237
francis bok cuts a striking figure six and a half feet tall but with thecharacteristic slimness of his dinka tribe he often leans down to
speak to utter simple words that seem biblical in their cadences and
meaning i am telling my story to free my people in bondage i will
be their voice ” in 1986 when he was seven years old bok was sent by
his mother to the market some distance from his village in southern
sudan shortly after he left home arab militia or murahaliin swept
through the village killing bok’s parents2 and most of the men ab-
ducting many women and children and burning the village down then they hit the market where bok was i heard gunfire then i saw
killing a twelve-year-old girl was crying and they shot her in the
head another girl they shot off her foot i saw this happen ” captured
by the militia bok was sold into slavery to work for an arab herder
who called out his whole family to meet their new acquisition they
all had sticks they all beat me and laughed and called me ‘abid abid ’”
arabic for slave 3 he was made to sleep with the animals and eat scraps
because as his master told him you are an animal ” he worked herd-
ing goats and cattle over miles of pasture and was beaten if any got lost isolated from his family and people he tried to escape but was caught beaten and told he would be killed if he tried again after ten years in
captivity he decided he didn’t care what happened” and escaped for
good fleeing to a refugee camp outside of khartoum but as word of
his story circulated in the camp he was arrested tortured and held in
jail for months finally released he sojourned to cairo and then the
united states barely twenty years old one of the lost boys of sudan ”4
7
gentle as doves wise as
serpents in the sudan battle1
04-184 ch 07 6 25 04 10 33 am page 237
bok is not simply a storyteller recounting the reality of modern
slavery riveting as that is rather he has emerged as another power-
ful christian witness to persecution and a new face in the struggle
for religious freedom and human dignity from midland texas where sunday school children were drawn to him like a magnet to
boston where he carried the olympic torch to washington d c where he testified at congressional hearings—francis bok serves as
an eloquent symbol of the faith-based movement that seeks to mar-
shal american power on behalf of a distant people under siege but
if bok and others in the exile community seem gentle as doves ”
leaders of the sudan campaign had to be wise as serpents” to pre-
vent decimation of the african peoples of sudan the struggle over america’s sudan policy which began in the
early 1990s and accelerated after the passage of the international religious freedom act of 1998 irfa brings into sharp relief my
argument about the role of the new faith-based human rights
movement in american foreign policy it illustrates how global re-
ligious developments penetrate american society resulting in
church-based activism that pours new energy into the human rights
cause the sudan campaign also spotlights the role of religious con-
viction in the politics of human rights widespread atrocities com-
mitted by the regime in khartoum went largely ignored in elite circles until christian solidarity activists and their jewish allies took
up the cause of sudan’s ethnic and religious minorities these ac-
tivists tapped into domestic religious networks to generate a public
groundswell for action and they capitalized on the scaffolding cre-
ated by the irfa to bring pressure on the american government in a sense the faith-based community has plucked the tragedy in
sudan from obscurity and cast it into the light of international at-
tention the sudan campaign also illustrates how the faith-based drive
against religious persecution forges unusual alliances sometimes mis-
cast as a parochial cause of the christian right 5 the sudan cause
weaves evangelicals into coalition with the congressional black cau-
cus catholic bishops jews episcopalians and secular activists ap-
palled by the indifference of the west toward this humanitarian
tragedy the sudan alliance spans the cultural divide with the liberal
238 chapter 7
04-184 ch 07 6 25 04 10 33 am page 238
leaders of reform judaism working side by side with representatives
of the southern baptist convention with creativity and verve the sudan activists employed a variety
of tools—publicity protest grassroots mobilization divestment pres-
sure direct humanitarian aid and legislative sanctions—to alter the
trajectory of sudanese history this campaign culminated in the pas-
sage of the sudan peace act in 2002 which set the stage for a his-
toric 2004 peace treaty between the khartoum regime and southern
rebel groups thousands of former slaves have been manumitted refugees are streaming back and relief supplies now flow to famine-
plagued areas once cut off by the regime providing succor to a peo-
ple long forsaken by the international community 6
in the wake of that stunning achievement conflict erupted in
the western province of darfur and khartoum’s response has been to
unleash attacks on civilians that by the spring of 2004 left thousands
dead and a million displaced not only could this action threaten the
fragile peace in the south 7 it created a humanitarian nightmare that
the international community seems loath to address given an ane-
mic u n response to date united states action is the only thing
averting further catastrophe but sustaining or enhancing costly u s commitments to darfur requires public backing thus the fate of be-
sieged people in sudan to a remarkable degree continues to rest on
the mobilization of american religious constituencies roots and nature of the southern conflict
in its 2002 report the u s commission on international religious
freedom singled out the government of sudan as the world’s most
violent abuser of the right to freedom of religion and belief ”8 colin
powell called sudan the worst human rights nightmare on the
planet ”9 the regime in khartoum earned this dubious distinction by
its attempt to subdue or wipe out minority populations that resist its
domination though periodic conflicts flare among the various peo-
ples of sudan it was khartoum’s policy of forced islamization begin-
ning in 1983 that sparked twenty-year civil war that conflict has
claimed the lives of an estimated two million black african people gentle as doves wise as serpents 239
04-184 ch 07 6 25 04 10 33 am page 239
more fatalities than the conflicts in angola bosnia chechnya kosovo liberia the persian gulf sierra leone somalia and rwanda
put together ”10 in addition as many as five million sudanese—out of
a population of some 30 million—have been displaced the largest per-
centage of the globe’s internally displaced persons these figures come not from the religious advocacy community
but from studies commissioned by the u s committee on refugees a highly respected nonprofit organization millard burr a retired u s foreign service officer who coordinated aid operations in sudan sifted through thousands of pages of materials to come up with these
figures on killed and displaced in a chilling finding burr found that
sudan’s own statistics bureau reported the dramatic shrinking of the
southern african population 11 which gives the lie to those who
charge the faith-based movement with rhetorical excess in depicting
the regime as genocidal 12
despite this toll and despite the fact that khartoum’s leaders de-
clared the war as a means of spreading militant islam into central
africa the conflict in sudan remained africa’s forgotten war”13—
until that is the american religious community engaged the cause the roots of the conflict can be traced as far back as the six-
teenth century when the christian kingdoms of sudan were defeated
by muslims advancing from arabia pushing the dinkas and other
tribes southward 14 since then uneasy relations have existed between
the dominant arabic-speaking people of northern sudan and african
tribes of the south and the nuba mountains though outsiders might
sometimes see similarly dark-skinned people throughout the land the
country is divided both geographically and demographically the
north which contains the capital of khartoum is home to a muslim
population similar to many other north african states the south is
home to various african peoples the largest comprising the dinka 15
the majority of these africans are practitioners of traditional tribal
faiths often termed animists though a substantial number about 20
percent are christians who trace their roots as far back as the sixth cen-
tury 16 the central mountains contain the nuba a nilotic people made
up in roughly equal proportions of christians animists and muslims though missionaries were expelled throughout sudan in 1961 christian churches have thrived in the south and probably constitute
240 chapter 7
04-184 ch 07 6 25 04 10 33 am page 240
the most organized sector of the besieged african population catholics and anglicans comprise the majority of this christian pop-
ulation though evangelical groups are notable as we will see church-based advocacy is shaped by these demographic patterns as
global christian groups articulate concerns of the broader african
population in sudan including non-christians long-standing rivalries in sudan intensified when in the wake
of the iranian revolution militant fundamentalist movements spread
among the arab population in response khartoum imposed a rigid
form of islamic law or shari’a in 1983 which shattered the uneasy
peace between the regions non-muslims rebelled joined even by
some african muslims who resisted the contagion” of fundamen-
talism that khartoum sought to spread 17 rebels coalesced in several
sometimes competing groups the most prominent being the sudan
people’s liberation army spla and allied political movement splm hopes for settlement were raised in 1989 when a newly
elected government was scheduled to rescind shari’a and grant
greater autonomy to the south those hopes were dashed when gen-
eral umar al-bashir seized power in a coup and redoubled the effort
to unite the nation under the fundamentalist banner forging an al-
liance with the militant national islamic front nif which had
never enjoyed electoral popularity but moved with alacrity to spread
its severe version of the faith the result public floggings and am-
putations including cross-amputation ” the cutting off of the right
hand and left foot returned to the stadium in khartoum osama bin
laden was welcomed into the country and sudan strengthened its
ties with iran iraq which it supported in the persian gulf war and
libya—all countries that provided material and moral support for
sudan’s war against the south ”18 though sudan has not received the
same attention as regimes in iran and afghanistan its attempt to is-
lamicize an unwilling people has been especially brutal declaring its campaign a holy war the regime has waged its jihad
mostly against noncombatants attacking undefended villages burning
huts and crops indiscriminately killing civilians especially men and ab-
ducting women and children to minimize threats to its own military the regime has enlisted militias or popular defense forces from among
the arab herders or baggara traditionally competitors with the dinka
gentle as doves wise as serpents 241
04-184 ch 07 6 25 04 10 33 am page 241
for land in lieu of pay the government encouraged these militias to
seize whatever loot they could capture including human beings thus
rekindling the infamous arab slave trade of generations past calculations of the numbers of enslaved vary with estimates
from the tens of thousands to upwards of a hundred thousand 19
christian relief organizations provide crucial documentation of ab-
ductions in remote places illustrating the unique role of faith-based
networks in human rights advocacy through its extensive contacts
on the ground for example christian solidarity international reports
that over 25 000 children from the sudan’s nuba mountains have
been kidnapped and sold as slaves the un commission on human
rights has received reports citing the locations of camps where peo-
ple from northern sudan and abroad came to purchase captured
christians and animists as slaves 20 these ill-fated souls were often
branded to identify them as property and maimed to prevent their es-
cape often they are given new muslim names and subjected to other
forms of acculturation” to the dominant north islamization and
arabization un special rapporteur for human rights gaspar
biro who began documenting the growing slave trade in 1994 noted
the brutal extremes this practice could take he reported one instance
in which twelve adults and children were executed for refusing to
convert 21
the sudanese military facilitated slaving by providing slow-
moving trains on which the militia can load their human cargo for
shipment to markets in the north in a haunting echo of the euro-
pean holocaust some sudanese advocates have demanded that these
train lines be bombed to inhibit the traffic to slave markets among the thousands abducted women and girls are often
raped and forced to undergo ritual genital mutilation and become
concubines african slaves are commonly branded beaten given
muslim names and forced to renounce their faith horrendous
abuses from the cutting of achilles tendons to crucifixions have been
documented 22 here again christian watchdog groups ensured that
abuses would not go unreported by providing meticulous documen-
tation field researchers for csi conducted over a thousand face-to-
face interviews with recently freed slaves for a report issued in july
2003 see table 7 1 242 chapter 7
04-184 ch 07 6 25 04 10 33 am page 242
the regime also has employed scorched earth policies to manu-
facture famine burning crops killing livestock and scattering people many of whom starve or die of exposure it has manipulated the un
famine relief effort operation lifeline sudan ols by denying the
united nations access to the very regions most threatened by mass
starvation massive population displacements have resulted from mil-
itary campaigns aimed at terrorizing the population hundreds of
thousands of refugees have been herded into orwellian peace
camps ” fetid places where many have died in some cases refugees are
told to convert to islam or starve emaciated women have sold their
babies in the hope of preserving their progeny who are then raised as
muslims summarizing the situation congressman spencer bachus r-al notes that many sudanese are given a simple choice they
are either told to embrace the state-sponsored faith or die ”23
though the regime targets animists and muslims who resist its
fundamentalism it has literally attempted to wipe out christianity which historically provided the cultural glue for the south though
underreported in the elite press which often depicted the struggle as ethnic” strife this story of religious persecution has been prodigiously
documented by a succession of un rapporteurs the u s committee
on refugees congressional hearings and the commission on interna-
tional religious freedom 24 it has also been widely publicized in
christian and jewish circles galvanizing a movement from the pews of
the american heartland demanding a vigorous american response the regime in khartoum beset by economic and political problems has also exploited a latent sentiment of racial and religious gentle as doves wise as serpents 243
table 7 1 survey of freed sudanese slaves
among total respondents 96 said they were forced laborers
96 said they were beaten frequently
60 said they were forced to convert to islam
among women and girls 70 said they had been raped
60 said they had been gang-raped
n  1 306
source christian solidarity international survey released by
freedom house july 7 2003 04-184 ch 07 6 25 04 10 33 am page 243
superiority among muslim arabs and fueled it into a full-fledge ideol-
ogy that justifies subjugation of the less developed and supposedly in-
ferior african people 25 when northerners contemptuously refer to
africans—whether christian muslim or animist—as abeed the term is
used interchangeably for blacks” and slaves ” osama bin laden who
was a guest of the regime for several years himself reportedly used the
epithet and employed slaves suggesting that racism was incorporated
into his militant fundamentalist ideology 26
this regime’s terror has also spilled out of sudan khartoum has
armed and financed the notorious lord’s resistance army which
conducts raids against southern sudanese from its base in uganda this bizarre paramilitary cult has wreaked havoc in northern
uganda abducting thousands of children to fill its army and render-
ing the region almost ungovernable 27
there is a word for a campaign of massacres terror manufactured
famine concentration camps enslavement abduction of children and
forced conversions it is genocidal some take issue with activists’ use of
the term 28 but it was meticulous documentation that led the u s committee on refugees to produce reports quantifying genocide ”
the u s holocaust museum’s committee of conscience to issue a genocide alert” on sudan and the commission on international re-
ligious freedom to depict regime actions as genocidal 29
to be sure rebel abuses and factional fighting among the tribes
in the south have also contributed to the misery of the sudanese peo-
ple leading some commentators to equate atrocities committed by
both sides of the conflict the liberal washington office on africa for example once reported that factional fighting in the south was re-
sponsible for more deaths than direct clashes between sudanese gov-
ernment forces and southern rebels 30 this could only conceivably be
the case if restricted to combat deaths as opposed to the vast majority
killed through manufactured famine ethnic cleansing and exposure moreover as the committee of conscience reported the govern-
ment of khartoum bears the lion’s share of responsibility for the
many fatalities in the south because it has used a divide-to-destroy
strategy to pit ethnic groups against each other ”31 as sudanese
