The Price of Peace
The release of Norman Kember, James Loney and Harmeet Singh Sooden from captivity in Baghdad last week was greeted with relief, rejoicing, heartfelt thanks - and a barrage of questions.
Had Dr Kember, especially, expressed an appropriate degree of gratitude to the soldiers who secured their freedom? Had he and his fellow Christian Peacemakers been right to go to Iraq in the first place, to risk not only their own lives but the lives of the men who in the end were obliged to rescue them? Had they even taken adequate care for their own safety?
On the first score, Jonathan Bartley, speaking for Christian Peacemaker Teams, said he was baffled by the accusation, as CPT had explicitly thanked the soldiers on the day of the rescue. But the jury is still out as to whether the three men, and their colleague Tom Fox, who was killed by his captors, should have been in Baghdad at all. Even Dr Kember admits that he needs time to consider whether his actions were 'foolhardy' or 'rational'.
Many have asked what the peacemakers could ever have hoped to achieve, except to jeopardise already difficult relations between the Iraqis and the Coalition forces - and, when inevitably they fell into danger, to waste government resources and put at risk the lives of special forces.
And yet, if soldiers and diplomats and construction workers can place themselves in harm's way in Iraq, why can't peacemakers? In fact, Christian Peacemakers undergo extensive training before they go into any 'areas of lethal conflict'. Mostly their work consists of relaying an accurate picture back to Western audiences, informing the appropriate agencies of human rights abuses and trying to rebuild relationships between communities.
Whether or not we are sympathetic to Dr Kember and his colleagues may depend on whether we believe the occupation of Iraq to be morally justified. But what cannot be dismissed is their understanding that, for every Christian, self-giving is an essential part of seeking to ensure that God's will is done on earth as it is in heaven.
As the CPT manifesto says: 'What would happen if Christians devoted the same discipline and self-sacrifice to nonviolent peacemaking that armies devote to war?'
God himself took the risk of incarnation and allowed himself to fall into the hands of violent men. Should we be surprised if his followers, too, are willing to pay a heavy price for peace?
Jason Gardner
Comments
There are currently no comments for this article.
