Vulnerability links CPT hostages with the Christmas story

[undeterred]

By: Dale Suderman

Four members of the Christian Peacemakers Teams are being held captive in Iraq and the deadline for their execution has passed. The four men are friends of friends of mine. My friends, Tim Nafzinger in London, Kryss Chupp in Chicago and Gene Stoltzfus, formerly of Chicago but now retired in Canada, know them well-even if I do not. As I write this, their fate is unknown. As I look out my window on Chicago, the streets are snow covered. My block has fewer Christmas lights than previous years. Early arctic air and astronomical heating costs have prompted folks to stay inside and hunker down for the winter rather than compete for who can put the most extravagant Christmas displays in their windows and front yards.

The Christian Peacemaker Teams always make me uncomfortable. Bunch of tofu-eating, granola munching, Mennonite, Church of the Brethren and Quakers idealists who insist on going to live in areas of conflict-Israel, Columbia, Haiti and, for the past four years, Baghdad. They worry about injustices in places I know nothing about and the fate of people whose names I cannot even pronounce. They never met a barefoot peasant they didn't like or a rich guy they did. They are usually cranky about American imperialism.

They are not Christian missionaries in the sense of starting churches and they are not relief workers who bring bundles of clothes and food to poor people. Mostly they walk around and talk with people. Unfortunately, they tend to wander off and chat with people in areas deemed totally unsafe by the State Department and sleep in neighborhoods that CNN reporters only visit in the daytime.

<snip>

There is a strain of Christian orthodoxy that believes that in the Incarnation-God was made vulnerable-unarmed, unprotected and finally, terribly misunderstood. Sort of like the Christian Peacemaker Teams.


http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?BRD=1163&dept_id=113335&newsid=15791497&PAG=461&rfi=9

[jobycom]

1. Wow. I like this line:

"The sentimental Christmas story told so often, in fact, conceals the political and social subtext of the narrative. The birth of Jesus is a story about political terror and about refugees."

Is that just a link, or did you write it? I wasn't familiar with this group. I'm glad to see them explained.

[undeterred]

3. No, its a link

I am a Quaker and I've been following this story since they were kidnapped- but I never heard of Christian Peacemaker Teams before this incident. They are willing to take huge risks to live out their beliefs.

http://www.cpt.org/

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

2. I know that we Sufis are praying for them

there's been information about them on our mailing group.

[undeterred]

4. There has been a huge amount of support

from Muslims as well. The people who kidnapped them probably did not realize who they were, but those familiar with CPT have let them know that they were there to support the Iraqi people and report the truth. There was a threat to execute them almost 2 weeks ago, but since there has been no news that it was carried through, so I am hoping to hear good news soon.