Liberation Theology
We are prisoners of this world unless we raise a voice about the suffering in the world around us. True happiness is that freedom within and without.
“In a room where people unanimously maintain a conspiracy of silence, one word of truth sounds like a pistol shot.” ― Czesław Miłosz
What are we living for?
I have wanted to write this for the last two weeks. Finally, swallowing my anger and sitting down to tap out a few words that someone might read and take sustenance from.
I’ve written about the dictatorship here in Nicaragua - let’s call it exactly what it is, a police state. Thuggery. However, I live in a hard-working, agricultural town, in the mountains. Never thought the troubles would come here, but they have.
Police have been everywhere downtown for 2 weeks. Daniel Ortega closed off 3 city blocks and blocked the bishop of Matagalpa from leaving his house (curia) or attending mass. Now, his thugs (his brother-in-law leads the posse, nepotism is another issue with these gangsters) have in the middle of the night - 3:20 am broken into the church grounds and arrested everyone. We don’t know where they are, at this moment.
It reminds me of my time in Ukraine. Year 2000 and I was helping the camp downtown - the “Ukraine Without Kuchma” protest, the first of many in following years. I lived just a block away on Lutheranskya, from the encampment. I’d bring them water, food. Translate. Do errands. One night, I hear tapping on my 2nd story balconey window. It was kids throwing rocks to wake me up. I got dressed and went out onto Krischatek - the big main boulevard of Kyiv where the camp was set up. Bulldozers, water cannons, hundreds of sweepers were at work. All the protesters loaded into trucks. Many, most, never were seen from again. Later that morning, it was business as usual on the street - shoppers, walkers, business as usual.
And the same here in Matagalpa. Even the Pope is silent.
Nicaragua is a country living in fear, people have their heads down. The country is a facade of normalcy. After crushing any and all in 2018, killing hundreds of “kids” on the street, jailing 1,000s - Ortega has been taking revenge after finally consolidating power in all sectors of the country - judiciary, army, police, business, legislative etc … He now has free reign and has been jailing, disappearing journalists, critics, media, organizers, opposition. But what it all comes down to is “revenge” - let’s not complicate things. The infamous torture prison El Chipote is overflowing, they’ve even built a new one.
Bishop Alvarez spoke out about the injustices in the world he lived. He was a true example of liberation theology, the Jesus that rampaged through the moneylenders’ tables. He won some victories against Ortega, especially with the battle against Rancho Grande mining. The bishop used social media, he preached love and justice, he spoke out. And for that reason, he might just become another Romero.
I come back to the question of - What are we living for? And when this question rises its head in me, I always think of The Brothers Karamazov. How Dostoevsky, who knew a thing or two about thugs (the Tzar). It’s a book, everyone should read and contemplate in their life. But if you don’t have the time, just read the chapter of Ivan and the Grand Inquisitor. Basically, Ortega and what he stands for IS the argument and beliefs of the Grand Inquisitor.
The Grand Inquisitor is brought before him a man who people say is Jesus. At first, he scoffs but soon realizes, yes indeed, before him is Jesus. But the Grand Inquisitor condemns him to die again - justifying it by arguing that people don’t want a Jesus to save them. They aren’t ready for the responsibility of the freedom that entails. They’d rather have a soft tyrant that keeps things safe. People WANT a tyrant to rule them.
“Freedom, free thought and science, will lead them into such straits and will bring them face to face with such marvels and insoluble mysteries, that some of them, the fierce and rebellious, will destroy themselves,” the Inquisitor says. “Others, rebellious but weak, will destroy one another while the rest, weak and unhappy, will crawl fawning to our feet. They will tremble impotently before our wrath, their minds will grow fearful, they will be quick to shed tears, but they will be just as ready at a sign from us to pass to laughter and rejoicing, to happy mirth and childish song… We promise that only when they renounce their freedom and submit to us will they be free," - The Grand Inquisitor
Christ never talks, it is basically the Grand Inquisitor digging himself a morally indefensible hole.
"So long as man remains free he strives for nothing so incessantly and so painfully as to find someone to worship."
I side with Doestoevsky though, - a condemnation, of any institution that would take away an individual’s spiritual freedom in order to create a world with less suffering.
Dostoevsky is telling all of them that institutions and social structures don’t matter if the hearts of the people they serve aren’t free. He is telling us that the creation of a better world doesn’t happen at the level of government and institutions; it happens one human heart at a time. That’s what we live for - freedom to speak, believe, be. That’s what Bishop Alvarez and the journalists and protesters in Nicaragua stand for - the freedom to “live yourself” and become and own your own heart.
I’ve carried this quote by de Tocqueville around for years. It is relevant here. It speaks to what the tyrants always desire and sums up the logic of governments that seek to control their citizens and trade-off freedom, true happiness for safety, security, predictability.
“For their happiness such a government willingly labors …. .it provides for their security, foresees and supplies their necessities, facilitates their pleasures, directs their industry …. — what remains but to spare them all the care of thinking and all the trouble of living? …. Then having taken each member in its grasp ….. covers the surface of society with a network of small complicated rules, minute and uniform, through which the …. most energetic characters cannot penetrate …. The will of man is not broken but softened, bent and guided: men are seldom forced by it to act, but they are constantly restrained from acting; such a power does not destroy, but it prevents existence …. stupefies a people, °till each nation is reduced to be nothing better than a flock of timid and industrious animals, of which the government is the shepherd.”
The argument is basically collectivism against individual sanctity. It is a dualism that hovers over our current century in all forms, in all issues. It’s also probably why the collectivist Pope is quiet about the individual and Christ believing Bishop Alvarez.
“Mere sitting at home and meditating on the divine presence is not enough for our time. We have to come to the end of a long journey and see that the stranger we meet there is no other than ourselves—which is the same as saying that we find Christ in him. For if the Lord is risen, as He said, He is actually or potentially alive in every man.”― Thomas Merton, Mystics and Zen Masters
I am not religious at all. But I do admire those who espouse a religion that preaches personal freedom and liberation - liberation theology. The true message and spirit of Christ. The Berrigans, Desmond Tutu, Jon Sobrino, Gustavo Gutierrez and others. We need this in the world we live, this world, so run amuck with business, money and suck out the life from everything for a dollar bill.
I applaud and even pray for Bishop Alvarez and so many here in Nicaragua. So many living in the Grand Inquisitor’s world but with the hope and strength to one day again, shirk off their “Daniel Samozas” and live as free men, women, and children.
“Faith is rarely where your head is at. Nor is it where your heart is at. Faith is where your ass is at!” Daniel Berrigan
A bit of both. I corrected on the weekend that first line. But the Nat. police justified their kidnapping with "allowing the citizens of Matagalpa to get back to normal life". 3 blocks closed completely. Traffic crawling. Many police elsewhere. I didn't tell my personal story but will once I'm out of the country - now leaving earlier, probably a few weeks. Ask your friends to video the police ... that's all I'll say right now. As to the "long-running battle" - it's not a battle with the church alone. It's power vs the powerlessness (read Havel's seminal book) and the fear to speak or act here is very palpable. I don't advise anyone coming here. I do understand those here with roots, family etc ...
David, I talk with people in Matagalpa every single day, both expats and locals. You are the only one who has said the city is closed. Is that literary license? Yes, there has been a higher level of police presence. It looks like the guards surrounding the Ortega grounds in Managua. People are going and coming, buying and selling, going to their jobs in their open businesses. Police are not stopping those people or detaining them in any way. This has been a long-running battle between Ortega and the Church. . But the only ones targeted or even arrested are those affiliated with the Catholic church.
I'm going to run this by my friends and get their take. Cheers!