A look at the present

One day, a young man was driving his bicycle, correctly on his side of the street, when he was violently pushed from behind by a passenger bus trying to win a "race" against another bus. The young man fell headlong on the street, while the bus driver went on with his race as if nothing had happened. But there were several witnesses who helped the young man, and who had also written down the number of the bus. So he went, still bleeding, to the next police station, in order to file a report. The policeman in charge replied: "Bring me first a medical certificate that you are really wounded; else we will not receive any report." - The young man, not having the possibility of following this complicated procedure (and not having any security if his wounds were sufficiently serious to satisfy the policeman), desisted from his attempt to obtain justice.
About the motives of the policeman, we can only guess. Was he just tired and unwilling to attend? Or did he expect to receive a bribe from the young man? Or was there some obscure regulation requiring a medical certificate? (If that was the case, such a regulation would have been quite against the true task of the police.) Whatever the reason was, the police did not fulfill its purpose which is declared in the Constitution as follows:

In this case, the victim did not receive any protection, the crime was not investigated nor fought against, and the laws were not fulfilled. On the contrary, who was protected was the guilty bus driver, who certainly felt free to commit the same delict again, since there were no negative consecuences for him.

This case is very typical for the kind of problems Peru is presently suffering. Although many people would say that Peru's main problem is poverty, at the roots of this material problem are deeper problems of ethical, psychological and spiritual nature.
The problem has something to do with crime and the lack of respect for the law; but this is not its essence. When we are attacked by a robber, or wounded by a careless bus driver, of course we are suffering, physically. When a policeman refuses to attend and protect us as victims, we might think that this is only a minor issue, since this ill-treatment is "only psychological". But over time, the consequences of the latter are worse, since there is a qualitative difference between these two types of ill-treatment.
This is the difference: Of a criminal we do not expect anything else; criminals always harm their victims. But of a policeman, we expect that he, as an authority, would defend us against criminals. We invest a certain amount of trust in a policeman when we ask for his help. So, when the policeman ill-treats us, he acts against our expectations. Exactly the person who should guarantee our safety, is threatening our safety. So our trust is betrayed - not only trust in this particular policeman, but trust in all representatives of Government and Law.
The basic problem consists in our relationship to authority, and the way how authority and power is exercised.

We have studied the different forces which dominated Peru in the past. They started a vicious circle which transmits power abuse from each generation to the next one. The conquerors are no longer here; but now there are Peruvians themselves who abuse their fellow countrymen.
We can observe this pattern in such different areas as political corruption, crime, relationships with foreign countries, family relationships, and even in Christian churches.
So this is my conclusion: A large number of present problems of Peru have their roots in the "national trauma" of the conquest. This has been confirmed by Peruvian psychologist Luis Herrera:

The present situation is of course too complex to be analized in a generalized form. In continuation, I would like to just mention some symptoms of the problem.

Crime and violence

The high crime rate proves that many people do not respect any law except the "law of the strongest". But what calls even more our attention, are the cases where people trying to defend themselves against a criminal attack, were arrested and accused of aggression. In several cases, the police defended criminals against their victims!

Dependence on foreign countries

Economically, Peru is still not independent. There is much dependency on foreign credits which cause heavy burdens of interests. It seems that there is not even a desire of building an independent economy. Peruvian businesses are even being sold to foreign companies, causing all profits to flow to foreign countries.

Admiration of what is foreign

Generally, what is foreign is admired, and what is national is despised. TV actresses and female TV speakers have to have blond hair and white skin. Women ondulate and dye their hair in order to look more foreign. Clothes are far better sold if they show a label in English, faking a foreign origin (although these labels normally betray themselves by several orthographical and grammatical mistakes).
The Christian churches are not free from this tendency. If a preacher from Europe or the USA speaks at a conference, there is much more attendance than with a Peruvian speaker. Foreign "recipes" are likely to be copied, even if they are culturally completely inappropriate.
This is even more striking when we compare it to the African mentality which is very different in this respect (at least as I could observe in Kenya). Africa has also a colonial history, even more recent than Peru. Regarding economical and scientific development, most African countries are far behind Peru. But there nobody would think of admiring foreigners or submit to them blindly.
Missionary Tim Stafford writes:

I am not suggesting that Peruvians adopt the same resentment as Africans, or that thay accept blindly a bad government only because it is Peruvian. But I do suggest that they should value freedom and independence more highly than they do.

