FAQ

Describe the process of how Bear Witness came to be.

The author, Ross Halperin, originally came down to write a short article about ASJ’s Peace and Justice project. Kurt, Carlos, and others at ASJ-Honduras got to know him, liked him–and he liked us. That led to his idea to write a longer feature for a magazine. Over time, though, and after seven years of researching and visiting Honduras, he had written a whole book.

ASJ didn’t write or commission Bear Witness. Nor were we given editorial input during the writing process. We didn’t get to read the book until it was already at the publishers.

In the book’s note on sources, Ross shares that his source materials include a “trove of emails and ASJ documents.” Why did ASJ give the author access and permission to write this book? 

“Some people say it wasn’t a good idea, but Carlos and I are just all about being transparent—there's nothing that we need to hide.” -Kurt Ver Beek

While granting access to Ross did mean giving up some control over the narrative, it also represented an opportunity for the story of Kurt, Carlos, and ASJ to reach millions of new people who have never heard of our work. We hope that many, many people who read the book will come away inspired by the story of the work, and that many will also feel inspired to become supporters of ASJ.

Is Ross a Christian?

While he is not a Christian, Ross is passionate about doing justice work. His motivations for this work are just different from ours. This served as both an advantage and a disadvantage because it shows that a group of brave Christians helped re-shape his perspective on Christianity. However, we still see in a few cases in the book that it hasn’t been fully changed when he describes people’s faith and desire to pray in ways that can be read as dismissive.

ASJ remains an organization rooted in our faith and committed to the work of justice in the name of Jesus.

Kurt and Carlos: What emotions and reflections did reading a book about yourself provoke, especially a book that you did not get to read until it was at the printer?

“It was definitely a little weird at times. I think Jo Ann engaged with it more than I did—Ross even describes me in the book as awkward and not very good at Spanish.

“But honestly, a lot of it was really cool. Ross ended up uncovering facts, names, dates, and all kinds of details—some of which I never knew and many I had completely forgotten. In that sense, it’s amazing to now have a record of things we did 20 years ago—things that would’ve otherwise been lost to time.” -Kurt Ver Beek

Carlos:

What do you like about the book?

As Kurt said, this book is exhaustively researched! Ross gave us a huge gift by creating a record, especially of ASJ’s early work, complete with names, dates, events and more. In those early days, Kurt, Carlos, and the rest of ASJ were focused on achieving tangible justice for their neighbors–results, in other words. As ASJ has matured, our recordkeeping and storytelling has matured with us. But for this book, many of those early details may likely have been lost forever to history.

We are also thrilled with the opportunity that this book offers to share the message of Kurt and Carlos’ courage with millions who would otherwise never have heard about it. At ASJ, we are committed to being brave Christians, and these stories put into stark relief the bravery required to do the work of justice in the world. We are sure it will inspire the countless people who will read it.

Were there any parts of the book that ASJ would have written differently?

A few things come to mind. One of them would have been to better capture Kurt and Carlos’ heart for their employees, as well as the seriousness with which they made some of the decisions they made. In some cases, Carlos and Kurt simply don’t remember it happening the way it is described in the book.

We also would have worked harder to incorporate more voices into the book. We understand that Ross wanted to narrow his focus on just Carlos and Kurt, but there were also a lot of other well-trained Honduran leaders involved in many of the projects described in the book, both inside and outside of ASJ. The focus on Kurt and Carlos as the central characters necessarily misses that.

We recognize that language was a barrier in the process. Ross does not speak Spanish, so it was more accessible for him to spend more time with bilingual English/Spanish speakers when an interpreter was not available. As an unintentional, but still unfortunate, result, Carlos and other Honduran directors who were pivotal in these stories did not get a proportionate amount of attention in the book.

That lack of full access also means there is, at times, a lack of sensitivity when it comes to the book’s portrayal of Hondurans as a whole. Hondurans are brave and resilient people. Many of these positive attributes did not come through in the book and we fear that many of the stereotypes that people in the US may have about Central Americans will be perpetuated through some of the stories. 

Finally, this is a fun read! The writing is propulsive and engaging. It’s hard to put it down!

Some parts of the book suggest that Kurt and Carlos were taking too many risks, or that they were naive. How would you respond to this characterization, and do you feel it’s justified? 

“I think sometimes, to some extent, that's probably true. We started this when we were under 30, both Carlos and I were just trying to figure things out. But at the same time, I think, especially as the years pass, that seems less and less true, and one of the things I feel like Ross didn't get quite right is that this wasn't just Carlos and I figuring things out….We were working with some of the people I most admire in this world - super smart Hondurans. The head of the Honduran university, the head of the Protestant church, the director of World Vision –  these were smart people. And we were doing this together. And, I think we did it really well. And I'm really proud of it.” -Kurt VerBeek

Justice work is messy. There is a lot of gray, especially when you’re dealing with entrenched challenges like poverty and violence. What’s more, hindsight is always 20/20. It’s easy to read these stories and forget that Kurt and Carlos were human beings making the best decisions they could in the moment. Kurt and Carlos have always been committed to courage, collaboration, and transparency, and these are values that have shaped ASJ as well from the very beginning.

The book presents Kurt and Carlos’ approach to justice as a radical one. What are the defining characteristics of ASJ’s work for justice?

ASJ is unique in that we seek to both apply what we’ve termed “healthy pressure” on government systems, and to propose meaningful solutions. It’s easy to criticize systems, but this second piece is where we’ve found the most success in creating positive change. We conduct deep research to not only understand what is broken, but also why and, crucially, what might help fix it. In many cases, the Honduran government has decided to adopt our recommended solutions almost word-for-word. From there, our team continues to monitor the systems in place in order to see how the changes are being implemented and if they are as effective as we’d hoped. You can see some specific examples of this process in action on the stories page. (Bear Witness Stories)

The book suggests that during current-president Xiomara Castro's term, ASJ has found it hard to build collaborative relationships with government officials. Is this true? 

ASJ works hard to remain nonpartisan in everything that we do. As Kurt is quoted saying in the book after Casto was elected, “We consider it our job for the next four years to try to make their administration as effective as possible. This is not a partisan position, but a Christian one. We know from experience that when governments fail, those who suffer are the poorest and most vulnerable" (pg 277).

And since the book was written, ASJ has been able to accomplish significant progress, even with a less-than-willing government. ASJ’s advocacy was able to secure more days of school and school lunches for Honduras’ public school kids, to increase the number of patients reporting that they have received all of their prescribed medications, to secure commitments from the government to protect la Mosquitia–a critically important ecological region of the country, and much more.

Why does the book call ASJ a charity when ASJ works hard to differentiate between charity, development, and justice?

In the book, the author often refers to ASJ as “a charity”. This usage reflects less on the kind of work that ASJ does and more on the legal nature of the organization. The author is using charity here in the way that it is often used in the UK and other parts of the world–as a synonym for “nonprofit” or “nongovernmental organization (NGO)”.

ASJ does differentiate between the work of charity, development, and justice–positioning ourselves as existing to the work of justice even as other organizations exist to do the needed work of charity and development. To learn more about this distinction, and why it matters to ASJ’s self-conception, you can read more on our webpage here.