quo. Great stress is placed on obedience to authority, both temporal and spiritual. The faithful are exhorted to adhere to a rigid personal ethic, examining their inner lives and not the concrete world they inhabit.

Needless to say, military governments are not displeased by the Pentecostal phenomenon. After all, they are quiescent and cooperative. In fact, in some countries these conservative Pentecostal sects are assiduously cultivated by the military. Having long considered themselves in an inferior social status, the Pentecostal sects often quickly succumb to the flattery.

Christ's

Another important sector of the evengelical church, however, has moved beyond a narrow understanding of the demands of faith. The terrible reality of suffering and poverty has moved the evangelical church away from its long held version that changing peoples' hearts will eventually change the world. An emphasis on personal sin and salvation is increasingly being placed against a backdrop of social sin and salvation. This new theology is centered on the person and ministry of Jesus Christ. ministry was an incarnational presence of God in the midst of humankind. The Church, as the body of Christ, is called to be faithful by also becoming an incarnational witness in the midst of a hostile environment. The individual's and the church's salvation is wrapped up in this incarnational ministry. As Christ accompanied the poor, so the church is called to accompany the poor, in whatever circumstance they might be found. Since the poor of Latin America are most often those who are persecuted or those whose human rights are violated, it follows that the church would undergo similar hardship. It is not difficult to understand why this new pastoral model would be so discomforting to ruling militaries. Military rule is usually autocratic, anti-popular, and repressive, which always produces a polarizing effect. Those not supporting the military are. ipso fact suspect. Since the interests of the poor are viewed as inimical to the interests of the ruling elites, as the church identifies with the poor (or sectors within it) it challenges authority, often alienating the powerful. This tension is further aggravated by the church's hospitality toward those struggling to reform society.

Eschewing violence, the popular church nevertheless supports these agents of change. It is precisely this association that invites accusations that the church is fomenting violent revolution in Latin America.

Giver the influence of the church in Latin America, the question is not whether it will play a political role. Since the conquistadors and the priests first arrived in the new world, the church's presence has assumed a political character and has a poliRather, the question which will continue to be asked focuses on the character of the church's ministry and its relationship to the universal struggle for cultural dignity and human rights.

tical content.

STATEMENT OF HUMBERTO BELLI, FORMER EDITOR OF THE EDITORIAL PAGE, LA PRENSA, NICARAGUA, AND MEMBER, COMMITTEE FOR PATRIOTIC REFLECTION

Mr. BELLI. I am a Nicaraguan. I have lived most of my life in Nicaragua. I was a Marxist for many years, and I participated with the Sandinistas when they were an underground organization. I collaborated with them until 1975 when I became disenchanted with Marxism.

In 1977 I became a Christian. I began to collaborate with Archbishop Obando, the spiritual leader of Nicaragua, who at that time had organized a committee to bring about a peaceful solution to the civil war.

After the revolution triumphed, I became director of the editorial page of the newspaper La Prensa. I left Nicaragua, in April this year, after the state of emergency was declared in Nicaragua and we were no longer able to publish anything of value and underwent very strict censorship. At the same time I knew there was a great need for the people outside Nicaragua to know the true story about what was happening there. It had been very difficult for us to get our voice heard outside the country. One reason was the existence of a law that ordered all Nicaraguans abroad from making statements critical of the Sandinistas subjecting any violators of such a decree to 3 years imprisonment, their reason being that they would be jeopardizing economic aid to the country.

The people in the Nicaraguan church were aware of the repression suffered by the Christians but they could not send people outside unless they wanted to face this risk. However, other groups were able to have ambassadors and a lot of people, even priests, traveling abroad speaking in behalf of the government. In other words, if I were to speak abroad I would have to pay the price of exile.

I would now like to discuss mainly the case of the Nicaraguan situation. We have heard some stories about repression that come from the right, but I think that it should be balanced with stories about the repression that come from the extreme left in Latin America. I would say that the Catholic Church and the churches in

Latin America are persecuted both from rightwing and leftwing regimes.

However, it is a shame that you find sometimes so little concern, even for Christians involved in political rights, with regard to Nicaragua. In relation to Nicaragua, judgments seem to be made giving the benefit of the doubt to the government. And we do not find the same zeal that we find regarding violations of human rights in other countries. Oftentimes, you don't find the same concern regarding the violations of human rights of the Nicaraguan people and of the Nicaraguan church.

Indeed, the Sandinistas have made a strong effort to disguise their true nature and present themselves as a new kind of government where Marxist and Communist ideas can work together. They present four priests in the government holding high positions, something that has led many people into believing that this is not a truly Marxist government but a kind of a new and very promising experiment.

