Blessed are the peacemakers

After months of silence, the kidnappers of four Christian Peacemaker Team members have said that the hostages will be executed if all the detainees in Iraq were not released. CPT members go to war-torn areas of the world as witnesses to nonviolence. Depending on where they are, they record testimony (CPT members were among the first to report the Abu Ghraib torture), help refugees, and try to build peace in any way they can. They really take the Christian vocation of reconciliation seriously.

It certainly puts a lot of other church nonsense in perspective. Though I doubt I have the courage to do what they do, these people get the gospel, and like many who both get it and live it, they're paying the price.

Remember them--and everyone mired in Iraq--in your prayers. Their names are James Loney, Harmeet Singh Sooden, Tom Fox, and Norman Kember.