There is also a certain contempt for what is national. Peruvians express these concepts in all variants: "We are poor, we are nothing, we are unable to produce anything", etc. - How can the descendants of the extremely inventive Incas speak this way?
Also the national languages are despised. Quechua-speaking parents, with very little knowledge of Spanish themselves, insist that their children should be educated in Spanish only. In the large cities, Spanish is now beginning to be replaced by English. But how can children learn to read, if they are forced to read a language they cannot understand? (Fortunately, there are now projects of bilingual education being realized.)
The Bible states that every nation and every language has its own dignity before God. "When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance, when he divided all mankind, he set up boundaries for the peoples ..." (Deut. 32:8) - "After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb ..." (Rev. 7:9)

The price of independence

Let us talk about economical development again. My wife, as a nurse, worked for some time in a very poor rural area. We heard of several community development projects which had been started in that area, but had been abandoned after some time.
A NGO had tried to improve the nutrition of children, based on food which could be produced locally. They found that the children's needs could be satisfied if people produced less potatoes, and more quinua and some other products. During two years, they donated tools to those farmers who produced the largest amounts of quinua. Production increased, and the children's health improved. But after those two years, when there were no more donations, everybody returned to cultivating potatoes and nothing else.
Another organization taught people how to build agricultural terraces on the slopes of mountains. They built some sample terraces and proved that production increased. But after the organization left, the whole work was abandoned.

These are the same dynamics as in the relationships with foreign countries: It is preferred to be dependant on aid from outside, instead of paying the price of independence. People prefer importing fruits instead of planting trees.
The "First World" countries in particular are admired for the material "fruits" they produce, especially their technical development. So people make every effort to obtain, or else imitate, the same fruits. But fruits do not grow without a tree!

We must here consider some aspects of Europe's history. Many people believe that the scientific and technical development is a result of the rise of rationalism in the 18th and 19th century, when the ancient "superstitions" (especially any belief in supernatural things) came under attack. But this is an anachronism. Technical and industrial development was based on scientific principles which were established one or two centuries earlier, by men who in their majority had deep Christian convictions. Well-known scientists, such as Francis Bacon, John Kepler, Isaac Newton, and Blaise Pascal, expressed their conviction that this world was created by a rational and orderly God, with logical laws; and that God reveals himself to us in the Bible. Therefore they were convinced that it was possible, by means of observation and logical conclusions, to discover these laws of God in his creation. These were the men who laid the foundations for the industrial development to come later. (For an in-depth study on this subject, see Francis Schaeffer, "How Should We Then Live?", chapter 6 and 7.)
Another factor was work ethics, which was developed especially by the Reformers. Before the Reformation, the common idea was that in order to serve God, one had to shut himself up in a monastery. Luther and Calvin, on the other hand, taught that every work is a calling from God and has to be realized as a service for God. (See Col.3:17-24). Luther applied the word "vocation" (which literally means "calling") to the daily work of everyone. Also the word "profession" has a religous origin: "To profess" means originally "to take a (religious) vow" or "to confess one's beliefs". A "professional" should exercise his work with a religious conviction that God called him to this service.
This concept has tremendous implications for development. If a professional is aware of the fact that his work is a service for God, he will render the maximum he is capable of. He will not dare to deliver a work of poor quality into the hands of God. If an employer has this same consciousness, he will not dare to pay unjust wages, nor to exploit his employees.
Even secular historians admit that "protestant work ethics" was a decisive factor in Europe's economical development.

Ironically, Europe and North America are currently very busy cutting off these very Christian roots of their culture. Systematically, all Christian elements are being eliminated from public life, the educational system, the mass media, and the scientific community. People attribute all development to themselves and forget God. The sad consequences are already visible in North American society: steadily increasing rates of violence, crime, and drug addiction; and a general absence of moral and ethics. Sooner or later, this decadence will manifest itself also in an economical breakdown.

Returning to Peru: The price of economical independence consists, therefore, in making an effort of planting the tree of Christian ethics. This tree is rooted in personal repentance and a conversion of the heart towards Jesus Christ. From there will come forth the power to change life.
That this is possible, I was able to see in two rural communities in the highlands. One of them is located in the above mentioned district where several development projects failed. Health workers spoke of that community as the only one where children were well nourished. Houses were better built and cleaner; and they had taken initiative to build their own drinking-water reservoir. It is not by accident that half of the inhabitants of this community are Bible-believing Christians.
In another community I got to know, I noticed from the beginning that all people in the street, adults and children, greeted us friendly. (In other communities, when a stranger arrives, people hide, ignore them, look at them with a distrustful expression, or children run after them, begging.) All houses had electrical light, which is still an exception in such remote places. We heard that alcoholism, very widespread in the highlands, did practically not exist in this community. Even the soil produced better than in other communities of comparable altitude, and this without using artificial fertilizers. In this place too, the majority of the inhabitants were Christians.

