A Promise of Resistance

The first week of November, 1983, leaders from the Christian peace movement in the United States gathered at the Kirkridge retreat center in northeastern Pennsylvania for their second annual retreat. With no specific agenda, these representatives from peace groups spanning the spectrum of the churches met for prayer and reflection. What emerged was a very deep concern for the situation in the Caribbean and Central America, with a particular focus on the situation in Nicaragua. Out of their intercession for the people of Nicaragua came the following statement.—The Editors

We are Christians from many churches, national organizations, and local communities across the United States. We come from every sector of the church's life: Protestant, Roman Catholic, evangelical, and black and historic peace churches.

Gathered at a retreat at Kirkridge in Bangor, Pennsylvania, in November, 1983, we are moved to write this letter, which is addressed to the churches and is being sent to the government authorities. As this letter emerges, we realize that more than writing a letter, we are making a covenant and inviting others to join us.

We have gathered together not around an agenda, but for Bible study, prayer, worship, and reflection. We have focused our prayer and discernment on the question of how we might be more faithful to Jesus' call, "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God."

The urgency and danger of the moment have been weighing heavily on us in these days. We have seen a litany of interconnected crises and suffering: nuclear weapons, European missiles, hungry and homeless multitudes, disappearing human rights, superpower intervention, wars, and rumors of wars.

In particular the faith and fear of our Nicaraguan brothers and sisters, with whom we share deep Christian fellowship, have been much in our hearts. In the aftermath of the U.S. invasion of Grenada, great fear has arisen in Nicaragua and among us that their country will be next.

We confess our own complicity in the violence of our nation, and we desire to repent of that violence. We condemn unequivocally the U.S. invasion of Grenada as a lawless act without moral justification and as the most recent manifestation of U.S. intervention in the affairs of the Caribbean and Central American region. The official hypocrisy and deception that surrounded the events in Grenada raises the real possibility of a similar scenario for Nicaragua.

Fear of such a possibility is further justified by recent events: the escalation of U.S.-backed counterrevolutionary violence against Nicaragua, the United States' imposition of economic sanctions and other pressures against Nicaragua, the re-establishment of the CONDECA military alliance and general militarization of the whole region, including the large-scale presence of U.S. military forces. All these signs lead to rumors of war and suggest to us the threat of a U.S.-sponsored invasion of Nicaragua.

We oppose any such invasion. We will resist with our minds, hearts, and bodies any intervention by the United States, directly or indirectly, in Nicaragua. We will call upon our churches, organizations, networks, communities, and friends to join us in such resistance, and we will begin to prepare others for it.

Our faith compels us to respond: we are committed to an active nonviolence that confronts the forces of war and the structures of injustice. If such an intervention takes place, we will respond in the following ways:

- We will assemble as many North American Christians as we can to join us and go immediately to Nicaragua to stand unarmed as a loving barrier in the path of any attempted invasion, sharing the danger posed to the Nicaraguan people.

- We will call upon North American Christians to join us as we encircle, enter, or occupy congressional offices in a nonviolent prayerful presence with the intention of remaining at those offices until the invasion is ended.

- We offer our full support and participation to the Witness for Peace, the effort by North American Christians to establish a permanent nonviolent and prayerful presence in the border area of conflict between Nicaragua and Honduras.

- We will join with other people and groups to initiate and support demonstrations of public opposition to any invasion attempt.

We invite people of other faith traditions, who vary from us in spiritual approach but who are one with us in this effort, to join us.

We write this letter in the hope that the actions of resistance to invasion we have promised will not be needed. We pledge ourselves to work for peace and justice in Central America, so that our country may live in harmony and friendship with all the peoples of that region.

May peace come to our minds, our hearts, our world.

Signed*: Marci Ameluxen, Fellowship of Reconciliation; William H. Anderson, Jr., Episcopal Peace Fellowship; John Backe, Lutheran Peace Fellowship; Barbara Blaine, Pax Christi USA; Charles Boyer, Church of the Brethren; Andrea Coolidge, World Peacemakers; William L. Coop, Presbyterian Peace Fellowship; Richard Baggett Deats, Fellowship of Reconciliation; Shelley M. Douglass, Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action; Peter Ediger, Center on Law and Pacifism; Nora Hallett, Fellowship of Reconciliation; Jo Clare Hartzig, Kirkridge Peace Ministry; Bill Kellermann, Detroit Peace Community; R. Scott Kennedy, Resource Center for Nonviolence; Ken Kinnett, Church of the Covenant (Episcopal); Art Laffin, Atlantic Life Community; Jay Lintner, UCC Office for Church in Society; Paul Mazur, Pax Christi USA; Timothy McDonald, Ebenezer Baptist Church; Edgar Metzler, New Call to Peacemaking; Don Mosley, Jubilee Partners; William Price, World Peacemakers; Robert Raines, Kirkridge Retreat Center; Jim Rice, Sojourners; George Rodkey, Bartimaeus Community; Molly Rush, Thomas Merton Center; Glen Saul, Baptist Peacemakers West; Peggy Scherer, New York Catholic Worker; John Stoner, UCC U.S. Peace Section; William Stringfellow, attorney and theologian; Diane Thomas, Clergy and Laity Concerned; Jim Wallis, Sojourners; Conley Zomermaand, Reformed Church in America.

* Organizations are for identification purposes only.