It feels like the 1980s again, at least in Nicaragua. The Sandinista National Liberation Front shot its way to power in 1979 to erect a Soviet-backed Marxist dictatorship under Daniel Ortega, which persecuted non-supportive churches. And today, in 2024, the Sandinista regime, still under Ortega and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo, again persecutes churches. Already tormenting the Roman Catholic Church, in August the regime closed 1,500 non-governmental organizations, which included scores of Protestant groups. The closures include property seizures.
Nearly forty percent of Nicaraguans are Evangelicals, while 45 percent are Catholics, as of 2020.
(Read article here.)
Comment by Tim on October 16, 2024 at 11:25 am
Great discussion of today’s situation in Nicaragua. I agree with the assessment of Ortega and applaud the Catholic priests who have suffered greatly standing up for the human rights of the Nicaraguan people under the current Ortega regime. This story needs to be told as much as possible.
I think the discussion of the 1980s needs some more context. The reason the Reagan administration supporting the contras was so controversial is that they were massive human rights abusers. Congress outlawed funding them, so the Reagan people sold guns to Iran on the black market to keep funding the war in Nicaragua. It was not a moment of America being the New Jerusalem by any means.
I think as Americans and Christians, there are two lessons from Nicaragua and from the Cold War in general. The first is that Christians should be on the side of human rights- period. God is bigger than capitalism or communism and the shame of the Guatemalan death squads or the Mai Lai massacre or the Soviet Union shooting down those Korean airplanes and repressing Budapest in 56 and Prague in 68 are what humans are held to account for. Which side you were on in the end was much less important than did you care about human rights. There are Truth and Reconciliation commitees meeting on both sides of the former Iron Curtain today. We condemn both Ceausescu and Pinochet for their crimes.
The second is that we can’t look at the mess in Central America and wash our hands of it and put razor wire across the southern border and pretend that we don’t owe migrants anything. We were deeply involved in making these countries what they are today, and the crisis won’t get better until human rights are respected in them all again. Christians can have a big role to play in that.
Comment by Wilson R. on October 22, 2024 at 11:49 am
I’ve had my share of arguments with American Christians who admired Ernesto Cardenas. Like many revolutionary regimes, the Sandinistas proved to be repressive dictators.
This column, however, promotes by omission the misimpression that the Sandinistas were worse than their predecessor, the murderous Somoza regime, or their rivals, the “contras,” who were actually worse than the Sandinistas.
Tim is right to say that Christians should be on the side of liberation from systems that repress human rights and human dignity. This does not mean that they should support violent revolutions, as some American Christians did in Nicaragua. Violence is the “second wrong” that cannot make a right.
But we must also recognize an unfortunate truth that John Kennedy once articulated: “Those who make peaceful evolution impossible make violent revolution inevitable.” He was speaking of places like Nicaragua and El Salvador and Guatemala. Christians should use what MLK called “soul force” to push for peaceful change.
Meanwhile, some Christians should stop pretending that left-wing dictatorships are somehow less Christian that violent right-wing dictatorships. Mr. Tooley has some ‘splainin to do about his stance on this.