Ambassador Niehaus shared his story with me when I was the air attaché at the American Embassy in The Hague, and his story made clear for me the real implication of our baptismal vows.

In June 1980, when he was a 21-year-old theology student, Carl Niehaus -- a white man -- was thrown out of Rand Afrikaans University for putting up posters on the campus calling for equal non-racial education and the release of Nelson Mandela from prison.

In the following month, Carl joined the African National Congress. He and his fiancée, Jansie, worked in the underground inside South Africa until they were arrested in August 1983.

They were found guilty of high treason. Carl received a 15-year sentence, while Jansie was sentenced to four years in prison.

Carl told me that the prison guards did bad things to him and worse to Jansie. "However," he said, "Jansie's and my faith carried us through the ordeal. Eventually the apartheid authorities saw that faith and allowed us to be married in prison."

Released from prison a year after Nelson Mandela, Carl became the media liaison spokesperson for the ANC, then ambassador to the Netherlands. Today he serves as a member of parliament.

Now, I had always believed -- as a U.S. Air Force officer -- that I would be willing to lay down my life for my country. However, I had never really given much consideration to spending 15 years in prison as a consequence of living out my baptismal vows. That would be the same as spending half of my military career in prison in answer to the question, "Will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being?"

I always thought of myself as someone who was fairly satisfied about my faith. At least I was doing enough that I could expect to have a favorable interview with St. Peter at the Pearly Gates. However, as I thought about Carl Niehaus' story, I realized that Jesus never asks us simply to be readers of the Scriptures. Rather, he has given us the task of actually implementing the promises God makes for all people.

For too long I had measured my faith by how well I could stay out of trouble. Instead, what my faith really demanded was an active commitment to justice and peace.

I thought that one small way to work out this active commitment might be through the work of Amnesty International, and I asked Carl Niehaus if, during his time in prison, he had ever seen letters written on his behalf by members of that organization.

Ambassador Niehaus replied that, during his time in prison, he never saw one letter from anyone from Amnesty International. However, after his release, the prison authorities showed him baskets and bags and boxes of letters written on his behalf by members of Amnesty International around the world. He believed that all these letters served to remind the authorities in the apartheid government that the whole world was watching what they were doing to Carl Niehaus.

Today, our congregation in Anacortes, Wash., is part of a group of Episcopal, United Congregational and Lutheran churches who are taking a small step in support of justice and in solidarity with political prisoners. These churches in Anacortes, Mount Vernon and Sedro-Woolley, Wash., all are part of Amnesty International's Interfaith Network.
The process is simple, yet we can have a big impact.

The Amnesty International Interfaith Network website publishes cases of prisoners of conscience around the world who have been imprisoned because of their religious beliefs. I select one of these cases each month, write a draft petition to that government's leaders and send it via e-mail to the various congregations in our network. On Sunday, the congregations sign their petitions and send them to the foreign address supplied by Amnesty International.

A number of those for whom we've written petitions have been released from prison. These include Helen Berhane, a Christian evangelical singer imprisoned in Eritrea; Thich Tri Luc, a Vietnamese Buddhist monk; Father Thadeus Nguyen Van Ly, a Catholic priest in Vietnam; and Lutheran Pastor Naw Karl Mua, who had been imprisoned in Laos. (Not that our particular letters tipped the scales, but we're proud to have been a part of the effort.)

If you're interested in helping people of faith around the world who are being persecuted for their religious beliefs, you can find the information you'll need at http://www.amnestyusa.org/interfaith. The Amnesty International Interfaith Network is a simple, yet most effective way to allow us to "strive for justice and peace among all people and respect the dignity of every human being."