Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, March 28, 1994 TAG: 9403280023
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CODY LOWE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
It was part of a religious service, Radcliff explained, celebrated in honor of a visit by Church of the Brethren representatives to the poor village of Nimule.
The crucifixion is a stronger image in that war-torn and emaciated nation than here, Radcliff said. Christian ministers are sometimes crucified by the government "in a mockery of Jesus' death." The murders are part of a systematic campaign to rid the nation, which is run by a fundamentalist Islamic government, of non-Muslims.
It was an especially significant image for Palm Sunday - as the members of Central Church of the Brethren were preparing for Holy Week and the commemoration of Christ's death and resurrection.
Radcliff, of the national Church of the Brethren's office of peace witness, and Judy Mills Reimer, moderator-elect of the denomination, both have visited the Sudan and were sharing their experiences with the congregation at Central church.
Radcliff reminded his audience that Christianity has been misused at some times in its history to oppress the weak. Likewise, the teaching of the Koran, the Islamic holy book, to respect Christians and Jews is sometimes neglected.
Radcliff is formerly of Botetourt County and now works at denominational headquarters in Elgin, Ill. He was in the Sudan a year ago, when he took the slides shown Sunday.
Reimer lives in Goodview and is a member of Williamson Road Church of the Brethren. She will become moderator - "spiritual and official head of the church" - beginning this summer. She was in the Sudan and neighboring east African countries for almost three weeks in February.
Sudan is Africa's largest nation, geographically. It includes two dominant cultures - an Arabic Muslim majority in the north that controls the national government and a Christian black African minority in the south.
The southern region is poor, fractured by competing rebel factions, constantly near starvation and without political or military power.
Reimer's eight-person group almost didn't get to visit the country because of the threat of air raids against the far southern villages they were to visit.
Only a few days after she left, she said, one person was killed and six injured in a bombing raid on the village she saw.
There is no education or economic opportunities for those in the south. Children are sometimes kidnapped, taken to the north and forcibly converted to Islam. Boys are conscripted by government troops and used as living mine-sweeps, sent across mined territory ahead of soldiers to detonate the explosives.
Most of the people have no more than one meal a day - usually beans or rice. Water is often impure. Medical supplies have been almost completely cut off since a United Nations team was killed trying to make deliveries.
Though there is almost no communication except word-of-mouth, Radcliff said, the people they met were remarkably well-informed about American politics.
When he was there a year ago, he was asked to deliver gifts to Hillary Rodham Clinton and to take a message to the new president.
In a tape recording of an impassioned speech by a Sudanese woman, Radcliff was asked to "carry my message to the people of America.
"We feel that God is one . . . all of us are the children of one mother. . . . We are one human race.
"The United Nations has neglected us. . . . Tell about us. We want to go to our own homes. We refused to be slaves. We want to be saved by your people."
That won't be easy, Radcliff acknowledged.
"It is difficult to know what to do," especially for people such as the Brethren who have traditionally rejected the use of armed force.
There is evidence that international opinion has some weight - the Sudanese government tries to cover up the military actions it takes against its citizens in the south. The International Monetary Fund has already stopped loans to the government, he said, and an arms blockade might be useful.
One pastor in Sudan, Reimer said, encouraged her to challenge American Christians "on the first and 15th day of each month to pray for peace with justice for Sudan. And to fast - to show a sensitivity to their needs."
The other challenge she brought was for church members to practice tithing - giving one-tenth of their income to the church. "I do believe that if we tithed, we could give so much help through our own denomination and through the broader church of Jesus Christ."
Other denominations now are joining a Brethren initiative to supply the Sudan with what are called SOS kits, which include specific necessities such as a towel, soap, salt and string.
The first 7,000 such kits have just been delivered, Radcliff said.
by CNB