Bear Witness
The Pursuit of Justice in a Violent Land
In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus tells his disciples, “If any wish to come after me, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me” (16:24). When I talk about this passage with my students, I emphasize that our contemporary use of the phrase “my cross to bear” often refers to a litany of ordinary struggles, obscuring the radical call this passage makes. The point is that discipleship comes at a cost. A radical commitment to the gospel will bring us into conflict with powerful, sinful forces. This could even, as it did for Jesus, cost us our lives.
In Bear Witness, investigative journalist Ross Halperin tells the story of Kurt Ver Beek and Carlos Hernández, two friends who bear the high costs of discipleship as they run their NGO in Honduras. The two come from vastly different contexts: Kurt is a White man from the Chicago suburbs, while Carlos is Honduran, from the coastal lowlands. They met as young men in Tegucigalpa, Honduras’s capital city. Carlos moved there after giving up a rural teaching position, unsure what he wanted to do but knowing he wanted something more. Kurt came shortly after college, on assignment from the Christian Reformed World Relief Committee. Despite their different backgrounds, they shared a deep conviction that their Christian faith called them to work to build a better world, alleviate suffering, and attend to people’s material needs. This drive led them to become cofounders of the Association for a More Just Society, the NGO at the heart of Halperin’s narrative.
Modeled after the life of Jesus and the courage of the early Christian martyrs, Kurt and Carlos aim to embody and encourage a “love-conquers-fear ethos” at ASJ (short for the organization’s Spanish name). Wholehearted love for others, Kurt argues, ought to allow us to overcome any fear. This is not an argument made in abstraction. ASJ’s mission is to pursue justice in Honduras, especially for the poor. Their work has focused especially on Nueva Suyapa, an impoverished and often dangerous neighborhood in Tegucigalpa.