Only dead heroes?

In order to be declared a national hero of Peru, there is an indispensable prerequisite: You have to die. - On the other hand, it is not indispensable that the hero overcomes: several national heroes died in lost wars. So allow me to ask the ingenuous questions of a stranger: What is more important, that the hero dies, or that the hero wins? And why is it not allowed for heroes to survive?
I might be mistaken in this point. But it seems to me that the passion for dead heroes is again a way of degrading oneself as a nation. There is an implicit message in it: "Or we will die, or we will lose, or both. But we will not win and survive."

When I was a child, I liked to read adventure stories. But when the situation turned very dangerous for the hero, I jumped to the last pages of the book in order to see if the hero was still alive. If the hero was alive in the end of the story, I could go on reading without fear: the hero would survive. But if the hero would not survive, I preferred not going on reading.
The Bible, thanks to God, is a book about heroes who won and survived. Its greatest hero, Jesus Christ, after giving his life for us, rose from the dead. He was not a helpless victim of the political, religious or military powers. On the contrary: he had all power, and laid down his life voluntarily; nobody could force him to do it. (See John 10:17-18, 19:11).
John A.Mackay, in his work "The Other Spanish Christ", shows that in Spanish religiosity, Christ is represented only as a helpless baby, or as a dead victim. "A Christ who was born and died, but never lived." - "In the Spanish religion, Christ has been the center of death worship." - The place which corresponds to Christ as Lord of Life and King of the Universe, has been occupied by his mother Mary.
Against this distorted concept of Christ (reflected in the honour given to dead heroes), we should contemplate the true image of Christ as seen by the Apostle John in Patmos (Rev. 1:12-18, 19:11-16).

We can apply the same to ourselves. If I want to read the last pages of my own life's story as a Christian, I go to the book of Revelation. There I can read about the great multitude of overcomers who are alive forever in the presence of God! (Rev.11:18, 12:10-11, 21:3-7) In the very end of History, the hero wins and is still alive. The hero of this story am I! ... and everyone who belongs to Christ. God has a people of living heroes.

The King or the Law?

In 1644, the Scotsman Samuel Rutherford published a book which laid the foundations of the modern Constitutional State: "Lex Rex" ("The Law is King"). The discussion is about the power of the king, and the limits of this power. Is the authority of the king superior to the law, so the king can break the law or change it in any way he wants, for being king? Or is the king obliged to submit to the law?
Rutherford agreed with the second answer. The power of the king is not absolute, but is limited by the law. And the law must not be modified in any arbitrary way, since it is built upon the foundation of the Law of God. The laws of the State have to be established in a way that they fulfill the Law of God.
These principles are not new, but are taken directly from the Bible. The Law of Moses establishes the following principles in Deuteronomy 17:14-20:
- The king must not be a stranger.
- The king must not use his power in order to enrich himself personally.
- The king must study the Law of God and submit to this Law.
God does not allow the Government to enact every possible law (see Isaiah 10:1-2, Psalm 94:20).

This is at the same time the core of the Reformation. The churches of the Reformation teach that the Word of God is the supreme authority, above all human authorities. ("We must obey God rather than men", said Peter exactly to the religious authorities whom he disobeyed, Acts 5:29). The Catholic church, on the other hand, teaches that the Bible can be taught only in the way the Catholic church (resp. their authorized leaders) interprets it. This means that a human authority is put above the written Word of God.
The Reformation consisted in returning the Church to its original foundation: the Word of God and the teaching of the Apostles, as we have it in the New Testament.
It is not by accident that the author of "Lex Rex" was a protestant. The principle he established was only the transposition of the Reformation principle into the political realm: "The foundation is not man, but the Law of God." In fact there is a connection between the Reformation and the modern Constitutional State, as there is a connection between Roman Catholicism and dictatorship. Generally, the Roman Catholic countries established Democracy and religious freedom much later than the protestant countries (Spain, for example, not until the second half of the 20th century).

