A Pit of Our Own Making

The nations have plunged into a pit of their own making; their own feet are entangled in the net which they hid. Now the Lord is made known. Justice is done; the wicked are trapped in their own devices (Psalm 9:15-16).

When I look into the eyes of Eugene Hasenfus, I see a man who is scared, helpless, and trapped. Eugene Hasenfus [was] the first American caught in the net, the first American who [fell] into the pit we dug in Nicaragua...[and he wasn't] the last.

Hasenfus [a CIA cargo handler captured by the Nicaraguan army while delivering weapons to the contras, anti-government forces, in 1986] looks to me mostly like a Vietnam veteran - he has that confused, hurt, and vulnerable look about him. I remember it so well from Vietnam days. And just as in Vietnam, it's always the little people who fall first into the pit that the bigger people have dug. But eventually they - the bigger people - also fall into it. They get trapped in their own net. As the psalmist says, the wicked are ensnared by the work of their own hands. Just like Vietnam.

A few weeks after the Hasenfus story broke, the Iran arms deal became a national scandal. Ronald Reagan [made] arms deals with Iran in exchange for U.S. hostages. Who would have thought Ronald "I'll never negotiate with the terrorists" Reagan would be secretly cutting deals with the hated enemy Iran, a nation that has most certainly been a sponsor of terrorist acts? Why would he do it? Because he was stuck and under enormous pressure to release the hostages. And, I believe, because Ronald Reagan really care[d] about them.

The hostages [were] more innocents caught in the net, trapped in the big pit dug by U.S. policy in the Middle East and around the world. Of particular significance, I think, [were] the hostages' families. Those families [were] the visible symbol of a nation paying the price for its own arrogance and duplicity and a nation that can't understand the reasons why.

[At that time] I heard a call-in talk show on the radio. A caller was anguished and afraid. "They just seem to hate all Americans. Why do they hate us?" she asked. There was genuine pain and confusion in her voice, rather than anger. She literally had no idea why this was going on. Most Americans react as the hostages' families do. They just don't understand. They feel hurt. They feel scared. They are frustrated. They are caught in the net. They have fallen into the pit.

Then the national scandal over the arms deal became a national crisis when it was revealed that Iranian money for the payment of arms was secretly diverted to the Nicaraguan contras. That policy, operated out of the White House basement, exposed both the government's lying and breaking of the law.

Of course many of us suspected all along that the Reagan administration was illegally supplying the contras and knew that the government was lying about the war from the beginning. But try as we might, we were not able to make the press respond to the documented pattern of official falsehood about Nicaragua. Neither could we get Congress to pay any real attention to the truth, nor the public to realize what we were getting ourselves into again.

The Iranian arms and contra revelations changed the political climate almost overnight..... The important thing to note here is that the peace movement did not accomplish this great feat. The government officials did it to themselves. They got caught in their own hidden nets and fell into the pit of their own making.

DURING THE SAME turbulent autumn came the Reykjavik summit. For years we have sung the praises of U.S. technology and know-how. Indeed, our technology is the thing in which we have placed our greatest trust, while only a few alert theologians have raised the issue of idolatry. In Iceland, and since the summit, a president turned away from a path that could have begun to end the greatest threat ever faced by humankind. And why did he turn away? He said very clearly, "We will trust in American technology and not in agreements with the Soviet Union."

In refusing to come to terms with our adversary (which is the clear teaching of Jesus in these matters) and instead choosing to rely on our technology, we have missed the most important opportunity in more than two decades to save ourselves, and we have fallen back into the pit. We are now further stuck in the net of the arms race because we have replaced God's authority with human pride and power.

In sharp contrast to the arrogance and the idolatry of the nations, the psalmist says the poor and the needy who take their comfort from God will not be forgotten. The nation stumbles. The rich are disappointed. The powerful are brought down. The prideful fall into the traps of their own making. But the poor will take heart. God is full of surprises.

Just when the nations become overconfident in their falsehood and arrogant power, they are tripped up by their own plans. Just when those who labor in vain for justice and peace are ready to give up, the powerful tumble to the ground, and the truth is revealed. In the long stretch of history, we do reap what we sow, and it is to God that the powerful and the lowly will all finally be accountable.

They rush blindly down to Sheol, the wicked, all the nations who are heedless of God. But the poor shall not always be unheeded, nor the hope of the destitute be always vain.

Arise, Lord, give no one chance to boast their strength; summon the nations before thee for judgment. Strike them with fear, 0 Lord, let the nations know that they are but human (Psalm 9:17-20).

Jim Wallis is editor-in-chief of Sojourners.