December 12, 2001

After Hurricane Mitch devastated Central America in 1998, hundreds of volunteer mission teams descended on Nicaragua and Honduras. Many came from churches in the United States. At times the region’s threadbare airports were filled with herds of North Americans wearing T-shirts with slogans like “Jesus for Honduras,” “Mission to Nicaragua 2000” and “Christ Loves Central America.” Ushered past beggars into waiting vans, these churchpeople embarked on an adventure of solidarity that marks a shift in how we understand mission.

It is not a propitious time to be a pacifist in the United States. Polls indicate that over 90 percent of Americans continue to support the military campaign in Afghanistan. Indications of such support are everywhere, as are the warnings—like the ubiquitous and vaguely threatening “Americans Unite” bumper stickers—that this time of national crisis is not the time for dissent.

As the automobile has been the vehicle and symbol of American mobility, the airplane has been the vehicle and symbol of global mobility. If a person can afford the airfare, he or she can fly from one world capital to any other in even less time than it takes to drive from New York to Los Angeles.