The political system of Peru, although constitutional in appearance, is not founded upon the principle of "Lex Rex".
The government of Fujimori had been widely criticised, even before the discovery of the cases of corruption. But most of this criticism missed the goal: "Poverty continues", "Government should give more money for this or that purpose", "The peace with Ecuador is betrayal of the nation" - all these criticisms, in my opinion, were not justified. Fujimori achieved more than most of his predecessors, regarding development and interior and exterior peace. Where he failed, was exactly in the subject we are treating: abuse of power.
In a modern Constitutional State, the separation of powers makes sure that the president cannot take over an absolute and arbitrary power. He must act within the frame of law.
There is an interesting verse in Isaiah 33:22: "For the LORD is our judge, the LORD is our lawgiver, the LORD is our king; it is he who will save us." This verse anticipates separation of powers, since it mentions three independent powers in a state: judicial (judge), legislative (lawgiver), and executive (king). And it establishes that these three powers are under God's authority.
Fujimori did not respect this principle. In 1992, he dissolved the Congress (took over the legislative power). Later, he destituted the Constitutional Court (took over the judicial power). There, and in other cases, he infringed the law and began to assume an absolute power.
But these facts played a very marginal role in public opinion. The prevalent themes were the economical crisis and other problems for which the president cannot be blamed since he does not have control over them. The abuse of his power, on the other hand, was clearly his fault. The people, however, hardly noticed it. They are so accustomed to power abuse by their leaders, that they view it as something normal. Therefore we can expect the same scenario to repeat itself in the future.

One part of the problem lies in the fact that there are very few examples of good and just authorities. So the new leaders are very likely to be trained according to bad examples.
Another part of the problem is in the people who keep saying: "We want a king!" Certain sectors of the population even protest and rebel and behave disorderly until the government demonstrates that it is strong enough to keep them under control - very similar to schoolboys who provoke their teacher on purpose, in order to see "how much authority he has".

Education for abuse

The educational system, according to an idealistic notion, should "prepare the pupils for life". Yes, it does, but not in the way these idealists imagine. Peruvian pupils are confronted with different forms of power abuse, and so they are conditioned to view abuse as something normal.
Some of these phenomena can simply be classified as teacher's irresponsibility. For example, teachers who give their pupils homework without any educative value (such as writing down, during their vacation, all even numbers from 10'000 to 30'000). Or teachers who have second- and third-graders work through the textbook on their own, without giving them the necessary explanations - simply because they are too lazy to prepare their lessons.
These examples may seem insignificant, but it is where the problem begins. An authority who does not fulfill his duty, but requires from his subordinates that they perform more than what is their duty, commits power abuse.
Other kinds of abuse involve arbitrary changes of schedules, school fees, etc. Most schools do not respect their own internal regulations (which can be considered the "law" of a school). Parents often find that they have to pay all sorts of fees which do not appear in any regulation nor official communication.
Then there are the numerous religious and political celebrations where pupils are forced to participate - in spite of the liberties guaranteed by the Constitution.
And there are still too many cases of physical abuse of pupils by teachers, or of insulting and ridiculing them.

School grades are a powerful instrument in the hands of a teacher. They can decide about the future carreer of a pupil. Their legal purpose, of course, is the evaluation of a pupil's performance. But the pupils' fear of their grades is such that they allow being manipulated by their grades, for example, to participate in Catholic ceremonies although they are not Catholic; or to pay fees of which they know they do not have to pay them; or to buy a uniform although the law states they cannot be forced to buy one, and many more.
These abuses get to their extreme where teachers receive bribes, or (in higher grades) "sexual favors", in exchange for good grades. Very few of these cases are denounced, since the victims are minor children or teenagers, are in a situation of dependence because the teacher has the power of truncating their future carreer, and are inhibited by fear and shame so they won't talk. But pupils know that these things happen, and learn that this is "a normal part of life".

All the mentioned cases, "small" or "big", engrave the same message in the hearts of children: that humans exist in order to satisfy the irrational desires of those in power.

Work: The exploitation continues

Although there are no longer colonial lords, there are still many cases of exploitation. Many employees work without any contract nor legal security; they never know if they will get their monthly wages or not, and if they are not paid, they do not have any legal resource for complaining. Although the Constitution establishes that nobody can be forced to work more than 48 hours a week, most regular workers have to work 60 to 70 hours, but are paid for 48. Children and teenagers realize the same work as adults, but are paid much less since they are children.
The "counter-deception" by employees consists in delivering apparently good work but of poor quality. Or they cheat customers and keep the balance for themselves.
Quite frequently there are cases detected where professionals obtained influential positions not by their qualifications, but by bribing, cheating, "personal influence" and other dishonest means. This has far-reaching consequences: All these professionals (doctors, teachers, engineers, etc.) have their "customers" (patients, students, etc.) who depend on their professional capacities. Because of one incompetent professional, hundreds of people are harmed because they receive inappropriate attention or education, live in dangerously constructed buildings, etc.
This is one of the causes of poverty which is seldom being considered: the ethical factor. Economical and structural changes will not succeed if there is not at the same time a change in the hearts of people.

