Free the Captives: Witness Against Illegal Detention and Torture

At the time of this writing, I haven't found any new reports about the CPT captives, including my friend and mentor Tom Fox. As we continue our vigil, there is so much we don't know. Over the past few weeks I have been reflecting on Tom's serene, watchful, caring spirit, and looking for some way to convey his presence here in these updates.

The best I can do is find comparisons, while wrestling with the social, moral, and theological challenges escalated in this ordeal. Tonight I'm thinking of another fellow who worked to foster love and justice in a country torn apart by war, and the implications of that commitment.

As a pastor in a French village during the Holocaust, André Trocmé is best known for his role in providing sanctuary for thousands fleeing genocide. But his devotion and defiance did not come out of nowhere. Like Tom, Trocmé's convictions were rooted in his dynamic experience of the Peaceable Kingdom. Here is an excerpt from his book Jesus and the Nonviolent Revolution:

Jesus’ new commandment demands that we translate the rulership of God into everyday language through our bodies: Love your neighbor, serve him, heal him, even if this means breaking traditions or laws. Give in to him rather than offend him and turn him away from God. Whatever you do, don’t make yourself an obstacle on his way to God. One’s neighbor’s physical well-being is as important as his spiritual life; the healing of the body and the healing of the soul are joined in a single operation. Christ’s revolution is total, or it is nothing.

The immediacy and simplicity of this new commandment liberate us from fears, from plans, from complicated orders issued by the state, whether in peacetime or in wartime, and from all that divides people from one another. Freed from all casuistry, one can joyfully serve others as well as refuse with the same joy any attempt on humanity’s existence. We no longer need to be impressed by great principles quoted to us, or with great historical moments that call for bloodshed. It is so simple. Any endeavor to serve the needs of others, especially those that benefit children, the persecuted, prisoners, the exploited, the aged, the infirm, will advance God’s kingdom, even if only minutely.

The Christian objector to war or military service is thus not a purist who, on the day he receives orders to kill his neighbor, wakes from his dream to say no. He is a servant with experienced hands, who is so busy helping his neighbor that to interrupt his activity to undertake the task of killing is unthinkable to him.

Perhaps it is true that certain violent remedies employed against tyrants have put an end to certain forms of evil, but they have not eliminated evil. Evil itself will take root elsewhere, as we have seen through history. The fertilizer that stimulates its growth is yesterday’s violence. Even “just wars” and “legitimate defense” bring vengeance in their train. Fresh crimes invariably ensue.

But the future of the person who turns to God is not determined by the past, and therefore neither is the future of humanity. God’s forgiveness creates the possibility of an entirely new future. The cross breaks the cycle of violence. The sacrifice of Jesus opens an un-expected way to possibilities that are constantly renewed.

In a world threatened by war and terror, we are all held hostage by the power of menace, mistrust and uncertainty. Loving, serving, and healing are the practical means to unhinge the grip of these dehumanizing forces and reawaken the human being. Tom's work in Iraq provides us with a stark example of faithfulness to this covenant of love, service, and healing.

The effort continues to develop dynamic ways to support Tom's service at home and abroad. We continue our public and private vigils. We commence with disciplined and focused study. We share our concerns and suffering, and we come together frequently to be sharpened by each other in the Spirit.

You can help: Remember the Christian Peacemaker captives in your prayers, along with the ongoing turmoil in Iraq. Remember them in your prayer groups and in your meetings. Ask for support in carrying this concern. Bring together four or more friends for focused prayer, study, and support – get started using our prayer & action reference, and meet as frequently as you can! Link to this site, and spread the word. Share your progress and ideas with us!

Based on his experience in the Sanctuary Movement, Jim Corbett writes: "Civil initiative is community-centered. ... Our exercise of civil initiative must be socially sustained and congregationally coherent; it must integrate, outlast and outreach individual acts of conscience." The same is true with this continuing witness on behalf of the peacemaker captives. Loving, serving, and healing the victims of violence and the families torn apart by war is important work, and every pair of "boots on the ground" requires an undetermined number of "support personnel" – to provide spiritual, moral, or social support, to help discern the big picture, and to love, serve, and heal the peacemakers in the field. The task of integrating, outlasting, and outreaching the devotion of Tom and the other captives has scarcely begun.