catholic bishop macram gassis observed while rebel forces may
commit atrocities only khartoum has demanded that his people re-
244 chapter 7
04-184 ch 07 6 25 04 10 33 am page 244
nounce their african heritage if we will not change it will kill us
or starve us to death or put us in chains ”32
the silence of the west why is the destruction of a black civilization unimportant to us ”33
variations of that plaintive question echo often among sudanese ac-
tivists given the staggering dimensions of the sudan tragedy one
might expect blistering press exposés numerous broadcast stories and
human rights protests from the west instead a deadly silence” for
years characterized the western response to be sure human rights
groups did report on abuses but we saw no hew and cry comparable
to the antiapartheid cause in south africa nothing akin even to criti-
cism of israeli treatment of palestinians 34 news coverage even after the
faith-based movement took up the cause remained amazingly spotty as noted in chapter 3 charles jacobs offers until atrocities in
darfur sparked international attention an explanation for this si-
lence ” he argues that a syndrome afflicts the progressive human rights
community and their media allies in which the depth of outrage has
everything to do with who the victimizer is rather than what is being
done against the victimized 35 thus people of southern sudan are
abandoned in the worst circumstances because they don’t have the
good luck to have the right oppressor ”36 if such widespread atrocities
against a black african population were committed by a white gov-
ernment instead of an arab muslim one there would be massive in-
ternational outcry and mobilization against the economic and military
foundations of the regime but because the raison d’être of traditional
human rights groups is expiation for the sins of the west he argues many rights violations go undisturbed 37
while rights groups dispute this analysis their most vigorous and
worthy exposure of sudanese atrocities came back when khartoum
ravaged the muslim population of darfur thus while the sudan
coalition was depicted as parochial because some of its members stress
sufferings of the christian population the movement actually oper-
ated with a more universal human rights vision because it focused
mostly on what was being done to the oppressed gentle as doves wise as serpents 245
04-184 ch 07 6 25 04 10 33 am page 245
christian solidarity connections
the plight of the southern sudanese people would have remained in
the backwater of american concern had not the christian solidarity
movement picked up the case such groups as csi christian solidar-
ity worldwide samaritan’s purse servant’s heart and safe harbor international highlighted abuses and facilitated ties between sudanese
religious leaders and american church networks from the mid-1990s onward for example catholic and angli-
can bishops from sudan have been feted in american tours of church
networks the work of faith mcdonnell a conservative episcopalian
raised in the salvation army illustrates how these connections oper-
ate she has been the frequent host of such anglican bishops as bullen
dolli and henry riak taking them on american tours and enabling
them to share harrowing stories of the persecution of their african
people mcdonnell evokes the unique blend of the spiritual and po-
litical in the movement an earnest christian she speaks in personal
terms about the suffering of her brothers and sisters in sudan but her
soft-spoken voice belies a steely determination to hold the regime to
account as mcdonnell organizes routine protests with exiles in front
of the sudanese embassy 38
mcdonnell’s effort in the episcopal community also illustrates
how the sudan cause unites an otherwise divided church she works
for the institute on religion and democracy a washington d c think tank that frequently criticizes the liberal stands taken by the
american episcopal hierarchy but on sudan she and tom hart the
director of the washington episcopal office shared similar positions taking his cues from the sudanese anglican community hart was a
strong backer of the sudan peace act and helped enlist fellow main-
line leaders to join a coalition they previously eschewed 39
the most vivid illustration of how international church linkages
propel the movement is the work of sudanese catholic bishop
macram gassis of el obeid who has gained an international plat-
form to champion his besieged people like bishop tutu in south
africa gassis moves between worlds serving as a religious leader of
his flock and as an international spokesman for their plight his dio-
cese is larger than italy covering a good portion of south and central
246 chapter 7
04-184 ch 07 6 25 04 10 33 am page 246
sudan the very area afflicted by the devastation he is particularly
formidable because he grew up in khartoum as an arabic speaker one who should identify” with the north instead he has become next to spla leader john garang the most visible opponent of the
fundamentalist regime a passionate articulate and sophisticated
spokesman gassis draws upon religious linkages in europe and the
united states to generate pressure on the bashir regime and to raise
monetary support for relief and development on his pastoral trips to
sudan he has taken religious leaders human rights activists and con-
gressional staff members flying into unsecured areas under threat
from attack by khartoum military in a crucial way gassis is a channel between his african people
and the global catholic church in one of many vignettes gassis is-
sued a blistering statement when he learned of the apparently inten-
tional bombing of a catholic school and other civilian sites in the
nuba mountains in february 2000 with deep grief and dismay i have learned from my diocesan staff that
the islamic fundamentalist regime of khartoum has once again un-
leashed its deadly bombers on the innocent civilian population of the
nuba mountains i have time and time again told the world that
the national islamic front regime in khartoum has been and is con-
ducting a campaign of genocide aimed at exterminating the christian african and non-arab populations of sudan in order to establish a
uniform arab-islamic fundamentalist state in the heart of africa we cannot bring back the fourteen children martyred under the trees
of kauda there are many rachels there today weeping for their chil-
dren what we can do is call upon the international community to re-
fuse to stand idly by while the african and christian peoples of sudan
are exterminated 40
this kind of eloquent witness helped spur condemnation of the
regime by pope john paul ii along with action by leaders of the u s catholic bishops who sent delegations to sudan testified before
congress and publicized their findings in local catholic publications
around the country 41
gassis also moves in lay religious circles which led to the cre-
ation of his american relief foundation from the mid-1990s on-
ward nina shea one of his key american compatriots introduced
gentle as doves wise as serpents 247
04-184 ch 07 6 25 04 10 33 am page 247
him to a wide network of activists among those was william saun-
ders an attorney then with the liberal lawyers committee on hu-
man rights the meeting changed saunders life and provided a way
for him to respond to a deepening sense of religious calling a devout
roman catholic saunders ultimately left the lawyers committee
and joined the evangelically based family research council to work
on the sudan cause here we see another illustration of how an ec-
umenism of suffering” emerged in the nascent movement with
catholics working comfortably with evangelicals to advance religious
freedom bishop gassis asked saunders to set up a foundation—the
bishop gassis sudan relief fund—designed to channel supplies to
the besieged nuba mountains saunders also promoted bishop gas-
sis’s work in numerous outlets writing articles from the battle zone
with such titles as the slaughter of the innocents ” christmas in
sudan ” and grace still more abounds ”42
by the late 1990s the growing advocacy infrastructure in wash-
ington created a ready audience for bishop gassis and other sudanese
advocates bishop gassis was the first individual to testify before the
u s commission on international religious freedom he spoke at
the u s holocaust museum met with senior administration officials
and members of congress and traveled extensively around the coun-
try to promote his cause what makes his story compelling is that ac-
cording to saunders bishop gassis is under criminal indictment by
khartoum and because of death threats travels under heavy guard
when ministering to his flock indeed he is now located in nairobi kenya having been forced from the country described as tireless and
inspiring by numerous activists he was given the wilberforce award
by charles colson’s prison fellowship international for promoting
religious freedom in his country 43 a powerful video documentary
about his work in the nuba mountains is now commonly featured
at numerous events around the united states spotlighting the plight
of the persecuted church it highlights the fact that the muslim christian and animist nuba people had lived in reasonable harmony
with one another before the war and now suffer equally under attacks
from the north 44
as gassis’s story illustrates one of the crucial contributions of
the new movement in the american religious community was to
248 chapter 7
04-184 ch 07 6 25 04 10 33 am page 248
spotlight the religious dimension to the war in sudan some secular
human rights groups had reported on aspects of the tragedy the war
was producing and state department reports highlighted human
rights abuses but as nina shea observed what was missing was an
appreciation for the religious basis of the conflict to sudanese in the
south and the nuba mountains the religious dimension was clear khartoum intended to eradicate the non-muslim presence in the
country yet this was not appreciated in the west a pivotal moment that crystallized this realization and sparked
the emergence of the sudan coalition occurred in 1998 a famine
was spreading across southern sudan and the response of the gov-
ernment in khartoum was to ban international relief flights in effect
seizing the opportunity to manufacture starvation as a tool of war as
shea recounts khartoum’s ban on relief flights to famine-stricken ar-
eas in 1998 brought two and half million to the brink of starvation ”
and the un didn’t raise a word of protest ” it was clear to her that
the government of sudan saw the famine as a means of subjugating
religious minorities as part of its jihad ” but others did not under-
stand this awful reality the more i looked at it i was astonished it
gentle as doves wise as serpents 249
bishop gassis with two parishioners in the nuba mountains sudan courtesy of
williams saunders family research council 04-184 ch 07 6 25 04 10 33 am page 249
was about religion and no one was saying that at the time nobody
but nobody was saying that ”45 instead others were describing the
conflict as ethnic or as a battle over pastureland or water rights—
concerns that would fail to elicit as much of a reaction from policy-
makers as religious genocide in response shea wrote a guest editorial in the wall street jour-
nal in the summer of 1998 titled a war on religion ” which traced
the tragedy to the military leaders’ attempts at forced islamization shea argued that if the religious freedom coalition is to remain a se-
rious force it must now take up the challenge of seeking an end to
the genocide in sudan ” nowhere in today’s world ” she concluded is religious persecution more appalling ”46 this conclusion ulti-
mately would be echoed in government and commission reports and
news stories a vindication of the efforts by the religious community
to clarify the stakes of the conflict slave redemption to free god’s children
one linkage between western groups and sudanese people involved
slave redemption as a response to the slave trade that emerged over
the course of the civil war the effort began as african family mem-
bers journeyed across porous front lines or engaged go-betweens” to
buy their relatives’ freedom 47 they ultimately appealed to bishop
gassis and other local leaders to try to find and return their relatives
held captive these leaders enlisted arab middlemen to redeem slaves
for payment among the slaves of course were many christians shocked by this brutal system of modern slavery some christ-
ian advocacy groups inaugurated their own effort to free these children of god” by systematic redemption efforts the most aggressive has been swiss-based csi 48 heading the effort is john
eibner an american with considerable academic credentials in in-
ternational affairs 49 who at the invitation of the new sudan coun-
cil of churches established the first western-organized presence in
1992 implored by local people seeking to secure freedom for fam-
ily members in bondage eibner began redemption initiatives in
1995 raising money in the west and operating through a complex
250 chapter 7
04-184 ch 07 6 25 04 10 33 am page 250
network of local contacts eibner traveled thirty-five times to su-
dan between 1995 and 2003 often dodging enemy fire and endur-
ing harsh conditions he documents redeeming over 80 000 sudanese slaves during that time and evocative photographs of
these transactions circulate widely 50 his evident courage and re-
sourcefulness have earned eibner enormous respect in religious cir-
cles and in the wider movement charles jacobs says that eibner
makes him think of the jewish legend of a few undiscovered holy
men who hold up the world ”51
the practice of slave redemption has sparked controversy unicef head carol bellamy denounced the practice arguing that
no organization should take part in any such transaction unicef’s
credibility on the issue however was undermined by its complicity
with khartoum’s manipulation of food aid and its silence on slavery 52
more devastating were press exposés which claimed that this infusion
of western money led to corruption and even scams where rebel of-
ficials arrange for people to pose as abductees to inflate the number
of slaves for redemption 53 even sympathetic christian advocates ac-
knowledge the potential for problems anytime you have tens of
thousands of american dollars coming into an area you’ve got po-
tential problems of corruption ”54 other activists noted that slave re-
demption won’t save sudan ” implying that it might siphon energies
from more long-term solutions 55
in the wake of negative press reports a number of sudanese
leaders and activists rushed to defend the work of john eibner not-
ing that he undertakes extensive safeguards against abuse56 and that
many of the redeemed slaves have been held for years and show man-
ifest signs of abuse 57 bishop gassis pointedly criticized news orga-
nizations for failing to interview redeemed slaves and slave retrievers or to report the research by arab and dinka scholars who regularly
witness the redemption efforts of csi 58
eibner feels vindicated by events on the ground between
2001 2003 slave redemptions accelerated even as slave raids dimin-
ished with cease-fire agreements rather than fuel a market” for
slaves therefore eibner believes that redemption made slaving more politically expensive” by embarrassing the sudanese government
and shaming slave owners with exposure 59 when the peace process
gentle as doves wise as serpents 251
04-184 ch 07 6 25 04 10 33 am page 251
created a window of opportunity his organization was able to gain
the voluntary manumission of 6 000 slaves in march of 2003 60 after
this eibner declared the time ripe for a mass exodus of slaves ”61 and
he gained the participation of unicef in identifying and repatriat-
ing those freed 62
slave redemption also personalized the issue by providing the
pictures without slave redemption ” jacobs argues there would
not have been the sudan movement ”63 a great example is the case
of barbara vogel a colorado grade school teacher who saw a photo-
graph in a local newspaper of a beautiful black girl who had been
freed after seven years of slavery ” the next day vogel read the story
to her fifth-grade class and many began to cry ” and they asked what are we going to do about this ” she investigated possibilities
and found out about csi’s slave redemption effort in a widely re-
ported story vogel’s students raised over $50 000 for csi which reported redeeming over 1 000 slaves with the money 64 vogel’s stu-
dents also created an organization sent letters to political leaders and
celebrities and became featured guests at national events designed to
raise public awareness about the crisis in sudan their initiative
sparked similar efforts around the country leading vogel to estimate
that her kids helped redeem over 9 000 slaves 65 a resolution passed
by congress praised vogel’s students as america’s little abolitionists ”
and a flag was raised over the capitol in their honor on february 25 1999 66
the cause of sudanese slaves was especially publicized through
christian networks a staff member for senator sam brownback put
sudan coalition members in contact with the makers of the popular
television program touched by an angel 67 this led to a washington
meeting in which nina shea and other advocates provided producer
chris williamson and star roma downey with background for a
planned episode on slavery in sudan shea helped write the script which included numerous themes of the coalition’s struggle in one of
the most watched episodes of 1999 the drama featured a plot about a
female united states senator whose son becomes involved in a school
fund-raising effort like vogel’s class to purchase freedom for su-
danese slaves graphic descriptions of civil war atrocities slave beat-
ings and sexual chattel were interspersed in the episode with depic-
252 chapter 7
04-184 ch 07 6 25 04 10 33 am page 252
tions of the insider world of power politics in washington morally
