Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 3, 1990 TAG: 9003052154
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: FRITZ RITSCH SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES & WORLD-NEWS
DATELINE: BLACK LENGTH: Long
"It's disturbing to me to know what I know and go on living the way I do," said the Rev. Woody Leach, Presbyterian campus minister at Virginia Tech. He visited El Salvador for the sixth time last year.
Leach was one of dozens of church people, both ministers and laity, who have traveled to the strife-ridden nations of Central America.
Many of them went on tours guided by Jennifer Casolo, the American church worker who was accused recently by the Salvadoran government of hiding rebel weapons in her back yard.
Kate O'Hare, a Catholic campus minister at Tech, was one of several New River Valley residents who acted on Casolo's behalf. O'Hare complained to the U.S. Embassy in El Salvador.
"You're labeled a communist if you do any work with the people," she said. "It's McCarthyist to the extreme in El Salvador. Anyone who does anything for the rights of the poor is considered suspect."
Tony Equale, director of the Coalition for Justice in Central America in Blacksburg, said the churches in El Salvador, especially the Catholic and Lutheran churches, are "involved very deeply because of the situation of poverty" - and they suffer for it.
The Salvadoran government "identifies anybody as subversive who works with the poor," Equale said, including church workers and health care workers.
The Rev. Thomas Magri, pastor of St. Jude Catholic Church in Radford, quotes murdered Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero: "If you feed the hungry, they call you a saint. If you ask why they are hungry, they call you a communist."
Dr. William Hendricks, a Presbyterian physician who went to El Salvador in May 1988 with a group of health care professionals, found that the experience "drove home for me my responsibility as a member of the affluent North American community to do something about conditions in Central America. In that sense, it was awe-inspiring and empowering."
What Hendricks found inspiring was the faith of the Salvadoran people and the church workers who help them in their struggle against poverty and their government.
Many of these Christians view the U.S. military aid to El Salvador as the only barrier to a negotiated peace between the government and the rebels.
The struggles of poor people against oppression in Latin America has given rise to a new brand of theology that views God as the liberator of the oppressed.
"It's seeing the world from the perspective of the poor . . . trying to look at the world through the eyes of the victim," Leach said, and examining "how we benefit from the oppression of others, not just worldwide, but locally."
Nancy Alexander, chairwoman of the Global Missions and Peacemaking Committee at Blacksburg Presbyterian Church, put it this way: "You cannot ignore the Central American's commitment to Christianity. It's a real faith statement to Americans who go there. I can't read the Bible now without being influenced by how Central Americans read it."
The message of the Bible from a liberation perspective, Leach said, is "God takes a preference for the poor."
Some visitors have been left with vivid images they say they will never forget.
"Our last day there, Jennifer told us about a pediatrician she knew who had been arrested. We saw her tears of worry for an acquaintance who'd tried to help the poor," said Hendricks.
"It renewed my commitment to help, where I can, people in my own community," he said, citing his new enthusiasm for his work at the Free Clinic.
Some church people who have visited El Salvador have since become vocal in demanding that the United States end its military support of the Salvadoran government.
"I'm very patriotic," O'Hare said, "but I believe the people everywhere are my brothers and sisters. We have the ability in the U.S. to make changes, not just here but around the world. . . . People in El Salvador don't even have the right to speak out."
Walter VomLehn, a retired family physician and a Quaker who lives in Christiansburg, traveled with a Presbyterian group to El Salvador in the summer of 1988. He emphasized that the church can have a reconciling role in a negotiated peace.
"The Quaker tradition is being a mediator, working for reconciliation, even in a very polarized situation," he said.
The recent execution-style killings of six Catholic priests, their housekeeper and her daughter, in addition to the arrest of Jennifer Casolo, raised the ire of many New River Valley Christians. They sent angry telegrams and made phone calls to their congressmen, the State Department, and the U.S. embassy in El Salvador.
An ecumenical worship service was held in December at Blacksburg's Luther Memorial Lutheran Church to express "our grief, our sorrow, our outrage," said the Rev. Gary Shroeder.
Church involvement in El Salvador may influence policy decisions in this congressional session, U.S. Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Abingdon, said by telephone in January. "The churches have taken a lead in urging re-evaluation of policy, especially the mainline churches."
He said secular groups have played an equally strong role. He views church and secular pressure as one of many factors that will contribute to a U.S. policy change in El Salvador.
Boucher said future U.S. foreign aid in El Salvador "will have to be linked to a demonstrated performance in terms of human rights and a respect for human rights."
Church leaders are skeptical. They are encouraged by Casolo's release and the investigation of the murders of the priests, but they do not expect U.S. policy to change as radically as they would hope.
"I don't have faith in any government," Magri said. "I have faith in God."
by CNB