Of shepherds and sheep

I made a curious obervation in the rural life of Peru, which may serve as an illustration of the subject we are discussing.
Jesus describes the work of a shepherd in this way:

This parable is not applicable in a Peruvian context, because of one detail: Peruvian shepherds do not walk ahead of their sheep. They walk behind them and drive them with a stick, as you would do with cows and other cattle.
I believe this is more than a detail: it reflects a whole world-view about the relationship between a leader and his followers.

Jesus compares us with sheep, not with cows, for a good reason. Sheep are capable of distinguishing the voice of their shepherd and following him trustfully. Even more: they need this wise and loving guidance, else they would get lost.
Do you remember Bartolomé de las Casas' description of the South American natives? - "the most simple, without evil nor falsehood, obedient, faithful to their natural and foreign lords... They are neat and with a lively understanding, very capable of being instructed in every good doctrine ..."
This gives us the impression of a people very willing to follow an authority, a "good shepherd" who would lead them on the right path. But instead of being fed, guided, and cared for, these sheep were driven, oppressed, and swallowed.

Where the sheep follow the shepherd, there is a relationship of mutual trust. The sheep trust that the shepherd will lead them to good pastures, and so they follow him willingly. And the shepherd trusts that the sheep will actually follow him by their own will; he does not need to control continuously from behind if all of them are following the path. - Moreover, the shepherd will walk the path first. If there were a dangerous precipice, a broken bridge, a swamp - the shepherd would be first in noticing it and in confronting the danger. He is the one who gives the sheep an example: he will not expect them to walk a path he had not walked himself first.
Where the shepherd walks behind the sheep, things are very different. There is nobody the sheep could follow; they have to find the way by themselves. And they feel constantly threatened from behind. Instead of trusting their shepherd, they fear him. The shepherd does not trust his sheep either: he has to push them in order to have them walk, and has to watch over them so they will not go astray. This relationship is characterized by mistrust, control and force on one hand, and fear on the other hand.
Is this not like a mirror of what the Spaniards did in Peru? Is it possible that the attitude of the conqueror, the oppressor, has penetrated in this nation to such depths that it influences even the behaviour of shepherds toward their sheep?
The conquest destroyed not only material things. What is much more serious: it destroyed every vision and every conscience of a good leadership. In consequence, from the conquest until today there have been very, very few examples of good, just and honest leaders; while bad leaders have reproduced themselves from generation to generation. We see this in every sphere which requires leadership: politics, work, the church, and even the family. Very few leaders in this nation show the characteristics of leadership Jesus taught and lived. There are many more leaders who "drive" their followers and who are not ready to explore themselves the path where they require their followers to walk.
On the other hand, trust of people in their leadership was also destroyed. So there abound followers who fulfill their tasks unwillingly, only in appearance but not from their hearts, and with much mistrust toward their superiors.

This is the core of the national tragedy. Every generation of wounded sheep produced a new generation of bad shepherds who caused new wounds. This vicious circle has never been broken, from the conquest until today.

But there stands the real Good Shepherd, the Heavenly Father, and for a long time he has already been calling this nation: "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." (Matthew 11:28-30)
But the wounded sheep do not trust him: "After all, God also represents power and authority. So one can never be sure what he will do with us. We better please him with some ceremonies and some alms, and keep our distance."
So the sheep remain wounded and do not approach the Good Shepherd. How many other shepherds have only beaten them when they approached them! And this is the most tragic aspect. For in Jesus is the solution of the problem! He offers healing for the wounded sheep; and he also offers a new model of leadership and authority which could revolutionize not only their personal lives, but also public and even political life of this country, if only this model would be received and applied.

"For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." (Matthew 11:30)
"I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. He will come in and go out, and find pasture. ... I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep." (John 10:9-11)

It is time now to examine more deeply what God has to say about authority, power, and abuse of power.

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THE WOUNDED SHEEP OF PERU

Chapter 2: A look at the present

A look at the present

Crime and violence

Dependence on foreign countries

Admiration of what is foreign

The price of independence

Only dead heroes?

The King or the Law?

Education for abuse

Work: The exploitation continues

Of shepherds and sheep