silent. He drafted an open letter to Guatemala's president, General Efrain Ríos Montt.

Those intimately connected with CRC efforts in Guatemala received Kuyvenhoven's draft and praised its call for justice. But several people made an urgent plea that names be removed, identifiable sources of facts be hidden, and incidents not previously reported be deleted. In a round of hurried and sometimes tense meetings the question became, Which will cost more lives: continued silence or a prophetic word? Grisly accounts of torture and massacre are routine in Guatemala. Though North American CRC workers are out of Guatemala, no one wants to further jeopardize their associates still working in that nation. Therefore, respecting such fears of retaliation, certain names and accounts have been removed from the following "open letter."

1 Copyright 1982, Board of Publications Christian Reformed Church in North America. Reprinted from the Banner, (Oct. 25, 1982) with permission.

2

Copyright 1982, Board of Publications, Christian Reformed Church in North America. Reprinted from the Banner (Nov. 15, 1982) with permission.

May God protect his saints-A. James Heynen, executive director, Board of Publications Christian Reformed Church in North America.

OPEN LETTER TO GEN. EFRAIN RÍOS MONTT, PRESIDENT OF THE MILITARY JUNTA, GUATEMALA

North American members of the Christian Reformed Church are sad and indignant when they think of Guatemala. We intended to do a good work for your people in the name of Jesus. We prayed God's blessing upon you and sent to your country both material aid and competent teachers. They were in no sense socialist or leftwing and came at the invitation of conservative and Bible-believing churches. Today our efforts have been frustrated. And all the North American helpers we sent to Guatemala have now fled for their lives.

Early in 1981 two Christian Reformed workers and their families had to be recalled. First one worker and then the other received death threats. This happened during the presidency of Lucas García. Both our missionaries loved the Guatemalan people. One through this teaching, and the other, by organizing social and material relief, were doing their duty in showing the Lord Jesus Christ. They were also kind to the poor and the dispossessed. These actions aroused a groundless suspicion that they were aiding the enemies of the government. For this reason unnamed groups, which can exist only because they are encouraged or tolerated by the military government, threatened to take the lives of those who had shown mercy.

Very recently, in September, James Dekker and James Boldenow had to flee from your country. We believe you know the names of Boldenow and Dekker. They were certainly brought to your government's attention. Boldenow was abducted by a squard of men serving the interests of the military. He was harassed, bound, shown tools of torture, hit in the face, but he was released. His abductors thought that he was Rev. Dekker because he was driving Dekker's car. We now understand that James Dekker was accused of assisting an individual your government labels "subversive." This individual happened to be a Christian pastor, beaten by your government's soldiers. If he had been a guerrilla or man of violence, the elders of his congregation would not have taken their pastor to a local authority to whom they said: "Look what the soldiers have done to our brother." But the official said he could not guarantee the protection of a man beaten by the army. Therefore this pastor had to run and hide. It was not a sin on Rev. Dekker's part; it was his duty as a follower of Jesus to help this pastor. It seems, however, that today, in your country, anyone who protects those who are poor and persecuted is labeled a "subversive." If the thugs who arrested Boldenow, thinking he was Dekker, would have been able to lay hands on Dekker, we fear they would have killed him.

YOU KNOW HIS NAME

It would normally be futile for an editor of a church paper to write a letter of complaint to the president of a military junta that rules a country by martial law. But you claim to know Jesus Christ. Every Sunday evening you testify on national television that Jesus is your Lord and Savior

When you emerged as one of the three junta rulers after the coup of March 23, 1982, there was great rejoicing in many sectors of American evangelical Christianity. And when, after another shuffle on June 9, you became the only one evidently holding the reins of power, some people from California wrote to us that the Lord was doing a great work in Guatemala. By now they must be deeply disappointed. Your government declared the month of June a period of amnesty. You promised to curb the wildness of your security forces. But the case of Dr. Juan J. Hurtado, that prominent and compassionate pediatrician, showed that even during this period you did not keep your word. Hurtado disappeared on June 24, and witnesses reported how on July 4 you told the country on television that he was your prisoner. Because of the name of Christ and our common association with Him, we would like, at least, to give you the benefit of the doubt. But the evidence is overwhelming that, ever since July, you have been conducting a ruthless "counter-offensive against insurgency" and that you are allowing army groups to massacre whole Indian villages. Your government's effort to blame all violence on the guerrillas won't work when murderers come in army vehicles and shoot from government helicopters.

Hundreds of innocent people have been murdered during your presidency. Your mountains are dripping with blood.

THE HONOR OF HIS NAME

We, the North American Christian Reformed people, are thankful to God that those we sent into your country lost no more than the stuff some thugs stole. But our hearts bleed for the poor people in your country for whom there is no help or justice. Many of these are Christians-Roman Catholic and Protestant. And many are pleading on the promise in the book of Exodus that God will deliver his people. Meanwhile you appear on TV. You speak about Jesus, whom you claim as your Lord; the Americans, whom you claim as your friends; and the "subversives" and the "communists," whom you declare to be enemies of God and yourself.

A modern branch of Christianity has taught many church members once again an ancient Jewish custom, namely, to lift our hands when we come to God in prayer. But you and I know that God's threat to the Jews also holds for evangelical Christians:

"When you spread forth your hands,

I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers,

I will not listen; your hands are full of blood."

We cringe when we think of the dishonor that is heaped on the name of the Christ by whom we are saved. We beg you not merely to listen to us but to obey the Word of God: "Learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; defend the fatherless, plead for the widow" (Isa. 1:15, 17).

And if you do not wish to listen to this word, please do not mention the name of Jesus anymore.

STATEMENT OF JOSEPH T. ELDRIDGE, DIRECTOR, WASHINGTON OFFICE ON LATIN AMERICA, ACCOMPANIED BY JO MARIE GRIESGRABER, DEPUTY DIRECTOR

Mr. ELDRIDGE. My name is Joe Eldridge. Since 1974 I have been the director of the Washington Office on Latin America, which is the human rights organization sponsored by about 40 different religious organizations, Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish, which seeks to encourage U.S. policies which promote human rights and foster democratic government in Latin America.

To establish my own credentials I should say that prior to coming to this office I was a United Methodist missionary in Chile and worked in a parish setting, and I am still associated with the Board of Global Ministries of the United Methodist church.

I want to say over the years in my association with this office I have been privileged to meet dozens, I would probably say hundreds of representatives from religious organizations in Latin America, nuns, priests, Protestant ministers, who have come to our offices recognizing that decisions that are taken in the White House, certainly in the State Department and in the Congress, have a profound impact on their own ability to conduct their own mission, however broadly or narrowly that mission is defined.

Many of those persons have also had an opportunity to express themselves before this committee and other committees in the House and in the Senate, and I think it is important to point out that the record of human rights violations in Latin America portrayed by these representatives from religious organizations was very instructive to the Congress in providing a data base, if you will, about what is going on down there, enabling the Congress finally to pass a variety of laws-a kind of corpus of human rights legislation, which continues to exist and which link the expenditure of U.S. dollars, military and economic aid, to some sort of concern for human rights performance around the world. This clearly should be applauded.

« ÎnapoiContinuă »