Expand Christian Peacemaker Teams? II
by Stan Bohn, North Newton, Kan.
I appreciate Ron Sider’s call for expansion of Christian Peacemaker Teams (Oct. 7), but I worry that his article implies using nonviolence as a “technique” that “works” and promotes a shallow, paternalistic kind of peacemaking.
CPT offers a supportive relationship to suffering people rather than techniques. CPT workers try to understand needs and doing what those suffering injustice think will help them. Often angry, oppressed people are far from wanting a nonviolent approach outsiders recommend. So CPT offers a relationship (often protective) that can empower people not to hate and seek solutions rather than paternalistically imposing solutions or offering a technique to defeat the other side. Humility helps.
If outsiders offer merely techniques, local people could say, “Why don’t you know-it-all folks take those techniques home and change your own government, which supports this injustice?” CPT has credibility in that participants have spoken prophetically to their own culture in dramatic ways. They also arrange for two-week delegations to educate outsiders on what kind of witness is needed back home.
CPT should not be used as a quick fix by those feeling guilt at the slaughter and injustices our nation has helped cause. CPT defines success in a deeper way and invites a patriotism that is prophetic. This makes CPT less marketable to the 100s or 1,000s Sider envisions are desperately needed.
Associated Issue: Expand CPT - Oct. 7, 2008
Associated Article: Expand CPT
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