The Face of Peace: The Church’s response to the violence in Colombia
By Anna Yoder
Psalms 85:11 says “Truth and Mercy will spring up from the ground. Justice will look down from the sky.” Reading a verse like this during times of hardship and despair can often lead one to ask questions such as, “When and how, God, will this happen?” When will truth spring up when lies dominate, how will mercy spring up when so many innocent people are being killed and destroyed? When will justice come down from the sky when our laws are not strong or credible enough? Questions like these, as well as several others, are currently being asked by our brothers and sisters who are dealing with the Colombian armed conflict.
In the midst of political conflict, the Christian Church often finds itself torn between the earthly kingdom and the heavenly kingdom. Too often it is in this struggle that we loose sight of what it means to be the living and breathing body of Christ. But in the middle of a violence intense conflict, what does that exactly mean? Currently, the churches of Colombia are facing such questions as they learn how to peacefully respond in order to become the body of Christ and the face of peace as the violence of the armed conflict continues to rage on.
For the past century, the nation of Colombia has been a custom to the absence of peace and the consistency of violence that stems back several generations. Since 1964, over 200,000 Colombians have been killed. The roots of this conflict come from many sources including a tradition of corruption, the concentration of wealth in the hands of the small elite, and the abandonment of poor people and rural areas. The violence is mostly carried out by the paramilitaries and the guerrillas who fund themselves. Through their actions they have currently left anywhere from 1 to 2.2 million Colombians displaced.
The country cries out for peace, but with the growing strength of the guerrillas and the unofficial support for the paramilitary, peace has been next to impossible. Problems only continue to grow with the countries economic hardship, the growth of illiterate rates and the increase production of drugs and drug trafficking. The United States has had a particular interest in this conflict since most of the drugs produced in Colombia are consumed in the U.S. Thus the U.S. has supported the state forces by providing economic aid and transportation for the “war on drugs” for “Plan Colombia.” However, this support provided by the US has been found to be used equally for the counterinsurgency, making the drug war a major part of the violence. Out of all the aid the US has sent 85% was military related and has only provoked the conflict and stopped the peace talks between the state government and the leftist groups. Thus situation in Colombia continues to grow worse as the army continues its threats, the paramilitary continues massacring, the guerrillas continue to attach and the unarmed civilians continue to pay the price.
Learning how to peacefully respond has not been an easy thing for the churches of Colombia to do. However, they continue to fight and long for peace despite facing resistance, violence and murder from both sides of the war. Churches who openly promote peace and justice are often putting their own lives on the line as they face many obstacles from police and judicial systems that have been polluted by years and years of corruption. Nevertheless religious leaders, congregations and other human rights workers still press on to speak out against the suffering of others. Thus the Christian church communities today face violent threats, assassinations, the closing of their churches and forced displacements of their entire church body despite their efforts to negotiate peace talks and remain neutral to either side.
With such a dedication to justice and peace, the churches in Colombia have formed organizations that are committed to reaching out. Such organizations include the Colombian Catholic Conference of Bishops whose mission involves panting seeds and sources for unity, hope and salvation for all. Many Evangelical and Protestants churches are also a part of the Evangelical Council of Colombian Churches which offers aids as well as pastoral care to those who are suffering in the church and in the general public. They also supports peace efforts by encouraging peace dialogues between armed groups.
The Mennonite Churches of Colombia have also been greatly involved, creating organizations such as JustaPaz that has been recognized by the government as an “alternative to the court system for resolving conflicts.” .In the past few years, JustaPaz was been encouraging communities to become peace sanctuaries that provide a physical place of peace, preach peace and justice, and are actively involved in peace building projects. However, this movement has not been easy considering the violence they face. Nevertheless, in light of these oppositions, the Colombian Mennonite Church has only committed itself more to their ongoing peace work by making public statements of faith in order to witness to the whole society, including the government and the armed forces.
Following with the Colombian Mennonite Church’s desire to witness is an organization known as Pan y Paz or Bread for Peace. Pan y Paz is a peace organization support by JustaPaz who has been devoted to finding the relationships between justice and a lasting peace for Colombia. In September of 2002, Pan y Paz, released a declaration of their peace beliefs in major media outlets promoting that “Bread and Peace are Possible.”The statement proclaimed,
“As Followers of Jesus Christ, Son of God, whom we recognize as sovereign Lord, we affirm our biblical and historical belief that the way to peace is through active nonviolence and love for neighbor- especially the weak, the poor, the marginalized and enemies. Bread for all, not bullets! Bread for the hungry, not bombs!”
This idea of using bread has not only been a symbol of peace but also a reminder of the importance of unity throughout the entire Christian church body. Breaking bread together, or the Lord’s Supper, is not only an important reminder of this for the Mennonite church, but for other Christian denominations who share in Christ’s sufferings as well. Through these suffering the church is able to resist the temptation of becoming an “invisible” or ineffective church that gets lost in the political situations of the day and is able to become the unified body of Christ that offers a healing, peaceful alternative way of life.
In 1 Corinthians chapter 11, Paul emphasizes the necessity of unity in the body of Christ that needs to occur before the Eucharist occurs. When this occurs, the Eucharist becomes more than something that is soothing to the soul, but rather it becomes a public act of discipline for the church. It is through the Holy Spirit that the body of Christ is unified and the suffering of others becomes personal along with Christ’s sufferings. The universal church needs to be an active part of these sufferings if they are truly to help heal the brokenness in the world. Proclaiming this is not enough, the church must also make the body of Christ visible through its actions.
In William Cavanaugh’s essay, The Body of Christ: the Eucharist and Politics, Cavanuagh says,
“There is nothing more real than the body of Christ. The Eucharist is not to be applied to political issues; rather the Eucharist makes the church itself a political body. The church practices the politics of Jesus when it becomes an alternative way of life that offers healing for the wounds that divide us… Throughout the world, to belong to the body of Christ is to transgress national boundaries and to witness to what God has done in Christ to gather all people.”
Many churches in Colombia understand the need for unification and movements for peace in the body of Christ if any change is to occur. The Colombian Catholic Conference of Bishops has publicly declared this need by emphasizing the importance of communion and solidarity among the churches. The Conference stated, “There will be peace in our country when we discover that we all belong to the same family.”
Unity in Christ and reaching out to the communities is what the Colombian churches have been striving to do. An article from the New York Times about the human rights violations in Colombian included a statement from a church that read, “The Holy Spirit has moved us out of our churches to respond to the brokenness in our society… As we gain experience we will develop action plans for a new response to housing, to the needs of children, and for returning displaced people to their communities. We are just beginning.”
Though the battle is hard and the price is great, the Christian Church of Colombia press on towards peace. By becoming the healing and peaceful body of Christ in the midst of conflict enables the church to reach out to those around them in order to show Christ’s love to God’s beloved.
CONCLUSION:
I leave you with the words of Ricardo Esquivia, President of the Human Rights and Peace Commission of the Evangelical Council of Colombian Churches and director of Justapaz, from his letter to his family of believers throughout the rest of the world. “Beloved sisters and brothers, we give you this small report so that you pray and ask God to give us strength, courage, a joyful spirit, and hope. We ask for these things so that we may be able to continue being salt and light before the Colombians people who are being destroyed by injustice and violence. We know that where sin abounds, grace is abundant as well, and that we, with your help, are a seed of life, light and hope for the Colombian people.”
May we pray that there will be the light at the end of this seemingly endless conflict, that truth, mercy and justice will spring forth, and that the Colombian churches will continue to press on towards peace.
