Bear Witness: The Pursuit of Justice in a Violent Land by Ross Halperin tells the story of the Association for a More Just Society (or ASJ), an NGO based in Honduras. Founded by two Christian activists--Kurt Ver Beek and Carlos Hernández--ASJ has ambitious aims to correct inequality and corruption across Honduran society. In that deeply violent country, this began with a small operation to successfully prosecute murder convictions, the precondition for affecting change in almost any other arena. Since that small start, ASJ has grown in power and influence, in arenas such a police corruption (in a large-scale purge working with the government); improved wages and labor standards for private security; and education reform. The drop in Honduras's murder rate and the decrease in narcotrafficking during this period, Bear Witness argues, is in no small part due to ASJ. Throughout, the humble employees at ASJ have faced all manner of threats and violence, and some of their own have been killed by hitmen.
Evoking Jesus' exhortation in Matthew 10:16 to be "shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves," the various ways that Ver Beek and Hernández worked within a murky legal system at times blurred ethical lines. They used outside lawyers, vaguely associated ex-cops, and corrupt politicians. Ver Beek recounts how they could be purely critical of all corruption--and do nothing--or work within the government while maintaining distance--a difficult line to walk. They didn't always get it right. As their profile rose, so did the ambiguity about their integrity. Reading Bear Witness engenders a variety of responses, but on the whole, it is an authentic profile in courage.
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