challenged by the angel the senator ultimately overcomes lobby pres-
sure and travels to sudan to personally redeem slaves and thereby ex-
pose the horror of such practice in the climax actual sudanese exiles
were featured as redeemed slaves returning to their homes 68
one of the most powerful impacts of the slave issue not surpris-
ingly involves the black community in the early phases of the sudan
campaign black support was limited to disparate leaders such as anti-
slavery activist samuel cotton congressman donald payne d-nj and chuck singleton pastor of the largest african american congre-
gation in southern california beyond these voices the plight of black
africans in southern sudan received scant attention by the american
civil rights establishment and major black political leaders critics
charged that such figures as the reverend jesse jackson remained
silent on atrocities in sudan for fear of offending muslim allies 69
but as faith-based advocacy groups kept documenting slave trad-
ing and other atrocities of the regime black preachers with huge
gentle as doves wise as serpents 253
faith mcdonnell of the institute on religion and democracy with rt reverend peter
munde bishop of yambio southern sudan a young activist rt reverend enock
drati bishop of madi and west nile and rt reverend henry orombi bishop of
nebbi uganda at the time of the photo now archbishop of uganda courtesy of
faith mcdonnell the institute on religion and democracy 04-184 ch 07 6 25 04 10 33 am page 253
congregations and broadcast ministries increasingly mobilized their
followers to join the cause and prodded others into action at a may
2000 rally pastor singleton joined an illustrious assembly of black
clergy to kick off a publicity campaign for stock divestment and con-
gressional legislation at the rally and press conference the reverend
t d jakes a prominent broadcast preacher from dallas chided black
political leaders by proclaiming that the silence of the righteous is
fuel of the wicked ” the reverend marvin williams head of an al-
liance of fifty black churches in atlanta explicitly challenged jesse
jackson with the pointed rhetorical query where is action jack-
son ” and reverend marvin faulkner of new york city announced
a forty-day hunger strike to pique the conscience of his black broth-
ers and sisters 70
pressure on established black leaders mounted as in characteris-
tic social movement fashion new leaders emerged fired by fresh en-
ergy and passion one such figure is reverend gloria white ham-
mond of the bethel african methodist episcopal church of boston who was enlisted into the cause by charles jacobs of the american
anti-slavery group aasg she took a series of trips sponsored by csi to sudan—trips that received coverage in such national outlets
as nbc and the today show her story was especially compelling be-
cause hammond a pediatrician gave medical attention to ex-slaves
disfigured by abuse such as an eleven-year-old boy who had his nose
cut off for losing a cow 71
the odyssey of joe madison a popular radio personality in
washington d c known as the black eagle” 72 also illustrates
how faith-based networks operate to expand awareness madison
knew little about sudan until he saw an interview with charles ja-
cobs on a weekly pbs program devoted to african american issues 73 stunned to hear of slavery in sudan and mauritania madi-
son began attending capitol hill briefings organized by the sudan
coalition what immediately attracted him to the movement was its
bipartisan flavor especially at the time when president bill clinton’s
impeachment produced a poisonous partisanship atmosphere in
washington d c 74
at one such meeting john eibner approached madison to ask would you like to go to the war zone ” in a life-altering move 254 chapter 7
04-184 ch 07 6 25 04 10 33 am page 254
madison traveled with eibner to sudan in the fall of 2001 then re-
turned on a second trip in the spring of 2002 with former congress-
man and civil rights legend walter fauntroy 75 the experience of
personally witnessing the redemption of over 7 000 slaves shook”
madison to the marrow” of his bones ” trying not to sound melo-
dramatic he describes how he literally fell to his knees when he first
beheld the sight of so many black africans huddled under trees in the
bush waiting to be freed watching the emotional reunions with fam-
ily members he recalls seeing the face of a man who looking for his
wife and daughter discovered his mother too 76
madison’s return from these trips produced moments of high
drama in the nation’s capital beginning with testimony before the
congressional caucus on human rights on april 26 2001 with his
deep baritone radio voice resounding through the room madison
captured the experience after trekking through mud heat flies mosquitoes my eyes saw a scene
that could have been staged for the movie roots except it was real it was
as if someone had placed me in a time machine and sent me back four
hundred years to an african slave trade and i was witnessing the slavery
of my ancestors it was surreal thousands of human souls black africans citizens of their own country dirty sick and hungry in the scorching sun waiting under the branches of a huge tree to be liberated 77
madison described gruesome evidence of atrocities committed
against these people many of whom he interviewed and he then
closed with the words of frederick douglas slavery is the common
enemy of all mankind the slave is part of the human family slavery
is a system of such gigantic evil that no one nation is equal to its re-
moval it requires the humanity of all of us and the morality of the
world to remove it ” as soon as madison finished speaking a dinka
woman stood up in the hearing room and sang a liberation song in
her african tongue to a stunned and silent audience 78
madison acknowledges the obvious racial dimension to his in-
volvement the sense of solidarity with black africans but he also
points to his christian convictions he is very much a part of the faith-
based constituency in the sudan campaign and his credibility helped
overcome reticence in black circles to join a coalition that included
gentle as doves wise as serpents 255
04-184 ch 07 6 25 04 10 33 am page 255 christian right” figures black leaders would say to madison in ef-
fect if you say it is so we believe what should we do ”79
crucial to the sudan campaign was the engagement of the
african american elite at the naacp the urban league and the
congressional black caucus in classic social movement fashion the
black leadership had to hear from multiple sources—from black
clergy antislavery activists a handful of congressional leaders and
prominent sudan activists thus charles jacobs booked francis bok
at black churches joe madison personally enlisted colleagues and
rabbi david saperstein who sat on the board of the naacp vig-
orously made the case for that organization to embrace the struggle when kweisi mfume head of the naacp publicly criticized sudan that sent a signal that the movement was achieving a critical mass 80
the growing engagement of african american leaders of
course produced one of the most striking strange bedfellows” coali-
tions in recent history as such figures as kweisi mfume eleanor
holmes norton walter fauntroy and reverend al sharpton joined
evangelical leaders and staunch conservatives in congress81 in calling
for tough u s action against the national islamic front regime rev-
erend sharpton who had taken a trip to sudan at madison’s urging announced that the thought of running for president occurred to
him while on a trip to sudan sparking jesse jackson to break his deafening silence ”82 an astonished michael horowitz mused who would have thought that al sharpton would be challenging
jesse jackson for the leadership role in the american black commu-
nity over the issue of sudan ”83
this alliance was embodied in specific tactics to challenge in-
different administration policies toward the victims of a holocaust in
sudan ” madison and fauntroy joined horowitz in a good friday
2001 protest at the sudanese embassy where they chained themselves
to a fence post and were arrested while waiting in the detention cell
madison and horowitz began engaging in a bit of competitive brag-
gadocio about who they could get to represent them with horowitz
saying he knew ken starr and madison responding that he knew
johnny cochran then it dawned on them that this would be a legal dream team ” and to their delight both starr and cochran jumped
at the opportunity to serve as cocounsels in a public relations twist 256 chapter 7
04-184 ch 07 6 25 04 10 33 am page 256
the trio decided that starr would represent madison and fauntroy
and johnny cochran would represent horowitz though the new
york times ignored the story it did receive major play in the wash-
ington papers and in religious presses that highlighted the emerging
coalition of black leaders and conservative christians demanding u s action against sudanese atrocities photographs of the three chained
to the embassy and then surrounded by counsels and sudanese exiles
outside of d c district court circulated widely 84 it’s not going to be
these three gentlemen on trial ” johnnie cochran promised in an-
nouncing the legal strategy it’s going to be the sudanese govern-
ment ”85 fearing a show trial prosecutors dropped charges against the
three but other arrests and demonstrations followed including one
in which congressman donald payne d-nj and pentecostal min-
ister and journalist barbara reynolds were handcuffed and pushed
into the paddy wagon” after their protest at the sudanese embassy 86
raising public awareness
as the above vignettes indicate a major goal of the movement was
raising the profile of the cause one of the earliest and most effective
efforts at publicizing the sudan tragedy was undertaken by the
boston-based aasg the human rights organization founded by
charles jacobs and devoted to fighting global slavery in its diverse
forms 87
jacobs who is jewish came to the cause in 1994 when he read a
small item in the economist magazine about the purchase of slaves in
sudan appalled by this report of modern slavery his first response was
to call his congressman barney frank a liberal democrat from mas-
sachusetts and nat hentoff the civil liberties columnist for village
voice both said they would investigate but encouraged him to take up
the cause so he started making phone calls met people from sudan
and mauritania did research ” and wrote a piece on slavery in north
africa in the new york times 88 surprised when his op-ed piece failed
to arouse other human rights and civil rights organizations he
founded the aasg in 1995 which he has directed ever since ex-
panding the mission far beyond africa 89
gentle as doves wise as serpents 257
04-184 ch 07 6 25 04 10 33 am page 257
though not overtly religious in orientation the focus of aasg
naturally drew jacobs into the sudan coalition he has taken delega-
tions to sudan written op-ed pieces for boston newspapers and en-
listed others to the cause through nationwide e-mail blitzes from the
start he attempted to get around the ideological blindness and ob-
stinacy” of secular human rights groups by appealing to the decent
left ” especially as represented in african american and jewish circles jacob’s singular contribution involved putting a human face to the
tragedy by sponsoring sudanese exiles to share their stories echoing
nineteenth-century slave narratives these testimonials resonated
powerfully in american religious circles but they were also aired in
congressional hearings and news outlets his success was recognized
when coretta scott king widow of dr martin luther king jr pre-
sented jacobs with the boston freedom award in 2000 90
the saga of francis bok illustrates how jacobs capitalized on
faith-based networks to magnify the voices of ex-slaves after bok left
cairo as a un refugee ” he was resettled in north dakota by
lutheran social services and he later moved to iowa out of the blue
bok got a call requesting that he come to boston it turns out that the
man who filled out bok’s un forms in cairo was now working for
lutheran social services in boston and had passed along his name to
staff at the aasg 91 with great reluctance bok finally agreed to meet
with officials of the organization a decision that transformed his life in boston bok was overwhelmed to discover offices teeming
with activity on sudan photographs of dinka people on the walls americans who understood bok agreed to move to boston and
work for the aasg by sharing his story understanding the power of
bok’s testimonial jacobs arranged for his first speech at a large
african american congregation in boston which was packed be-
cause of publicity that an ex-slave would be speaking when the
nervous bok finished the crowd roared and wept and laid hands”
on him 92 though bok spoke in diverse settings from then on jacobs
noticed that the greatest impact was in jewish congregations and
black churches people weep ” observed jacobs when bok implores
them to free my people ” when he reminds them that god opened
the red sea” for the hebrews but has yet to open it for my peo-
ple ”93 bok went on to speak at congressional hearings activist events 258 chapter 7
04-184 ch 07 6 25 04 10 33 am page 258
rock concerts and even the kennedy school of government at har-
vard at which an official of the clinton administration found herself
grilled about the president’s silence” on sudan 94
jacobs also sponsored abuk bak who was featured in the feb-
ruary 2002 issue of ladies home journal a magazine with a circulation
of 30 million millions of potential readers saw the photograph of this
delicate young woman and read her riveting account of how in 1987 at age twelve she witnessed the killing of her kinfolk in the chris-
tian village of achuru” and suffered abduction she described how
troops threw ropes around our necks and began dragging us along
like animals ” perhaps more than a hundred women and children on
a long journey to a stockade a holding pen for the slave market she
was then sold into a life of unrelenting misery i lived the life of a slave ahmed would wake me up before sunrise and
if i rose too slowly he’d hit me with a stick i was given a little food and
then sent to the fields to herd cows and goats all day at sunset i was al-
lowed to come back but was only given the family’s leftovers for dinner after i finished i’d have to wash clothes sometimes ahmed made me
work for 24 hours straight i was so lonely there were no other slaves
nearby so i didn’t know anyone who spoke my language 95
in an echo of francis bok she spoke on behalf of those who can-
not escape i know i am one of the lucky ones ”96
the growing publicity about the sudan tragedy brought into the
coalition activists who propelled the cause in different ways one of the
most fascinating is a seemingly unlikely activist a professor of english
literature at smith college eric reeves the unusual turn of events
that led him to raise public awareness on sudan illustrates how activists
largely outside of the religious world joined the faith-based coalition 97
a child of the sixties and conscientious objector” during the
vietnam war reeves still proudly carries his draft card designation oddly it was a hobby that turned his conscience to sudan when
he wasn’t teaching shakespeare or milton reeves developed such
skill as a master wood turner that his works sell in major galleries he donates the proceeds to doctors without borders to build
cholera hospitals in africa in 1998 that organization reported to
contributors that the invisible tragedy” of sudan was the most un-
gentle as doves wise as serpents 259
04-184 ch 07 6 25 04 10 33 am page 259
derreported humanitarian crisis of the year and something clicked” for reeves here was the greatest humanitarian crisis of
the last half-century ” as reeves recalls thinking a morally unam-
biguous situation” that cried out for response 98
riveted by the human rights tragedy taking place and disturbed
by the lack of response in elite intellectual circles reeves decided to
devote his 1999 sabbatical leave99 to seeing what he could do he did
research met with other activists and sudanese exiles and discovered
a flair for writing opinion and analyses unwilling to give up his full-
time commitment to the sudan cause he took another year’s leave
from academe’s ivy walls by mortgaging his house as he quipped what are home equity loans for ”100 even when he returned to
teaching reeves continued working intensely to raise awareness of
the sudan tragedy in effect working two jobs reeves saw meticulous documentation of facts as his stock-in-
trade a way to buoy the legitimacy of the movement 101 this leads
260 chapter 7
a professor of english literature at smith college eric reeves relentlessly documented
human rights abuses by the government of sudan in riveting prose reeves warned of
looming ethnic cleansing in the western region of darfur a year before the issue
received wide international attention in 2004 courtesy of eric reeves 04-184 ch 07 6 25 04 10 33 am page 260
him to caution against loose activist claims such as the assertion that
sometimes circulated among evangelicals that the two million killed
in sudan were all christians but reeves was not shy from employing
potent rhetoric himself particularly drawn to the economic aspects
of the conflict he mastered the complexities of capital markets and
sudanese politics to produce trenchant reports that accused corpora-
tions with complicity in genocide see box 7 1 as of 2003 he had
penned over eighty op-ed pieces in such outlets as the washington
post the wall street journal and the los angeles times along with ma-
jor newspapers in canada and europe he also uses a system of e-mail
broadsides twice a week that go out directly to hundreds of jour-
nalists nongovernmental organizations religious leaders politicians governmental officials and human rights groups circulated widely
through the networks of freedom house the aasg and religious
organizations these reports not only raise awareness but link condi-
