From Protest to Resistance

This issue of Sojourners tells the story of an extraordinary venture of faith along the railroad tracks that carry the White Train. The White Train is a train that transports the warheads assembled at the Pantex plant in Amarillo, Texas, through cities and towns across the United States to the places where they will be made ready for use. This is indeed a death train. Its cargo of as many as 200 hydrogen bombs gives it the deadliest freight in history.

But the train has been discovered. Having gone unnoticed for more than 20 years, the discovery of the White Train has occasioned an outpouring of prayerful resistance that is stirring hearts and causing consternation in the government. Pitting the power of prayer and conscience against the ghostly White Train, a network of people from churches and local communities has sprung up and become a community of faith joined together by the railroad tracks and by the hope that comes from breaking the silence and taking personal responsibility.

The government has responded by changing the routes of the train to try to elude the protesters, and by threatening to make the tracking of the White Train a felony, punishable by up to 20 years in prison and a $100,000 fine.

Also in this issue is a report of the first short-term Witness for Peace team's pilgrimage to the Nicaragua-Honduras border. It is indeed a long road that is leading many of us to the little town of Jalapa on Nicaragua's northern frontier. Four teams have already gone and returned, and others are scheduled through the end of 1984. In addition, a long-term continuous presence on the border is firmly established. The enormous response from the United States is augmented by many international offers to join the witness at the border.

The Witness for Peace is truly an experiment in nonviolence. It is admittedly a risky one, but one in which we will certainly learn much more about the meaning of both prayer and conversion. Our expressed aim is to interfere with U.S. policy against the Nicaraguan people and seek to change it.

The U.S. government has been informed of the intention of many church people to actively resist any U.S. invasion of Nicaragua. The idea, first proposed by Gandhi, of a peace army—a nonviolent force of trained, disciplined, and religious people ready to go to situations of conflict in order to make peace—is again causing great interest among many. The government has not yet responded to this prayerful intrusion on the part of North American religious people. Instead, they have even increased their war effort.

Many other signs of faithful resistance have emerged in recent months. In October and November, 1983, many acted, both in the United States and Europe, against the deployment of U.S. cruise and Pershing II missiles on European soil. During Advent, many Christians took their prayers for peace to nuclear facilities around the country. And on April 15 the government will discover that more U.S. citizens have made the decision to refuse to pay their war taxes for reasons of faith and conscience.

In all of this activity, there is a clearly discernible movement from protest to resistance. More and more people, especially in the churches and religious community, are deciding to take a new step. Protest is speaking; resistance is acting. To protest is to say that something is wrong; resistance means trying to stop it. To protest is to raise your voice; to resist is to stand up with your body. To protest is to say you disagree; to resist is simply to say no.

To move from protest to resistance is indeed a serious step. But more and more of us believe that our present situation is so serious that such a step is called for. The arms race has run out of control with even the pretense of arms control having been abandoned. Interventionism has become a way of life within U.S. foreign policy. Unless this policy is halted we can look forward to years and decades of war in places like Central America, the Middle East, Southern Africa, and many other places. Official statements of hostility and even hatred of "our enemies" have reached a fever pitch.

And in the meantime, the poor have simply been abandoned. Their lives are exploited at home and around the world by a system that does not care if they live or die. Under this system the rich will get richer and the poor will simply die.

We are not moved by political ideology but rather compelled by Christian conscience to act in non-cooperation, political resistance, and civil disobedience. Our resistance must, and will, be thoroughly nonviolent in word and deed. That means our actions must be rooted in love and compassion, not anger, resentment, cynicism, or hatred.

We must be grounded in prayer, faith, and worship. Our actions must begin in confession for our own sin and be carried out with the humility that comes from knowing our own complicity in the evils we protest. We must evaluate our actions, not by their effectiveness, but by their spirit, their depth, and their quality of love.

The liturgical calendar has become an occasion and a great opportunity for such prayerful resistance. Biblical reflection on the church seasons in the context of action is producing fresh, deep insights on the meaning of Scripture for our day. Again this year Lent, Holy Week, Good Friday, and Easter will all be marked by the prayers of faith offered in resistance and hope. During the week of May 4 to 13, a broad coalition of churches and religious groups from around the country will be co-sponsoring Peace With Justice Week. The now traditional observance of Peace Sabbath, Peace Sunday will be held over the May 4 to 6 weekend.

This year Peace Pentecost falls on Sunday, June 10. Last year at this time we witnessed a powerful outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the National Cathedral, the rotunda of the United States Capitol, and the Washington, D.C. jail. This year we are calling for local and regional actions of prayer, worship, and civil disobedience at nuclear facilities around the country.

At Pentecost we remember how the Christians came down from the upper room and took the message into the streets. Our hope is that Peace Pentecost, 1984, will be a day of prayer and resistance along the White Train tracks (see "A Call to Agape," page 23) and at nuclear facilities.

These are places where a great evil is being done, and that evil is usually hidden in secrecy, silence, and darkness. To pray at such places is to break the silence, to make public what has been invisible, and to bring evil into the light—the light of public scrutiny, the light of conscience, and the light of God.

It is indeed very possible that such strong actions entailing risk and sacrifice may prick consciences, change minds, soften hearts, and awaken the public. We have seen that happen before. Prayers of resistance offered during the liturgical seasons in the midst of an election year could help make the real issues at stake more clear. It is certainly doubtful that all the campaigning and traditional electoral competition will make many issues very clear.

But there are of course deeper issues at stake here than political effectiveness. These are issues of personal faith and personal responsibility. We don't know if we can win, but we know what the gospel says. We don't know if we can stop the trains, but Christian conscience brings us to the tracks. We don't know if military madness can be stopped, but we know that Christ calls us to be peacemakers. We don't know if invasions and interventions can be halted, but we know that God cares about the victims and that we must stand in the way of our government's violence against them. We don't know when the poor will see justice, but we know that Jesus stands among the poor and invites us to come and join him there.

A time comes for personal responsibility, and that becomes an even deeper reason for acting than even the hope of success. We must always remember that history has been most changed when individuals and small groups of people began to take personal responsibility, usually for reasons of faith and conscience, and thereby opened up new possibilities in their lives and in the lives of others. New breakthroughs sometimes are possible only through a deeper level of commitment. Our prayer of resistance, finally, is a prayer for the grace of God to enable us to make that deeper level of commitment.

Jim Wallis is editor-in-chief of Sojourners magazine.