I want to contend that these assertions are a very grave misrepresentation of the true nature of affairs in Nicaragua. The Sandinista government is a Marxist-Leninist regime which is aware of the importance of the Catholic practice in Nicaragua, and of the surrounding environment, that has been consciously disguising its true nature, portraying itself as a friend of Christians.

Sometimes, when people are surprised by these priests in government, it is because they do not realize a phenomena which is about 10 years old in Latin America. That is the phenomena of one sector of the church being radicalized and being won over by Marxist-Leninist philosophy in the name of Christianity. So you may find priests involved in high politics but sometimes these priests are not, in fact Christian priests, as much as they are Marxist-Leninist priests.

I am not saying this out of a narrow partisan view. I am quoting Ernesto Cardenal, one of the priests who is now part of the Government of Nicaragua. In an interview with a Spanish magazine, he said: "Marxism is the only solution for the world * * *. The solution is Marxism, and it is the only possible way of liberation. Outside of Marxism I don't see any other way. Christians should embrace Marxism to be with God and with men."

Something interesting to note is that these priests do not say that it is important for Marxists to embrace Christ in order to embrace people and to embrace God. Theirs is a one-sided kind of preaching.

After the revolution, Nicaragua became an experimental center for this group of Marxist theologians who tried to present to the continent the Nicaraguan revolution as a true promise of MarxistChristian alliance. They began to publicize in five well-equipped and well-financed centers, a lot of propaganda, and publications of this kind.

To some extent you can see from these pictures I am showing what is going on. The image of Christ Jesus is overshadowed by the Marxist fighter.

At first the government abstained from attacking Christian churches. It used these Marxist-Christian groups to oppose the Catholic Church. The government gave these groups full access to

the state media, which represented about 90 percent of all the means of communication, and at the same time it gradually strangled the means of communication of the established churches. The people in such groups started to preach that the first duty of a Christian was to side with the revolution; that in order to be a true Christian you had to be with the Sandinistas.

I heard Reverend Dekker complaining about how partisan politics is being sponsored by some rightist religious groups in Latin America, and that is, in effect, what is sometimes done in Nicaragua. This pamphlet comes from one of the centers that promotes such views. It states that the Sandinistas are the only ones capable of bringing about the new society in Nicaragua, so that first duty of the Christian is to side with the "Frente Sandinista." When Christian leaders started opposing these views, they came under attack, being portrayed as reactionaries, as conservative forces afraid of change, contradicting all historical evidence whereby bishops in Nicaragua and the Catholic Church had played a heroic role against the dictatorship.

We could see how the Christian people who formerly had been praised by the Sandinistas now became overnight reactionaries and were increasingly attacked. The Archbishop was deprived of access to the TV while the government started to persecute Protestant groups, especially on the Atlantic coast, an isolated part of the country where nothing could be publicized.

At one time they expelled two priests and three nuns. Some of them returned to Nicaragua and some didn't. One of those expelled was Morris Cerullo, a Protestant preacher, upon arriving in Nicaragua. After some months, with the repression gradually increasing, they were now using mobs to terrorize priests. The Bishop of Juigalpa was stoned and beaten after the state of emergency was issued in March, the government escalated its attacks against most churches.

There is a striking similarity between the reasons argued by the Sandinista government, when it wants to justify its actions and some of the reasons used by rightwing regimes when they say they are not repressing religious people because of their religious beliefs but because of their political stands. The Sandinistas justify what they are doing against Christians because they are "allied with the CIA and with the reactionary forces." All those who do not sponsor their policies are thus referred to as agents of the Dark Ages in alliance with the Reagan administration.

Thank you very much for your time.

[Mr. Belli's prepared statement follows:]

PREPARED STATEMENT OF HUMBERTO BELLI, FORMER EDITOR OF THE EDITORIAL PAGE, "LA PRENSA," NICARAGUA, AND MEMBER, COMMITTEE FOR PATRIOTIC REFLECTION

INTRODUCTION

The purpose of this paper is to subject to criticism some widespread contentions regarding the problems facing the Church in Nicaragua and the solutions.

Today many people make the following assertions about Nicaragua. It is claimed that the Sandinista government is not a Marxist-Leninist government but a unique blend of Marxism and Christianity--a revolution with a "human face."

It is further claimed that the current difficulties between the state and the Church stem not from government hostility. to the Church but from a conservative class bias on the part of some members of the hierarchy, especially the Archbishop, Obando y Bravo, who allow themselves to be used by right-wing forces--a deliberate manipulation of religion for political ends.

The solution, it is claimed, is that the Church should not foster conflict with the government but should disengage itself from reactionary forces and seek dialogue with the government, which is quite willing to cooperate with the Church.

This paper contends that these assertions gravely misrepresent the Nicaraguan situation and would lead to an approach that would greatly weaken the Church there. A stronger strategy is needed--a strategy to unite the Church in Nicaragua to enable it to deal successfully with increasing government pressures.