tions in sudan with recommendations for tough economic and gentle as doves wise as serpents 261
box 7 1 eric reeves intellectual publicist genocidal ambition on the new york stock exchange ” intellectual capital november 11 1999 don’t let oil revenues in sudan fuel genocide ” globe and mail canada may 4 1999 sudan’s genocidal oil it’s time to divest ” los angeles times august 30 1999 the netherlands to ship genocidal oil ” trouw the netherlands sep-
tember 4 1999 mr clinton’s broken promise on african genocide ” sunday tribute no-
vember 28 1999 goldman sachs china national petroleum corp and the destruction of
sudan ” newark star-ledger april 27 2000 a un seat for genocide ” washington post august 15 2000 oil and human destruction in sudan ” los angeles times june 4 2001 capital crime in sudan ” washington post august 20 2001 the terror in sudan ” washington post july 6 2002 a brutal regime persists in a distracted world ” international herald tribune united kingdom april 2 2003 sudan the unsung evils are rewarded ” philadelphia inquirer may 27 2003 these are a sample of the eighty-plus editorials penned by eric reeves smith college professor of seventeenth-century english literature who uses his academic flair for research and writing to high-
light the plight of african sudanese and to promote tough measures against the regime 04-184 ch 07 6 25 04 10 33 am page 261
political action that would undermine the regime’s incentive to con-
tinue the war reeves works with a wide array of religious leaders from liberal
to conservative so he thinks the strange bedfellows” aspect of the
coalition is overdrawn but his research naturally connects him with
those evangelical christian groups that operate in sudan because they
provide essential on-the-ground information one of his closest con-
tacts is the field director of samaritan’s purse ken isaacs an evangel-
ical whose credibility and enduring commitment reeves found
compelling a telling pattern emerges in the stories of activists like jacobs and
reeves both have become close allies with christian figures in the
sudan cause—reeves with ken isaacs and jacobs with john eibner once again we see how the american religious constituency helps
fill a void in a way that other activists gratefully acknowledge the successful publicizing efforts of jacobs and reeves also shine
as exceptions to the limited national media coverage on southern su-
dan in contrast to the sustained almost daily coverage of the antia-
partheid campaign reporting on the sudan was scanty especially in
prestige outlets 102 thus the activation of church networks played a
crucial role in expanding grassroots activism at least among certain
sectors of the religious community such evangelical luminaries as
charles colson franklin graham and richard land wrote and
spoke about the crisis in sudan and their articles were picked up in
numerous religious presses the nation’s largest protestant denomina-
tion the southern baptist convention sbc became especially en-
gaged in the issue it is perhaps not coincidental that on the same day
that the u s house of representatives passed legislation in 2001 re-
stricting oil investment in sudan the delegates of the 15-million-
member sbc passed a resolution condemning the regime in khar-
toum for its genocide and calling for direct aid to the victims 103
religious presses were central to this public awareness campaign world magazine an evangelical publication with a circulation of well
over 100 000 featured sudanese stories based upon trips by their re-
porter mindy belz she produced half a dozen major reports between
2000 and 2001 alone her reportage was facilitated by the missionary
and relief activism of such groups as servant’s heart samaritan’s purse 262 chapter 7
04-184 ch 07 6 25 04 10 33 am page 262
and the bishop gassis organization 104 she provided detailed accounts
of attacks against specific villages relief efforts by christian organiza-
tions political developments in the area and overt appeals to wash-
ington policymakers mindy belz to some activists represented a
courageous contrast to the lack of coverage by the secular media loath
to take the risks involved in covering the remote war as one advo-
cate put it the major networks won’t send reporters into southern
sudan because it is supposedly too dangerous but mindy belz goes
in ” as of 2003 she remained virtually the sole journalist offering on-
the-ground reports there much to the chagrin of those who have
been unsuccessful in prodding secular media coverage 105
activists also raised awareness through college networks in the
spring of 1999 some 400 christian college students from wheaton
and calvin to harvard and berkeley many driving all night landed
with backpacks and sleeping backs at georgetown university for a
conference on sudan sponsored by freedom house and supported by
the coalition for christian colleges and universities the format was
distinctly 1960s with rousing speakers such as the baroness caroline
cox of christian solidarity worldwide slide shows highlighting the
brutality of the regime testimonies by escaped sudanese christians and breakout sessions on organizing strategies for an e-mail campaign
by techno-friendly students but for those who might have experi-
enced time warp there were also moments that suggested an evangel-
ical flavor to the meeting as when a young man stood up to implore
his fellow students to join him in prayer creative tactics ensued as
when students at southern wesleyan university constructed a mock
slave pit on lincoln’s birthday while on another campus a student
braved the cold in a makeshift slave pen for several days until at least
75 percent of his peers had contacted congress 106 the effort gener-
ated over 15 000 e-mails to congress which nina shea assembled and
delivered to the house international relations committee 107
another example of how christian networks facilitated public
awareness is the case of christian rock musician ken tamplin a well-
connected recording artist and songwriter tamplin has produced mu-
sic for major hollywood movies and television programs and is a
three-time winner of the dove award the christian version of the
grammy after attending a benefit dinner for christians in sudan
gentle as doves wise as serpents 263
04-184 ch 07 6 25 04 10 33 am page 263
sponsored by his church calvary chapel costa mesa which featured
baroness cox tamplin decided to commit himself to the cause i just
thought oh my god what can i do ” what he did was pull together
other christian artists and produce an album titled make me your
voice ” in which all the royalties went to sudanese relief efforts the
title song of the album served as an anthem for the movement and the
pony-tailed songwriter was a peripatetic presence attending congres-
sional hearings participating in sudan coalition strategy sessions and of course offering concerts 108
tamplin was featured at a signal event called rock the desert ”
a christian music festival that in august 2001 drew more than 30 000
youth to the midland texas hometown of george w and laura
bush this event was organized by marcy tull a homemaker and
mother who had developed an outreach to teens in the midland area
through christian music skateboarding and other activities because
she was friends with local activists on the sudan issue she tied the
cause to the concert which featured a mock slave cell and promo-
tional material on the sudan peace act the concert was one of a se-
ries of events that catapulted midland activists into a surprising role
in the sudan peace process first lobbying for the sudan peace act
and then directly pressing all sides in sudan to negotiate an end to
the civil war the pivotal moment turned on the selection of mid-
land to host the national service” for international day of prayer for
the persecuted church idop held on the weekend of november
3 and repeated in 2002 in previous years the idop always held its
premier church service in a major congregation in a prominent city
on the east or west coast but in 2001 organizers chose midland texas a community of 96 000 in population in part the decision was
strategic since midland was the home of the bushes more impor-
tantly the midland community demonstrated extraordinary ecu-
menical élan rooted in its history a deeply church-based culture
marks this oil capital of west texas where baptists catholics methodists presbyterians and pentecostals mix with a certain affa-
bility when the oil bust shook the community in the 1980s many
midlanders became engulfed in what locals describe as a genuine re-
ligious revival with oil executives homemakers and a future presi-
dent participating in bible studies and prayer groups 109
264 chapter 7
04-184 ch 07 6 25 04 10 33 am page 264
as concern for the persecuted church bubbled up midland
clergy and laity seized an opportunity to present the idop with an
innovative plan rather than a single church service the midland
ministerial alliance which lists 200 affiliated churches 110 proposed
a weekend-long community-wide event for maximum impact spearheading the effort was deborah fikes who brought distinct ex-
perience to the task an ardent evangelical she had worked to foster
ministerial ties across midland’s racial and ethnic divides plus she and
her husband had already taken the initiative to found an organization
called brothers and sisters in christ basic which supports the
ministry of sister churches in sudan hosting the idop literally
launched this self-described ‘housewife’ and ‘rancher’s daughter’”111
into national and international prominence as a key sudan activist mobilizer and citizen-diplomat during that november event national and international speak-
ers descended upon midland and on sunday they fanned out to
some forty participating congregations ensuring that multitudes of
midland residents including laura bush’s mother heard the message speakers focused on a number of persecuting countries but sudan
dominated the discussion for example baroness cox spoke at the
first presbyterian church about how her numerous trips to the su-
danese bush left her inspired and humbled by the faith and fidelity of
sudanese christians in the face of horrific suffering down the street
at the first baptist church kevin turner of strategic world impact
offered a fiery sermon in a televised service broadcast throughout the
region about touring devastated villages where buzzards feasted on
human flesh but he echoed cox’s theme that the story is not only
about tragedy but christian triumph he described standing in a
crowd of 500 women and children when they were attacked by a hel-
icopter gunship which scattered the crowd and resulted in a ninety-
mile track across the desert with the body of christ ” in character-
istic evangelic argot turner described how god delivered him when
relief kits that he had distributed days earlier ended up being shared
with their group by local christians meanwhile the catholic church
hosted a speech and video presentation by gabe meyer of the bishop
gassis sudan relief fund on the work of the bishop among the
nuba people facing extinction ex-slave francis bok was featured at
gentle as doves wise as serpents 265
04-184 ch 07 6 25 04 10 33 am page 265
numerous events including at a local hispanic church and through-
out the weekend tamplin was ubiquitous going from church to
church offering music and singing his sudan anthem 112
this experienced galvanized the west texas community into be-
coming ground zero in the grassroots campaign on sudan and as we
will see a strategic player in high-level negotiations leading toward a
peace treaty 113
in 2002 as the battle for the sudan peace act entered its decisive
phase the midland ministerial alliance intensified its efforts and more
explicitly tied them to the political situation in washington by invit-
ing sudanese bishops and other sudanese speakers to the community the repeat of rock the desert ” held in august during president
bush’s texas 2002 vacation was bigger than the previous year with
90 000 in attendance and more focused on sudan 114 for two months
prior to the concert a team of some 200 sudan exiles designed a live-
in sudanese village in the concert park which they built side by side
teen challenge volunteers understanding the import of the political
moment volunteers raised money so the village could be reconstructed
in washington d c during demonstration vigils for the sudan peace
act taking a page from the left’s use of street theater organizers for the
midland concert staged a raid by arab militia who scorched parts of
the village area to show the devastation of the attacks a group of sturdy souls even fled” on a trek through the texas desert dennis
bennett founder of servant’s heart advertised the event beforehand we understand that at some point there may be a raid on the su-
danese village by murahaleen muslim holy warriors during the
weekend event so we will have our ‘go packs’ ready if we need to evac-
uate quickly anyone care to join us for a 10 20 mile hike ”115
initiatives in midland and elsewhere which received wide cover-
age in religious outlets raised public concern especially among lead-
ers and attentive lay activists in the evangelical world a 2002 survey
of evangelical elites—prominent pastors denominational heads entre-
preneurs in broadcast ministries and leaders of the array of charitable development and advocacy organizations—found high awareness of
the tragedy in sudan some 70 percent of respondents had heard a
lot” about the sudan situation while over 40 percent had actually
contributed to an organization working in that troubled land 116
266 chapter 7
04-184 ch 07 6 25 04 10 33 am page 266
the threat of genocide defined in international law as a crime
against humanity ” also drew distinctive support in jewish circles for the
cause how that happened is instructive in 1995 elie wiesel nobel
prize winner and holocaust survivor prodded president clinton to act
against genocide in bosnia at a public event sponsored by the u s holocaust memorial museum out of that event came the establish-
ment of the committee of conscience an outreach and advocacy arm
of the museum jerry fowler director of the committee of conscience noted that this action flowed logically from the mandate of the museum
to prevent future genocide through remembrance and action spurred
by reports coming out of sudan the committee of conscience issued
an unprecedented genocide warning” for sudan early in 2001 here was an organization with extraordinary credibility designat-
ing that genocide was in fact threatened in sudan a major coup for the
cause but activists like mike horowitz and nina shea found the mu-
seum’s follow-up deficient as horowitz recounted the events instead
of announcing the designation at a public session with invited speakers
such as frank wolf don payne john mccain and the president of
the united states ” the staff sent out a mere news release then the mu-
seum sponsored a series of panels featuring the council for strategic
and international studies csis 117 a think tank that horowitz char-
acterized as the constructive engagement crowd” whose report on the complexities” of the problem represented no threat to the khartoum
regime horowitz was livid that the holocaust museum would end up just flacking the constructive engagement crowd ” that would never
have happened in the context of south africa ”
horowitz was not sheepish in his response nina and i had the
most knock-down-drag-out session at the holocaust museum with
sarah blumfield ” the director you’re the holocaust museum ” he
remonstrated you can make it happen alone ” instead the first big
program was to puff up the csis report ” the fight focused on jerry
fowler who had organized the program on sudan with fowler in
the room horowitz told blumfield to fire this guy” because he was costing you an opportunity to establish the moral credibility of the
holocaust museum ” fowler later responded with a certain equa-
nimity to this roughing-up noting that getting along with people”
is not one of mike’s” strong points 118
gentle as doves wise as serpents 267
04-184 ch 07 6 25 04 10 33 am page 267
after horowitz’s outburst david saperstein worked to calm the
situation with the museum staff and to quietly make the case for
them to tackle the issue aggressively as the leader of the only na-
tional jewish organization deeply engaged in the sudan issue 119
saperstein had enormous credibility and he probably helped the mu-
seum staff respond positively to the criticism by horowitz and shea saperstein also engineered a stunning grassroots outreach which dis-
tributed an insert on sudan to synagogues throughout america for
use in passover seders 120
ultimately the holocaust museum moved assertively fowler de-
veloped a powerful exhibit at the museum with a companion
brochure on the atrocities committed by the national islamic front
regime not only did this action raise awareness among the hundreds
of thousands of tourists who visited the museum it also signaled to
jewish leaders the importance of the cause when president george
w bush met with jewish leaders in april 2001 for the day of re-
membrance at the capitol he was admonished to do something
about sudan’s crimes against humanity a month later he chose to ad-
dress sudan in a hard-hitting speech before the american jewish
committee in which he accused sudan of crimes so monstrous that
the american conscience had to assert itself ” and proclaimed that my administration will continue to speak and act for as long as per-
secution and atrocities in sudan last ”121
scaffolding for advocacy
the sudan cause gained greater traction because prior efforts had
erected a scaffolding for religious freedom advocacy the processes of
the 1998 religious freedom legislation provided hooks for sudan action
and publicity and the u s commission on international religious
freedom featured sudan in its various hearings and reports moreover the campaign for legislation forged religious alliances and trust rela-
