First off, I ask for prayers this morning for the safety of the four members of Christian Peacemaker Teams who were kidnapped this past weekend in Iraq. When I was actively involved with the Mennonites, there was no charity as near and dear to our collective Anabaptist hearts as the work of CPT. I’ve known several members of Pasadena Mennonite Church who have traveled with CPT to places such as Iraq and the Israeli occupied territories. For several years, CPT was my favorite charity.
CPT is made up of committed pacifists who take seriously the authentic meaning of pacifism: to "make peace" (from the Latin pax facere). (Here’s a BBC profile of the group.) Too many folks, both literally and metaphorically, confuse pacifism with passivity (a different Latin root altogether). Real pacifism, especially in the Anabaptist/Quaker/Peace Church tradition from which CPT sprang, is about actively "getting in the way". It is about protecting those who are most at risk, whether the threat comes from uniformed armies or insurgents. CPTers know the dangers they face; where others travel with armed guards or in Humvees, they travel light (without even the small sword Jesus suggested they take!) And of course, anyone working for CPT is particularly vulnerable to being kidnapped.
As a pacifist, I still find it possible to honor those who carry weapons to the world’s most dangerous places. But I honor still more those who leave the comforts of home, and armed only with the Gospel and a profound commitment to nonviolence and peace, place themselves "in the way" of destruction. They are my real heroes, and though they now face a not unanticipated danger, I am praying for their safety and for the larger mission of CPT.
Thanks for the link–I wasn’t specifically aware of CPT, though I knew some individuals went to do things like this.
Could you write more in depth about your pacifism and how you came to it? It’s something I struggle with–I’m torn between the “reasonable” perspective that sometimes endorses violence and the more “foolish” (and therefore more Christlike) pacifist perspective. I’m confused enough about the issue that I’m certainly far from practicing any kind of active pacifism.
Chris, I’ll try and do that in a future post…
Hugo, thank you for letting others know about this. Until Al Jazerra broadcast this yesterday afternoon, CPT was trying to keep it out of mainstream media.
I greatly admire the men and women who work with CPT. I only hope that if ever in such a situation, I would be able to follow Christ’s lead as strongly as they have committed to do.
Hugo, I thought you’d like a couple of things related to this. Here’s an email from Gene Stoltzfus about the situation. And here’s a post by an UNembedded journalist about CPT and the current situation.