REFLECTION: The peaceable witness of James Loney in ‘Captivity’

by Fr. John Dear, SJ
Pax Christi USA Ambassador of Peace

It’s been hard for me to watch the election campaign when so little attention was paid to our ongoing wars, closing Guantanamo, ending the death penalty, Wall Street corporate corruption, the needs of the poor, and catastrophic climate change — even as the unthinkable Superstorm Sandy bore down on the East Coast. Throughout these difficult days, I’ve tried to stay centered in the spirit of peace and to be mindful of the victims of our wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

I’ve been helped by reading a powerful new memoir by Christian Peacemaker Teams member James Loney of Toronto.

Seven years ago, Loney and three other peace activists — fellow Canadian Harmeet Singh Sooden, British citizen Norman Kember and American Tom Fox — were kidnapped at gunpoint on a side street in Baghdad. They were blindfolded, bound and taken to a house where they were held for almost four months by a group calling itself the “Swords of Righteousness Brigade.” Fox was killed, but the other three were rescued and brought home. Now Loney, one of the world’s exemplars of Christian nonviolence, has written a book about his experience of nonviolence in a land of war…

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