tionships among activists that served as resources for the sudan initia-
tives thus the advocacy infrastructure was quite robust and poised to
respond to emerging developments when the state department pro-
duced a human rights report that seemed to temporize the tragedy in
268 chapter 7
04-184 ch 07 6 25 04 10 33 am page 268
sudan it was critiqued by paul marshall at freedom house and by the
u s commission on international religious freedom to illustrate how this scaffolding operated we can consider the
role of elliott abrams in the cause a former staff member for sena-
tor daniel patrick moynihan abrams served in the reagan admin-
istration as assistant secretary of state for human rights and hu-
manitarian affairs he is best remembered as the point man for
ronald reagan’s central american policies viewed by critics at the
time as cocky contemptuous of congress and tolerant of right-wing
death squads in el salvador and contra rebels in nicaragua abrams
ultimately pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor charges of withhold-
ing information from congress in the iran contra affair this record
led some on the left to question his commitment to human rights arguing that he had blood on his hands” for his central american
role 122 diplomats inside the government however paint a picture of
a person who aggressively pressed human rights against dictatorships
of the right and left 123
after he left government abrams went on to write a book about
jews in america making the case for a renewal of faith as the only sure
means of preserving the community 124 his interest in faith and human
rights helped lead him to the presidency of the ethics and public pol-
icy center a religiously based d c think tank where he hosted con-
ferences on religion and foreign policy and authored hard-hitting arti-
cles making the case for the use of american power in promoting
human rights in particular he argued against the highjacking of for-
eign policy by big business suggesting instead that american leadership
must transcend commercial interests abrams also linked the promo-
tion of human rights and religious freedom with the nation’s national
security as he put it in one essay it is wrong to suggest that human-
rights goals are at odds with our national-security goals we should
have learned from our victory in the cold war that the assertion of
american ideals is essential to the advancement of our security inter-
ests ”125 finally he made the case for the deployment of u s power in
defense of international human rights to abrams the unique oppor-
tunity of the times was rooted in a single fact for the first time in his-
tory a democratic society is the dominant world power ” abrams pon-
dered the prospect that the nation’s power combined with that of
gentle as doves wise as serpents 269
04-184 ch 07 6 25 04 10 33 am page 269
like-minded allies could be used to eliminate or at least reduce abuses
of the rights of man ”126
the passage of the international religious freedom act of 1998
provided an opportunity for abrams to act on these convictions he
sought and gained appointment as a member of the bipartisan u s commission on international religious freedom and in 2000 was
selected chairman by his fellow commissioners as a commissioner
abrams traveled to sudan where he heard from leaders of the be-
sieged communities of the south and was stunned to witness the dev-
astating impact of the extended conflict on the region abrams said he
had never seen a land so bereft of infrastructure 127 he joined with
other commissioners in fashioning tough and creative policy propos-
als such as denying capital market access for oil companies doing
business in the sudan which horrified market purists and officials of
both the clinton and bush administrations in a may 2001 article he
outlined that and other steps that the bush administration could take against one of the world’s most brutal regimes ”128 less than a month
after publishing this article abrams became an advocate inside the
bush administration when he was tapped to become a top deputy to
condoleezza rice president bush’s national security advisor 129
we also see how the movement infrastructure operated among
members of congress religious freedom stalwarts frank wolf and
chris smith took on the sudan cause and were joined by tom tan-
credo r-co whose district included barbara vogel spencer
bachus r-al and donald payne d-md tancredo describes his
local church in denver as his window on the world” because that’s
where he learned about the sudan situation after house leaders
granted his odd” request to serve on the african subcommittee tancredo traveled to sudan while visiting one congregation there
he realized that his human rights journey started in my church” in
denver and ended in a church” in the sudanese bush 130
in the senate sam brownback r-ks emerged as one of the
most important leaders of the faith-based sudan coalition he has trav-
eled to sudan spoken at coalition events and sponsored congressional
initiatives including an amendment allowing food aid to rebel areas
that he has pressed the executive branch to use vigorously he literally
sees his work on sudan as rooted in his kansas forebearers agitation
270 chapter 7
04-184 ch 07 6 25 04 10 33 am page 270
against american slavery brownback’s colleague bill frist r-tn is a
physician who not only traveled to sudan to document the situation
there but under the auspices of samaritan’s purse performed surgery
in a bush hospital bombed by planes from khartoum ”131
elite access can be crucial to social movement success and the
growing advocacy infrastructure facilitated it as christian solidarity
networks coalesced evangelical elites increasingly paid attention to
the crisis in sudan and raised the issue with political leaders thus even if the issue did not reach pervasively into the pews concern was
waxing among pastors denominational heads relief directors na-
tional evangelists and parachurch organizations this was especially
crucial in the presidency of george w bush whose electoral base
was heavily evangelical and who maintained personal relationships
with such figures as charles colson and franklin graham this kind
of access was precisely what some insiders hoped would turn the day
at crucial moments one activist mused about a dream scenario” in
which colin powell and others at the state department would ad-
vise the president to stay out of sudan and then the president would
have lunch with charles colson and franklin graham who would
demand that he act gentle as doves wise as serpents 271
senator sam brownback at sudan rally courtesy of prison fellowship 04-184 ch 07 6 25 04 10 33 am page 271
to a remarkable degree something like this happened graham who offered prayer at bush’s inaugural personally pressed the new
president on the need for american involvement in sudan 132 and a
short time later a delegation of religious leaders met with karl rove the president’s top advisor pressing the case for the president’s inter-
cession in the sudanese conflict the meeting illustrated both the ac-
cess of evangelicals and their unlikely alliances because it included as
the new york times reported colson the born-again christian who
spent seven months in jail for his role in watergate and david saper-
stein a reform rabbi and longtime lobbyist for liberal causes in
washington ”133 because of this pressure some in the administration
got nudged beyond their comfort zone on sudan compassionate and cunning
for a number of activists compassion for the people of sudan first
manifested itself in direct humanitarian relief as noted the un re-
lief program operation sudan lifeline often failed to deliver aid
to areas of greatest need because khartoum banned flights to war-
torn or rebel-held areas while such secular groups as unicef re-
fused to violate sudan’s restrictions christian groups moved with
considerable daring to meet the challenge violating sudanese air-
space and avoiding military patrols to bring tangible help to suffer-
ing people of southern sudan and the central nuba mountains for
a growing number of christian solidarity activists traveling into
war-torn areas of sudan has become a crucial sign of discipleship akin to the badge of honor that leftists gained in the 1930s battling
fascists in the spanish civil war and the analogy is more than
rhetorical as those who personally joined in the people’s struggle
in sudan witnessed attacks viewed scorched villages and mutilated
bodies and dodged enemy fire as they delivered relief supplies in
unsecured areas they provided crucial information not available
through conventional news or diplomatic circles they are treated
with awe in religious circles one of the most prominent of these is franklin graham heir of
the vast billy graham ministries for a quarter of a century he has di-
272 chapter 7
04-184 ch 07 6 25 04 10 33 am page 272
rected samaritan’s purse a highly respected organization that goes
into some of the most desperate and dangerous places on earth ranked as the most efficient religious charity by smart money mag-
azine the organization delivered relief supplies and establishes clinics
and schools in the midst of the civil war in sudan graham brings a
certain swashbuckling style to this work taking delight in personally
piloting the group’s small planes through airspace prone to artillery
attacks and sniper fire ”134
while such activists may lack a hemingway to popularize their
exploits their initiative provides crucial information for the policy
debate in washington epitomizing this blend of field daring and pol-
icy sophistication is dennis bennett of servant’s heart a former
banker with twenty years of experience in international risk man-
agement he seems an unlikely advocate for persecuted christians but he got drawn into concern for fellow believers through his
church in renton washington when he retired from the banking
business he and his wife founded servant’s heart ministries to pro-
vide support to besieged believers abroad like many other advocates
in the 1990s he heard stories of atrocities committed in sudan and
so he decided to develop a ministry there bennett who comes across as a hardheaded financial type has
taken numerous harrowing flights into war-torn areas of sudan to de-
liver relief supplies as of this writing his organization employs sixty
people in the eastern upper nile and southern blue nile regions of
sudan providing medical educational agricultural relief and spiritual
assistance in the war zone through instantaneous global communica-
tion bennett’s network furnishes vital information to advocacy groups
in the west his on-the-ground reports of atrocities in oil concession
areas for example gave ammunition to those highlighting the com-
plicity of the oil industry in ethnic cleansing 135 later when cease-fire
agreements promised an end to the war bennett cautioned advocates
to watch if khartoum withdraws troops from the garrison towns of
juba wau torit” as the litmus test of its seriousness 136 armed with
this kind of information activists signaled u s agencies and the su-
danese government of their highly specific lobby demands occasionally bennett’s passion led him to pass along second-
hand reports of atrocities that later turned out to be exaggerated 137
gentle as doves wise as serpents 273
04-184 ch 07 6 25 04 10 33 am page 273
such exaggerations provide ammunition to apologists of sudan sug-
gesting the importance of maintaining discipline in the movement 138
of course this same passion led bennett and others to circum-
vent the co-opted un system that failed to deliver relief supplies to
areas of greatest need their heroic example prompted congress to
appropriate more money for american relief to be delivered outside
of khartoum’s control in turn president bush’s relief and develop-
ment team usaid director andrew natsios who was deeply em-
bedded in the religious community and his deputy roger winters who had been one of the key documenters of the humanitarian
tragedy in sudan worked to ensure that more aid was actually deliv-
ered to people in the war zone this kind of strategic realism was evident among the activists
who organized the political side of the campaign in washington d c from 1999 onward a group met regularly to hash out strategies most of the meetings were hosted by nina shea and held in the con-
ference room of the stately freedom house building near dupont
circle those who couldn’t travel participated by phone hookups this group built upon the coalition that emerged during the cam-
paign for religious freedom legislation but it attracted a variety of
new activists both in the religious community and beyond 139
what is striking in these strategy sessions is the blend of moral
zeal and hardheaded political calculation discussions focused on how
to frame arguments to avoid getting bogged down in side battles that
were hard to understand or justify such as the nature of the spla 140
instead the group focused on framing cogent aims such as getting
food to starving people busting the flight ban imposed by sudan end-
ing its manipulation of food aid as a weapon of war scaring away in-
vestment in oil companies profiting from blood money ” discussion
also turned on who could get to what senator when to mobilize pub-
licity in religious outlets the group moved from pressing the brown-
back amendment which provided for u s food aid to be distributed
outside the flawed un system to the bachus provision denying cap-
ital market access to oil companies doing business in sudan to a di-
vestment campaign against such oil companies the group also
mounted pressure on the securities and exchange commission the
state department and the white house to take action against sudan 274 chapter 7
04-184 ch 07 6 25 04 10 33 am page 274
formidable bureaucratic obstacles had to be shattered for such
action to occur in a telling meeting with president clinton’s secre-
tary of state madeline albright a group of coalition activists pressed
her to charge sudan with genocide albright reportedly turned to
her assistant who responded that the state department couldn’t do
that because such a designation of crimes against humanity ” ac-
cording to international law would require serious action by the
american government 141 because the human rights situation in su-
dan was not marketable to the american people ”142 such serious ac-
tion was not possible such thinking horowitz argued was guilty of the sin of static
political analysis ” when social movements reach critical mass they change everything ” thus presidential attention and international
media coverage would expose sudan as a pariah state threaten its oil
investment and shame european nations for their acquiescence to
atrocities as the campaign waxed in fact religious and political lead-
ers in the united kingdom and australia among other countries took up the cause 143
sudan activists pressed on a variety of policy fronts using incre-
mental victories as windows to more bold initiatives for example the coalition promoted monitoring teams to investigate atrocities on
the ground in sudan eric reeves made a particularly compelling
case for such teams reeves pointed to a specific case in the western
upper nile town of lare where monitors discovered that the for-
merly thriving area of over 9 000 inhabitants” was virtually vacant he then chastised the state department’s africa bureau for its failure
to renew the mandate for the civilian monitoring team 144 because
the coalition helped keep monitoring teams on the ground infor-
mation on fresh atrocities kept pressure for more dramatic policies forging unusual alliances was crucial to the campaign’s successes the coalition included diverse religious groups the congressional
black caucus national security hawks and antislavery organizations one of the intriguing episodes in the struggle has involved a linkage
with the formidable pro-israel lobby the american israel political
action committee aipac as various sudan initiatives were gain-
ing prominence on the political agenda the iran-lybia sanctions act
was coming up for renewal in 2001 the legislation strongly backed
gentle as doves wise as serpents 275
04-184 ch 07 6 25 04 10 33 am page 275
by aipac levied sanctions against iran and lybia for their support of
international terrorism often aimed at israel the act provided an
opportunity for the sudan coalition to piggyback on the renewal by
adding sudan to the legislation this was precisely what nina shea
and others sought but aipac wanted a clean bill” without such an
addition this strategic reality provided an opportunity for a deal that
horowitz helped broker in which aipac agreed to back capital
market sanctions legislation against sudan in return for the coalition
not attempting to attach sudan to the iran-lybia act when aipac
faltered in its follow-though horowitz apparently let the word out and a major story appeared that described aipac as reneging” on
its commitment 145 this was but one of numerous skirmishes in the
most audacious campaign of the sudan coalition—the drive to deny
oil revenue to the regime in khartoum contending with mammon
in the 1999 episode of touched by an angel the fictional female sena-
tor is confronted by a lobbyist for the confectionary industry who demands that she not raise the issue of slavery in sudan the reason sudan is the globe’s largest exporter of gum arabic an essential ingre-
dient in soft drinks and candies though simplified for dramatic effect the episode captured one of the peculiar features of the sudan story under heavy sanctions by the united states for its support of inter-
national terrorism sudan nonetheless was able in varying ways to
continue selling its gum arabic to u s companies at one point the
industry gained passage of an obscure trade bill provision that sus-
pended sanctions on gum arabic which produced a stinging washing-
ton post editorial rebuke that such action would drain any virtuous
diplomacy” of its authority 146 partisans found attacking this monied
