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Liberation Theology in El Salvador

Our friend Lane Anderson, a Vietnam veteran and Vet for Peace, writes to us from El Salvador:

Yesterday and today we made the pilgrimage to El Paisnal, the home of Father Rutilio Grande, the first of the Catholic priests killed by US-trained death squads. Father Rutilio was killed in 1977 and his assassination caused the awakening of his friend Archbishop Oscar Romero, who was in turn assassinated. The liberation theology embraced by Father Rutilio and Archbishop Romero led to further killings and President Carter´s suspension of military aid and training for the Salvadoran government and its military. This in turn led to peace negotiations which redistributed some land to the peasants and rebels.
The tendency of the powerful and greedy to anticipate success through violence is their flaw. What if they had not killed the priests? Would the US have withdrawn aid?

What if Johnson had not fabricated the USS Maddox story to increase the violence in Vietnam? Would his legacy of the great society have been forgotten in the muck of a tragic war? I participated in an assault on North Vietnam that LBJ thought would scare them into submission and instead it caused the Tet offensive... the beginning of the end!
What if George W. Bush had responded to 9-11 with a careful analysis of what had caused the assault and tried to rectify our errant foreign policy instead of rushing to aggressive violence?

We spoke at length with Father Orlando in El Paisnal today. He is a liberation theologist and the priest in this historic town. He said that the theology of liberation is actually the liberation of theology... held hostage for centuries by the powerful and greedy. He has been threatened but persists in building a community of caring and sharing contrary to the precepts of the society here. He said that when he gave his life to God he also gave his death to God. He was very critical of the FMLN politicians in the legislature here, thinking them to be too timid and willing to compromise the ideals they were elected for.

It is true that in Latin America in general and El Salvador in particular it is the liberation theologists and their followers who hold the politicians' feet to the fire! And it is they who pay the price when greed wins temporarily, but the violence perpetuated on those of faith has led to change and will in the future. We discussed the censure of Father Jon Sobrino by Pope Benedict with Father Orlando.

Father Orlando does not lose faith, but his faith is in the community and the people, not the church leadership.

Liberation theologists are building sustainable communities for the post-corporate world. We should take a lesson! Christian communities in the USA are now openly discussing conservation and environmentalism in their meetings. We should be a part of this. Latin America now has many lessons for US; one is the need to embrace the religion of the people who inhabit our society.

Peace and justice folks and conservationists alike sometimes turn away from religion but as long as sustainability is ceded to the politicians, the community-based change that needs to happen will not.

It is important that progressives and conservationists put some thought into this.

So since reading the above missive, I've been thinking about liberation theology, and the messages that Lane has been sending as he wends his way through Latin America.

On one level, when I open my email, I like reading his messages first, because they are full of descriptions of the birds and trees he is seeing. For a second I am transported to a warmer, lusher, yet simpler world; one where all I would have to do is take in the smells and sounds and sights. I crave newness, and the sense of wonder as one discovers ancient sites and fresh settings.

On another level, Lane's encounters with indigenous people engaged in struggles far more important then mine, lovingly described, are a reminder of why it is so important to pay attention to all of the struggles for peace and justice.

Especially the struggles of and for the soul. The liberation theology Father Orlando speaks of reminds me of the past week's issues. The powerful and the greedy have been exposed beyond anything we might have hoped for, and yet the liberation of the souls of our elected officials has not yet taken place.

As I watch the weariness and puffery and twisted spirits of those in Congress, along with the sheer dogged tiredness and still hopeful beings in the peace and justice movement here, I wish for all of us trying to find a pathway through this dark war, the glimpse of a bird flying high against a blue sky, pausing in the branches of a Night Jasmine tree, on its way to a place of rest and perspective, high in a Mayan ruin.

We know what we must protect, and it is not our jobs, our religions, or our lives, but life and spirit itself.

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