interest difficult however because at least some southern sudanese ar-
guably benefit from the export of gum arabic and because europeans
would merely pick up the market after u s sanctions wrangling over gum arabic quickly receded however as another
more powerful economic interest loomed over the conflict in sudan oil spurred by billions of dollars of international investment sudan’s
276 chapter 7
04-184 ch 07 6 25 04 10 33 am page 276
oil fields most located in the south became linked by pipeline to
northern ports by the late 1990s while the issue of gum arabic
seemed ambiguous the implication of the new oil development to
african sudanese was clear it imperiled their survival millions in oil
revenue enabled sudan to buy advanced weaponry and it spurred
brutal ethnic cleansing in areas surrounding the oil fields 147 but con-
tending with mammon meant contending with multinational oil
companies and their powerful investors as an innovative response to this challenge the sudan movement
turned to capital market strategies as a tool of human rights advocacy when it became clear that oil revenue was fueling the war activists
initiated efforts to deny international capital to companies develop-
ing sudan’s oil industry strategies included divestment campaigns disclosure rules to scare away potential investors and the denial of ac-
cess to u s capital markets this audacious campaign reveals how the
movement blends religious passion with the expertise and connec-
tions of diverse actors drawn to the cause one of the early voices in this campaign was dennis bennett whose banking experience drew him into researching the economic
aspects of the conflict his investigation in 1996 led him to conclude
that the government of sudan was essentially broke leading him to
ponder the question how could a country so heavily in debt spend
a million dollars a day on this civil war ” he concluded that it was
by the promise of future revenues of oil ”148
by 1998 that oil began flowing enabling khartoum to purchase
up-to-date weaponry because of u s sanctions no american com-
panies were involved in sudan’s oil industry at the time but firms
from canada china malaysia and indonesia operated under conces-
sions from the sudanese government from the manufactured famine in 1998 onward developments
on the ground provided corroboration that oil revenue might enable
khartoum to break the tenuous hold of southern tribes against its
military advances this ominous prospect emerged from documenta-
tion by both religious groups and independent nongovernmental or-
ganizations 149 in a presentation in april 1999 roger winter then
director of the u s committee on refugees explicitly highlighted
the role of talisman energy of canada in developing sudan’s new oil
gentle as doves wise as serpents 277
04-184 ch 07 6 25 04 10 33 am page 277
industry it was this briefing that led eric reeves to publish a series
of articles on the link between oil revenue and atrocities which
helped spark the divestment campaign against talisman 150
talisman energy of canada which purchased concessions in
1998 emerged as a crucial target of the sudan campaign for two rea-
sons 1 it was building some of the largest and most sophisticated oil
infrastructure in sudan and 2 as a company based in an open soci-
ety it was more vulnerable to divestment efforts this became appar-
ent in 1999 when eric reeves fired off the first of his editorial salvos his piece don’t let oil revenues in sudan fuel genocide ” pub-
lished in a leading canada newspaper hit like a bombshell in the in-
vestment community ”151 reeves followed up with an article in the
los angeles times that for the first time called for divestment of talis-
man stock activists quickly seized on divestment as a key strategy in
their campaign in classic social movement style loosely coordinated
initiatives sprouted in diverse places letters to fund managers went
out from the movement’s amalgam of christian solidarity groups an-
tislavery activists jewish leaders and black pastors calling for a sell-
off of talisman stock students organized divestment initiatives with
their college funds these efforts helped spread incendiary publicity
about talisman’s complicity” with genocide the anti-talisman campaign illustrates the ways movement ef-
fervescence sprouts diverse initiatives and tactics 152 in one instance
tommy calvert a tufts university student recruited by the ameri-
can anti-slavery group joined with reeves and others in the suc-
cessful effort to convince the huge college professors pension fund tiaa-creff to sell its sizable talisman holdings reeves describes
a first meeting with pension managers who said in effect we don’t
do divestment ” but confronted with the damaging case against tal-
isman and faced with a coalition that included the congressional
black caucus jewish groups evangelical leaders and college stu-
dents the managers divested within three weeks oddly reeves
viewed the battle as a mismatch arguing that the company didn’t
have a chance ” that it could not take such public scrutiny 153
reeves was right as the divestment campaign was devastating to
talisman indeed after tiaa-creff liquidated talisman stock the
coalition ran the tables” on major fund managers from canada and
278 chapter 7
04-184 ch 07 6 25 04 10 33 am page 278
the united states cities states and national church denominations
all sold talisman stock new jersey alone liquidated 800 000 shares of
talisman under pressure from numerous sides including intervention
by two of its most prominent congressional members donald payne a democrat and chris smith a republican activists cheered the
news when talisman’s stock plummeted but talisman’s problems did
not end there from 1998 onward christian relief organizations and human
rights monitors on the ground documented the decimation of south-
ern villages massacres and abductions in oil concession areas sug-
gesting a calculated military campaign by the sudanese government
to remove populations in the way of its exploitation of oil located in
the south this led to charges that multinational companies aware of
ethnic cleansing of villages near oil fields and pipelines were com-
plicit in the atrocities 154 hard evidence surfaced when the aasg se-
cured an internal memo which suggested that talisman officials knew
and were working with sudanese armed forces as they conducted op-
erations 155
armed with this information a coalition of american and cana-
dian activists filed a multimillion dollar civil lawsuit against talisman
on november 11 2001 the class action suit was filed on behalf of
non-muslims and african sudanese living within fifty miles of talis-
man’s oil production concessions areas drawing upon documenta-
tion by religious relief organizations of ethnic cleansing around oil
fields and pipelines the suit filed accused the company of collabo-
rating with sudan” to commit war crimes including murder forced
displacement destruction of property rape and enslavement in a
move with potentially far-reaching human rights implications a u s district judge refused to dismiss the suit and ruled in march 2003
that talisman could be held liable for genocide if the facts warranted the suit is pending trial 156
even as the movement mounted its campaign against talisman a new target loomed on the horizon word leaked out that the in-
vestment firm of goldman sachs was planning to manage an initial
public offering ipo for china national petroleum company cnpc which hoped to raise $8 10 billion to develop its stake in
sudan in yet another example of the role of movement connections gentle as doves wise as serpents 279
04-184 ch 07 6 25 04 10 33 am page 279
eric reeves who wrote one of the first pieces on the implications of
the ipo credits dennis bennett for giving him the heads-up” on
the sale the threat posed by this massive infusion of investment
money sparked efforts by sudan activists to scare away potential in-
vestors from late 1999 into 2000 articles blossomed in evangelical
publications and advocacy outlets letters went out to large investors and sympathetic political leaders weighed in with charges that this
stock offering would be blood money” for sudan’s attempt to erad-
icate a people 157 critics of the chinese government from labor
unions to tibetan advocates jumped on board the campaign though estimates vary the effort hammered” cnpc denying
a large portion of the hoped-for capital reeves claimed that cnpc
raised only $3 billion of its $10 billion goal this $7 billion haircut ”
especially since it represented the first wave of such capital-raising by
chinese industry sent shock waves through the investment commu-
nity not only did this episode signal that the movement was a force
to be reckoned with but it affected the situation on the ground as
bennett quipped if china had raised all the money it wanted the
spla would have been toast” because with such an infusion khar-
toum would overrun rebel opposition 158
the success in scaring away capital for sudan’s oil industry sug-
gests that sovereign nations cannot always assume that investors will
be able to ignore human rights abuses it also buoyed those who
have other complaints with the actions of global corporations one
such figure is roger robinson a former official of the national se-
curity council in the reagan administration as chairman of the
william casey institute a national security think tank robinson
spotlights the dangers posed by companies selling advanced tech-
nology suitable for weapons to rogue regimes and other potential
adversaries of the united states for several years robinson has
been advancing creative proposals for greater disclosure of these
practices with the securities and exchange commission sec the idea was to let investors know the material risk” they faced
buying shares of companies doing business with bad actors ” some
of them under u s sanction the story of how roger robinson was drawn into the coalition
suggests the magnetic power of movements to foster diverse coali-
280 chapter 7
04-184 ch 07 6 25 04 10 33 am page 280
tions as the sudan campaign heated up a natural alliance emerged
between christian advocates concerned about religious persecution
and national security hawks robinson for example became enlisted
in the sudan cause after a lunch meeting in 1999 with nina shea in
which she outlined how the same regime that provided haven to
osama bin laden was engaged in a jihad” against its own people and
hoping to spread that fundamentalist movement into africa this al-
liance as one activist noted was a marriage made in heaven ” each
gained allies in the other’s cause but the benefits went beyond that the religious community gained the expertise of the casey institute
on capital markets while the casey institute got the tangible case of
sudan to test its policy approach this alliance produced a striking convergence of national se-
curity human rights and religious freedom concerns which led
groups and key members of congress to press the sec to
strengthen disclosure and transparency requirements with respect
to global bad actors” seeking to raise funds in bond and equity
markets in a letter to congressman frank wolf sec’s acting
chair laura unger acknowledged the role of the casey institute the u s commission on international religious freedom and the
state department office of international religious freedom in
making the case for action by the sec 159 then in a move that
achieved international business coverage in may 2001 the sec in
effect announced that national security human rights and reli-
gious freedom will be viewed by the sec as potentially material
risks to u s and other investors thereby requiring new echelons
of disclosure and transparency ”160 translated this means that pen-
sion fund managers will have information on massive human rights
abuses so that they can avoid such risky ventures the energy be-
hind the faith-based sudan movement in this case led to policy
innovations that may provide new levers for subsequent human
rights causes the blending of concerns for religious freedom human rights and national security also produced what activists themselves viewed as
wonderfully quirky relationships roger robinson the reaganite
hawk worked closely with eric reeves the wood-turning child of the
sixties who worked with ken isaacs the evangelical relief director gentle as doves wise as serpents 281
04-184 ch 07 6 25 04 10 33 am page 281
capital market strategies in the sudan peace act
scaring away investors could only go so far in maintaining pressure
on the khartoum regime to cease attacks on civilians this reality led
the coalition to press congress for an even more ambitious hammer once again we observe how the movement acted as a magnet draw-
ing together disparate groups in the legislative battle this time for a
law denying access to u s capital markets for all oil companies doing
business in sudan the first major organization to advance this concept was the
u s commission on international religious freedom backed by
the work of robinson reeves and jacobs nina shea took a pro-
posal to the commission to back capital market sanctions against su-
dan two of the commissioners elliott abrams and chair david
saperstein were already involved in the sudan campaign and ad-
vanced the proposal but ultimately all members of the commission
embraced the idea as a way to fulfill the spirit of the commission’s
legislative charter to promote policies aimed at addressing religious
persecution in its march 2001 report on sudan the commission de-
clared that oil revenue was exacerbating atrocities and it recom-
mended that foreign oil companies be denied access to u s capital
markets while sudan prosecuted the war against its own people 161
this idea of delisting certain companies from u s stock markets
was bold but plausibly efficacious check khartoum’s aggression by
restricting dollars for its oil development and commissioners ad-
vanced this case in numerous forums elliott abrams made the case
that u s policy should force foreign companies to choose be in su-
dan or be in our capital markets ”162 his colleague michael young a
mormon testified to congress that the only way to get khartoum’s
attention is to curtail its oil revenues ”163
the commission’s idea was ultimately picked up by congress-
man spencer bachus r-al a soft-spoken alabaman with an un-
canny sense of moral clarity when you have to make a choice be-
tween dollars and lives ” he told evangelical leaders at one forum you choose lives ”164 in the summer of 2001 bachus successfully at-
tached an amendment to the proposed sudan peace act that would
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04-184 ch 07 6 25 04 10 33 am page 282
deny access to american stock exchanges for oil companies doing
business in sudan that legislation passed the house of representa-
tives by a stunning vote of 422 2 165 in attempting to convince their
senate colleagues to back the legislation house members argued that
it merely closed a loophole why do we allow foreign companies
that obtain sudanese oil to trade on our capital markets when amer-
ican companies are prohibited from doing so ”166 but to washington
insiders the bachus amendment suggested a new strategic boldness
in the faith-based movement ironically the bush administration’s ham-handed”167 effort to
appoint a special envoy to sudan helped produce the bachus amend-
ment barely a month after the president’s dramatic condemnation of
sudan before the american jewish committee in may 2001 sec-
retary of state colin powell chose as special envoy chester crocker a previous advocate of constructive engagement” with apartheid in
south africa to sudan advocates crocker would have temporized
the evil of the regime as indicated by his stated opinion that policy
should not tilt toward the christians” in sudan when his views
were made public sudan activists from members of the congres-
sional black caucus to jewish groups to christian organizations criticized the appointment and crocker withdrew his name from
consideration 168 crocker’s derisive statements angered activists and
united them behind the radical” approach embraced by bachus later
that summer the house success of the bachus amendment caused apoplexy
in the investment community alan greenspan testified against the
bachus amendment and the big guns on wall street weighed in to
lobby against senate passage one lobbyist for goldman sachs said
that every pac dollar coming out of wall street would have bachus
written all over it ”169 this opposition led some in the coalition to
predict that such shortsightedness would come back to haunt the
business community indeed in a bizarre twist charles jacobs was
prepared to deliver a line in his press conference speech on the morn-
ing of september 11 pointedly challenging alan greenspan’s oppo-
sition to capital market leverage alan don’t you realize that this
kind of terrorism will find you on wall street ”170 the speech was
never delivered gentle as doves wise as serpents 283
04-184 ch 07 6 25 04 10 33 am page 283
not only wall street leaders but officials of the bush adminis-
tration opposed the bachus amendment’s radical departure from free
market capitalism as one insider quipped these are republicans ”
together the bush administration and the investment lobby con-
vinced the senate to omit the provision in its version of the sudan
peace act even such sudanese advocates as senator bill frist re-
sisted the capital market tool the battle over the bachus amendment reflected the willingness
of the interfaith coalition to take on entrenched economic interests but it also pointed toward a growing foreign-policy divide in the
gop between religious moralists and market purists as republican
congressman chris smith put it i’m a free market guy ” but when
it comes to a country that has killed two million people ” exceptional
sanctions are justified 171 this divide simmered within the bush ad-
ministration itself while the president accused sudan of crimes so
monstrous that the american conscience had to assert itself ” his eco-
nomic advisers vehemently opposed acting on that conviction the main argument against the bachus amendment was that
cutting access to u s capital markets would be ineffective because it
would just drive companies elsewhere but james buckee ceo of
talisman energy said his company would pull out of sudan rather
than risk losing access to american stock exchanges 172 in other
words the bachus amendment threatened to bring real pressure on
sudan’s oil interests indeed the mere threat of it probably con-
tributed to khartoum’s decision to sign a protocol for peace negoti-
ations in the summer of 2002 173 despite the setback in the senate activists had not given up on exercising financial leverage against the
regime in sudan the challenge of realpolitik
by the fall of 2001 the sudan coalition had reasons for optimism president bush had denounced the government of sudan and elo-
quently declared that the monstrous crimes” committed by the
regime required an american response he appointed andrew nat-
sios former head of the christian relief organization world vision as
284 chapter 7
04-184 ch 07 6 25 04 10 33 am page 284
his humanitarian coordinator for aid to the southern sudanese with
a charge to ensure that relief supplies not be subject to manipulation
by khartoum and more supplies in fact were bypassing the com-
promised un system and getting through to besieged areas activists also had reason to hope that some form of capital mar-
ket sanction might remain in the sudan peace act when house and
senate conferees met to iron out their differences deliberation over
the sudan peace act indeed had become a high-stakes drama in
washington with rising confidence a group of coalition members led by nina shea assembled for a press conference in the capitol
building on the morning of september 11 2001 to announce the
beginning of a national mobilization campaign for the sudan peace
act with the bachus amendment before the conference could be-
gin capitol police rushed in when the world changed on september 11 2001 the sudan
coalition found itself in a new strategic environment in which human
rights concerns might be pushed aside in the nation’s war on terror the government of sudan quickly seized the opportunity to get
america off its back” by offering some cooperation in the war on
terror because sudan had originally given haven to bin laden
through the mid-1990s and sponsored other terrorist organizations u s officials were keenly interested in obtaining information and co-
operation from khartoum in return for this information a number
of state department officials heaped fulsome praise on the regime’s
cooperation their cooperation was really terrific ” said deputy of
state richard armitage 174 another official was quoted as saying that the united states doesn’t have time for human rights anymore ”175
the bush administration pressed congress to suspend its considera-
tion of the sudan peace act and acceded to the lifting of un sanc-
tions which had been in place for sudan’s support of international
terrorism the value of sudan’s cooperation is a matter of great debate but
to activists what happened at least in the short run is that ap-
peasers” in the state department saw an opportunity to gain the up-
per hand from human rights critics as michael horowitz put it the
bad guys at state seized the opportunity ” the bush administration therefore became the target of a major lobby effort by the coalition gentle as doves wise as serpents 285
04-184 ch 07 6 25 04 10 33 am page 285
tensions between the sudan coalition and the state department
especially surfaced over the work of walter kansteiner who as assis-
tant secretary of state for african affairs was the chief diplomatic
spokesman for u s -sudan policy kansteiner had articulated the ad-
ministration’s opposition to the bachus amendment and lauded the
regime for its cooperation in the war on terror he also tended to
put the most positive spin on actions of the regime during cease-fire
talks and agreements even while activists on the ground were re-
porting on egregious violations and he was the administration’s
main proponent of normalizing relations with khartoum kansteiner represented to the coalition the voice of capitulation
on sudan and his prominence suggested the need to provide outside
pressure on the administration reeves wrote blistering accounts of
kansteiner’s shallow and ineffectual” leadership in the state depart-
ment which produced the deepest shame for the africa bureau ”176 there is no grade low enough” for kansteiner reeves opined 177
horowitz debated kansteiner on national public radio charging at
one point that he was hurting his own cause and his president’s kansteiner was also raked over the coals by congressional representa-
tives at a june 2002 hearing of the house international relations
committee rep tom tancredo r-co cataloged the litany of
atrocities committed by the regime and then asked kansteiner isn’t
there some point where we say this has gone far enough” and sup-
port capital market sanctions kansteiner’s reply was i’m sure there
is but this isn’t it ”178 the quote got wide circulation in religious net-
works around the country kansteiner’s response contrasted with others in the bush ad-
ministration who advanced a more aggressive posture this inter-
nal struggle epitomizes the wider battle over how central human
rights considerations should be in american foreign policy—a de-
bate that spans presidential administrations after 9-11 this debate
sharpened between advisors who believe the united states should
aggressively promote democratization and human rights and those
who interpret the national interest more in economic and geopo-
litical terms this divide resulted in mixed signals from the admin-
istration elliott abrams andrew natsios and roger winters the
latter two at usaid pushed an assertive sudan posture while
286 chapter 7
04-184 ch 07 6 25 04 10 33 am page 286
kansteiner and others backed a more accommodating policy to-
ward the regime the sudan coalition was initially thrown off balance by khar-
toum’s adroit exploitation of the antiterror initiative as coalition
members groped for an appropriate strategic response a blizzard of e-mails and faxes began to flow from religious organizations stressing
the fact that sudan promoted the same ideology that built al qaeda haltingly at first religious activists began to give voice to a new un-
derstanding of the significance of the struggle in sudan as baroness
cox emphasized in her speeches in midland texas the christian and
animist communities in sudan had been the first victims of jihad
warriors” inspired by the same militant ideology as bin laden’s southern sudanese leaders in turn were quoted in religious presses
as expressing sympathy but not surprise that the terror they experi-
ence on a daily basis is finally reaching american shores bishop gas-
sis told a washington d c audience in june 2002 that for years he
had been warning that the jihad against his people would ultimately
be turned against the west 179
this understanding helped provide strategic focus but it also
lent itself to casting the conflict in ways that could stereotype the
movement as only interested in christians indeed stories began ap-
pearing that suggested a clash of civilizations”180 was underway with
the southern sudanese representing a kind of outpost of christian or
western civilization holding out against the tide of aggressive islam that was a subtext of the treatment of john garang controversial
leader of the spla rebels who was featured in positive profiles by
world magazine as the defender of the christian people of sudan 181
given the situation in sudan a plausible case could be made for
such a depiction more problematically lurid stories of islam’s putatively
violent or polygamous history began sprouting in evangelical magazines
and newsletters in appealing on behalf of victims of jihad-terrorism ”
voice of the martyrs referred to islamic hatred ” making little distinc-
tion between the broad islamic tradition and its radical expression 182
franklin graham echoed this sentiment when he said that the god of islam is not the same god” as that worshiped by christians or jews that islam is a very evil and wicked religion ”183 though denounced
by a wide array of other evangelical leaders 184 such intemperate remarks
gentle as doves wise as serpents 287
04-184 ch 07 6 25 04 10 33 am page 287
about islam fed into a perception within muslim circles that the sudan
campaign was anti-muslim or anti-arab this intensified defensiveness
about the regime among american muslim organizations which some-
times hosted speakers who downplayed atrocities or even claimed that slavery is a sham in sudan ”185
despite the intemperate rhetoric of some in the christian com-
munity the main sudan activists drew a sharp distinction between the radical” regime in sudan and the muslim faith they embraced the
position articulated by cleveland law professor david forte and later
echoed by president bush that militant islam represents a heresy an
attempt to hijack a sister faith home to a great civilization 186
still there were doubters charles jacobs wrote that he was per-
plexed” about the coalition’s posture toward islam we have been
saying guided by david forte and others that islamism or radical
islam is a twentieth-century distortion of the religion of the prophet
mohammed ” but jacobs then cited recent articles by historian paul
johnson arguing against drawing such a distinction and suggesting
that islam itself is a militant faith inhospitable to religious freedom jacobs then posed this question is the forte position taken by us be-
cause it is the only feasible political position —or do we say it be-
cause we believe it ”187
while this internal debate about islam was taking place organi-
zations in washington d c were struggling to keep pressure on the
administration which they feared might go soft led by nina shea at
freedom house and diane knippers at the institute on religion and
democracy a group of over 100 religious leaders sent a letter to pres-
ident bush in november 2001 urging him not to compromise his
commitment to religious freedom in the war on terror the letter
was signed by a number of evangelical luminaries such as charles
colson but also by notable jewish catholic episcopal and african
american leaders the hard-hitting letter began by quoting bush’s
own words before the american jewish committee that my ad-
ministration will continue to speak and act for as long as the perse-
cution and atrocities in the sudan last ” but then the letter charged
that your administration may have inadvertently signaled that the
united states will overlook terrorism within sudan’s borders in ex-
change for gestures and promises from khartoum not to export it to
288 chapter 7
04-184 ch 07 6 25 04 10 33 am page 288
our shores ” the letter went on to catalog continued attacks on civil-
ians in sudan subsequent to september 11 2001 it continued by
rewarding and praising khartoum at the very moment it is stepping
up its bombing starvation and literal enslavement of religious mi-
norities the united states appears to be willing to tolerate reli-
giously-based internal terrorism ”188 independently activists from
midland texas employed their own unique back channels to convey
their implacable commitment to the sudan cause these efforts helped maintain the administration’s focus on su-
dan condoleezza rice wrote that the pariah status of the govern-
ment of sudan” will not end until it ceases the enslavement oppres-
sion violence and terror that have become its hallmarks ” and she
reassured the coalition that cooperation in the campaign against ter-
rorism is not a commodity to be traded among other national secu-
rity or foreign policy imperatives including respect for basic human
rights ”189 bush followed up by appointing former senator and epis-
copal priest john danforth as his special envoy on sudan danforth
negotiated the creation of the civilian protection monitoring team cpmt to monitor military attacks on civilians 190 which provided
some of the most authoritative” information on the impact of mili-
tary operations on the ground 191 danforth later helped bring khar-
toum into serious peace negotiations with rebel groups of the south amended sudan peace act prevails
the sudan coalition did not give up on capital market leverage
against the regime the problem was that bachus opponents capital-
ized on the new strategic environment to halt creation of a confer-
ence committee to iron out differences between house and senate
versions of the sudan peace act taking the lead in this effort was
free market purist senator phil gramm r-tx who threatened to
filibuster against the sudan peace act if the house insisted on bring-
ing forward the bachus amendment fearing that some form of cap-
ital market sanctions might pass a house-senate conference commit-
tee gramm in effect put a hold” on appointment of senate
conferees unless the house dropped the bachus language gentle as doves wise as serpents 289
04-184 ch 07 6 25 04 10 33 am page 289
the fact that gramm was the obstructionist sparked initiatives
by some of his west texas constituents constant e-mail traffic had
been flowing between washington and the midland ministerial al-
liance enabling the local group to focus its mobilization at strategic
moments thus packets went out to the independent texas oil pro-
ducers who had coalesced previously during the day of prayer for
the persecuted church 192 this conjured the striking aspect of texas
oilmen exercising their christian discipleship” by lobbying a sena-
tor on behalf of an african people half a world away the midland folks were also linked to groups reporting on
atrocities on the ground in sudan which buoyed their confidence in
pressing their own beloved president in a letter to bush on july 10 2002 a broad array of midland church representatives reminded the
president that some of our group are in communication by satellite
phone e-mails and digital photos on a weekly basis with sudanese
along the frontlines ” the religious leaders also expressed the view
that the president was not getting the full picture” from his advisors and that unless the president acted forcefully the issue might be used
in a partisan manner that would be unfortunate but the leaders
concluded we feel we must fulfill the call of god on our lives and
stand with our persecuted brothers and sisters in sudan however god
leads us ”193 there was a subtle threat in these words—more to exec-
utive branch and white house officials than the president himself—
that at some point his midland friends might be compelled to take
actions that could embarrass the president an intriguing dimension
of this fierce commitment as deborah fikes observed was a sense of
solidarity with black pastors in midland who felt a special kinship
with their sudanese brethren
the government of sudan helped bolster the case for action by
a series of attacks in the spring of 2002 on civilian villages around the
oil fields effectively cleansing” them of their population in re-
sponse a bipartisan group of some two dozen house members frus-
trated with senate inaction wrote tom daschle and trent lott in
june 2002 urging them to stop blocking the sudan peace act and ar-
guing that without the house’s capital market provision the gov-
ernment of sudan will continue to pay for oil with the blood of its
people ”194 this was followed by a letter delivered to daschle signed
290 chapter 7
04-184 ch 07 6 25 04 10 33 am page 290
by all thirty-nine members of the congressional black caucus stat-
ing that they considered action against sudan the same way as the
struggle against the apartheid regime of south africa ”195
with this high-profile pressure most coalition activists still hoped
for passage of the sudan peace act with the bachus amendment 196
but by the mid-summer of 2002 time was running short giving sen-
ate opponents ample leverage to employ delaying tactics coalition
leaders finally conceded that pressing bachus might derail the entire
bill before adjournment so they made a strategic decision to offer
compromise language in lieu of the bachus amendment that would
still provide leverage against khartoum on july 30 2002 michael
horowitz nina shea and shannon royce of the sbc presented sen-
ator brownback with provisions that would 1 authorize $100 million of aid per year to areas of sudan not controlled by the gov-
ernment 2 require the parties to engage in good faith negotiations
to end the civil war 3 establish a timetable for such negotiations and 4 authorize the president to deny oil revenue to the regime if it
failed to comply within the timetable 197 brownback secured senate
approval of these amendments to replace the bachus provision thus
breaking the logjam for the sudan peace act in one sense this com-
promise reflected the movement’s tactical flexibility in seeking the
long-term goal real change in sudan in another sense it was a con-
cession that the coalition could not overcome combined opposition
from wall street and foreign-policy realists who saw the bachus
amendment as too radical sudan advocates differed in their assessment of the final bill which seemed less muscular than the one that passed the house eleanor holmes norton d-dc expressed deep disappointment
that the bachus amendment— the engine that drove the bill that
passed overwhelmingly in this house”—was removed 198 others ac-
centuated the positive pointing to the remarkable u s financial
commitment to the people of southern sudan and the latent threat
to the regime’s oil revenue even with compromises secured however sudan advocates
feared that congress might fail to act before adjournment so they
organized a series of church-based vigils at the state department to
ensure that congress acted on the legislation in time sponsored by
gentle as doves wise as serpents 291
04-184 ch 07 6 25 04 10 33 am page 291
church alliance for a new sudan the september 2002 vigil repre-
sented a true collaborative effort between washington figures such as
faith mcdonnell director of the church alliance and such texas
activists as deborah fikes of midland and donna ballard from dal-
las the idea was that the hot breath of the vigil” would be breath-
ing down the necks of members of congress as they deliberated on
the sudan peace act the moving witness of the vigil which at-
tracted a diverse array of african american pastors lay citizens mem-
bers of congress and sudanese exiles made manifest the biblical in-
junction to be gentle as doves and wise as serpents ” prayer and
hymns were matched with strategic analysis and pivotal timing to
keep the issue alive at the very moment that debate over congres-
sional authorization of war against iraq could have crowded sudan
off the agenda 199
in an amazing echo of the irfa story the sudan peace act was
given up for dead on a number of occasions passing on the very eve
of congressional adjournment in october like irfa it passed be-
cause of grassroots mobilization activist tenacity and persistent
shepherding by key members of congress the government of su-
dan also played a role despite its cease-fire agreements the regime
intensified attacks in the summer and into the fall of 2002 displac-
ing thousands and killing numerous civilians who lived nowhere
near rebel fighters 200 because of the advocacy infrastructure in su-
dan and its links to washington groups the regime’s brazenness im-
mediately became part of the backdrop of continued agitation for
action the passage of the sudan peace act represented a major tri-
umph of the movement producing a hollywood-like bill signing
ceremony at the roosevelt room in the white house on october
21 2002 in the presence of colin powell condoleezza rice su-
dan coalition members and sudanese exiles president bush signed
the act though scantily reported by the elite press 201 word of the
signing went forth from the religious presses and advocacy e-mail buoying confidence for the inevitable battles to come as the coali-
tion sought to turn the symbolism of the moment into a reality on
the ground 202 in his remarks at the ceremony bush acknowledged
the power of the faith-based movement i will not forget sudan ”
292 chapter 7
04-184 ch 07 6 25 04 10 33 am page 292
he pledged then added dryly and if i do i know that you will
prod me ”203
in that he was correct as nina shea later promised that her or-
ganization would vigilantly monitor khartoum’s good faith” com-
pliance with the act viewing as prima facie evidence of bad faith
continued bombing of civilians slave raids and bans on relief flights ”
if bad faith was determined she pledged that the coalition would
press to obtain capital market sanctions as provided in the act 204
immediately following the bill signing bush was approached by yar
kang a statuesque sudanese model from south dakota nervous and
overcome with emotion she exclaimed thank you thank you presi-
dent bush god bless you i am so happy i don’t know what to say ” to
which the president replied i think you’re doing a good job ”205
attending the signing ceremony were a number of luminaries of
the irfa battle such as michael horowitz nina shea faith mc-
donnell david saperstein stacie burdette and tom hart 206 the
gentle as doves wise as serpents 293
francis bok and other sudanese exiles with president bush after the signing of the
sudan peace act 04-184 ch 07 6 25 04 10 33 am page 293
white house gathering also featured new movement cadres african
american leaders such as joe madison walter fauntroy donald
payne and elinor holmes norton midlanders deborah fikes and
fran boyle and diverse other advocates such as charles jacobs shan-
non royce of the sbc felice gaer jewish human rights activist and
member of the u s commission and smith college professor eric
reeves also witnessing the event was francis bok capping a remarkable
journey that took him from slavery in the sudanese bush to the white
house the young man who spoke to church groups about his desire
to free his people in bondage ” now stood in the center of american
power as the president signaled the nation’s resolve to help achieve
that very aim after bush greeted bok the ex-slave expressed his
thanks to the president on behalf of the people of southern sudan
and on behalf of those still in bondage i thank you ” bok went on to
say that if the boys and girls still in slavery could know that today you
signed a law to help set them free their faces would light up in
hope ”207 bush spoke to bok for several minutes telling him that it
was his honor to help the poignancy of the moment was captured by
charles jacobs this may be the first time since the nineteenth cen-
tury an american president has met with a former slave ”208
a breakthrough for peace while this dramatic signing did not immediately end the struggle it
propelled a breakthrough by the fall of 2003 a security pact had
been signed between the government of sudan and rebel groups producing a cease-fire that held across most of the south with u s prodding negotiations then produced a peace treaty by the spring of
2004 209
this breakthrough did not come without fierce lobbying by su-
dan coalition members including back-channel communications
from the midland ministerial alliance directly to president bush the
government of sudan and rebel leaders the story of that final cam-
paign illustrates the unique way faith-based networks enhance human
rights advocacy 294 chapter 7
04-184 ch 07 6 25 04 10 33 am page 294
despite ongoing peace negotiations and putative cease-fire
agreements khartoum continued to launch military operations
against civilians especially in oil concession areas 210 this flouting of
the sudan peace act evoked only perfunctory criticism by the state
department in part because of khartoum’s adroit exploitation of the
war on terror throughout the spring of 2003 the state department
presented an upbeat assessment of the regime’s cooperation in the
war on terror leading activists to charge american officials with
soft-pedaling sudan’s human rights record foreign service officers it
was claimed sat on” their own information on cease-fire violations issuing only tepid criticism when civilian killings displacement and
abductions were publicized 211 the civilian protection monitoring
team was grounded” by khartoum’s military at crucial moments and the state department issued no public protest ”212 activists also
expressed horror at the prospect that the state department might re-
move sudan from its list of countries sponsoring terrorism 213
khartoum’s international rehabilitation was furthered when the
un commission on human rights chaired by autocratic lybia voted in april 2003 to upgrade sudan’s status removing its designa-
tion as a country with special problems” related action removed
from sudan the special un rapporteurs whose reports had been in-
strumental in spotlighting the regime’s responsibility for massive hu-
man suffering 214
further evidence of a premature rehabilitation” of sudan came
when the bush administration issued its mandated report six months
from the signing of the sudan peace act 215 acting on the basis of
the state department assessment president bush certified in april
2003 that the government of sudan was negotiating in good faith ”
this provoked howls of denunciation activists depicted the des-
ignation as a whitewash ” tragic ” catastrophic ” and just plain inac-
curate 216 while most of the ire was leveled against the state depart-
ment some vented their fury at the president himself referring to a
may massacre of christian villagers dennis bennett charged that
president bush was complicit in these murders” because of his re-
fusal to investigate these atrocities and to hold the government of su-
dan accountable ”217 such tough talk indicated the willingness of some
evangelicals in the coalition to play hardball” with the administration
gentle as doves wise as serpents 295
04-184 ch 07 6 25 04 10 33 am page 295
to prevent it from letting the bashir regime off the hook ” collec-
tively a drumbeat of exposés flooded religious publications and net-
works keeping the heat on the administration to take a tougher line
with khartoum the secret weapon of this final lobby campaign turned out to be
citizen diplomacy by the midland religious community galvanized
by back-to-back national events for the persecuted church scores of
community activists with the midland ministerial alliance literally
committed themselves to ending the war in sudan with a keen ap-
preciation of midland’s unique position as the president’s hometown they approached this ambitious goal with a combination of moral
zeal and strategic moxie anchoring this effort were jerry hilton pas-
tor of the first presbyterian church which president bush attended
as a youth and deborah fikes the stay-at-home mom whose skills
as an organizer were acknowledged far and wide because of her per-
sonal connections to the sudanese christian community and by
virtue of her contacts with national advocates fikes timed the al-
liance’s lobbying to match strategic situations when cease-fire violations mounted in the spring of 2003 the
midland ministers alliance delivered a sharp letter to the sudanese
embassy under the letterhead banner hometown of president and
first lady laura bush ” the letter was signed by the mayor city coun-
cilmen oil company executives homemakers the catholic bishop and pastors and laity representing the entire protestant community—
methodist baptist lutheran presbyterian and episcopalian over
the past five years ” the signatories wrote we have documented ex-
posed and rallied against the bombing of civilians slave raids ethnic
cleansing and other forms of terror ” since the passage of the sudan
peace act a team of our coalition partners has documented massive
atrocities against civilians fields littered with human remains mass
graves and empty villages are testament to the deliberate policies of
genocide and ethnic cleansing ” such flouting of the law will have
devastating consequences for the regime leading the signatories to
invoke the oil sanction provision of the law the letter stated we
strongly urge you not to test our resolve ”218
this missive got the attention of the government of sudan and
sparked a remarkable flow of direct communication between the al-
296 chapter 7
04-184 ch 07 6 25 04 10 33 am page 296
liance and sudanese diplomats spurring this communication was a
sense that midland christians were tied to the president on a deeper
level” than official washington the foreign minister of sudan for
example encouraged his ambassador to the united states khidir h ahmed to contact christians from the village of george bush ” mid-
land leaders in turn conveyed back-channel communication to the
government of sudan that probably helped induce seriousness in
peace negotiations 219 from that point onward deborah fikes and
her compatriots maintained contact with sudanese officials present-
ing their views in a tough but respectful fashion thus while some
activists demonstrated outside the sudanese embassy the midland
folks were conveying a similar if softer message from the inside 220
being from the president’s village” also facilitated access by
midlanders to the highest levels of american government a wide ar-
ray of u s government officials acknowledged prodding by the mid-
land alliance this prodding included the president himself when
sudan coalition leaders were personally urging the president to press
hard for peace in sudan ” laura bush herself chimed in about how horrible” situation in sudan was 221
ultimately the midland alliance developed contacts with all the
parties to peace negotiations—the khartoum regime the splm the
u s government and the negotiators in kenya john garang splm
leader maintained close e-mail contact with fikes providing her
with information and asking for prayers but sympathy with rebel
groups did not prevent the alliance from prodding them concerned
that the splm might interpret the clout of the president’s village”
as an excuse to press for unrealistic demands the ministerial alliance
sent a blunt message to the rebels if the splm leaves itself open to
blame for the failure of peace negotiations our ability to ensure im-
mediate invocation of the sudan peace act or to take other steps to
hold the government of sudan accountable or to cause the united
states to take the side of the splm in any resumed military conflict
will be enormously perhaps impossibly compromised ” don’t mess with midland” became the refrain in a variety of cir-
cles at critical moments in peace negotiations all parties heard that
failure would cause serious political fallout for the president this was
backed by the resolve of activists to descend on washington for public
gentle as doves wise as serpents 297
04-184 ch 07 6 25 04 10 33 am page 297
action perhaps even arrests if their quieter pressure did not yield re-
sults failure of effort ” therefore meant that officials would have to
explain to the president why his friends were getting arrested in front
of the white house 222
beyond this strategic level the midland folks also boosted the
morale of others in the sudan coalition nina shea reported that at
the exact moment she was meeting with president bush on sudanese
human rights a hundred or so” midlanders met to pray for her sen-
ator brownback after meeting for hours with these citizen-diplomats described them as beautiful and humble people”—the spiritual de-
scendants of the abolitionists of the nineteenth century michael
horowitz said he was stunned by the decency and moral convictions
of these people and noted how they buoyed his spirits in the struggle we can never know the full impact of this citizen diplomacy but
the collective effort of the sudan alliance achieved striking results after a historic meeting between sudan president omar bashir and
splm leader john garang in april 2003 president bush moved that
summer to dispatch special envoy danforth back to sudan to make
clear that the only option on the table is peace ” by the fall the sides
had moved swiftly toward a peace treaty guaranteeing greater auton-
omy for the south 223 throughout most of the south the guns were
quiet and slave raids had ceased 224
a huge task remains and some coalition activists have shifted
focus to rebuilding southern sudan unfortunately to deal with an-
other insurgency this time by african muslims in the western
province of darfur the government of sudan unleashed so-called
jingaweit militias and employed scorched earth strategies killing
civilians and sending refugees fleeing without sustenance this act
showed how khartoum’s radical islamist policies imperil other mus-
lims in this case sufis the swiftness of the horror captured world
attention and was widely documented by secular human rights
groups and the elite press 225 by the spring of 2004 some one mil-
lion people had been displaced and another million war-affected all
of whom face a dire fate unless massive aid flows into the region but
because of khartoum’s success in scattering people into inaccessible
places and in impeding aid shipments andrew natsios of usaid
declared on june 3 2004 that even if relief gets in we’ll lose a third
298 chapter 7
04-184 ch 07 6 25 04 10 33 am page 298
of a million people” by the end of the year and if we don’t a
million 226
despite such a staggering assessment on the ten-year anniversary
of the rwanda genocide international response has been abysmal the united nations failed at the crucial moment to condemn the
sudan government or authorize any action to stem the inexorable
catastrophe astonishingly the african nations elected sudan to a seat
on the un human rights commission about the same time and
the european union continued normal relations with khartoum the united states has stood alone in condemning the ethnic
cleansing sustaining economic sanctions on sudan and getting relief
supplies into the region by the summer of 2004 the bush adminis-
tration had designated $285 million in direct aid to darfur compared
to $12 million total for the twenty-five member nations of the eu 227
and natsios was mobilizing u s logistical resources to move the aid staving off further mass death might involve riskier moves issuing an
official designation of genocide ” for example would probably re-
quire the u s to take aggressive actions indeed some activists believe
it would involve mounting a non-un- sponsored humanitarian in-
tervention with military escorts to stop khartoum from blocking
shipments and to protect refugees from continued militia attacks at
this point in time it is unlikely that an american president could un-
dertake such a radical military step without strong public pressure but
even maintaining the current u s commitment will require the kind
of public backing faith-based networks uniquely can foster sustaining
public interest remains a key challenge of the drive for a new sudan the faith-based movement has bent the arc of sudanese history though it is too early to say how much even if a fragile peace holds
in the south and genocide is forestalled in darfur it will take im-
mense outside resources to repair the shattered lands of the dinka nuba and other african peoples but if the ravaged people of sudan
do gain a modicum of peace and stability historians will point to an
unlikely alliance that moved the american government to intervene
in a conflict that many foreign-policy elites viewed as unimportant to
the national interest ironically this intervention may turn out to better serve america’s
national security than the hands-off approach urged by tough-minded
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realists ” it has already checked khartoum’s effort to spread its radical
version of islam into other african countries which would have ag-
gravated the religious and ethnic strife already afflicting that continent
and created more safe havens for terrorists as bishop gassis predicted we ignore massive human rights abuses at our own peril 300 chapter 7
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