REPORTER: Nick Lazaredes
WOMAN: What are you doing? You need to get out of here! Why are you giving me the evil eye? You need to get out of here! Why are you looking at me like that? Get off of me! Get off of me! Get off of me!
WOMAN 2: Shut your mouth!
WOMAN 3: You're OK. It's alright.
At this training session in Chicago, a group of Christian pacifists are challenging themselves with some very un-Christian-like role-playing.
WOMAN 2: Pisser in that corner. Crapper in that corner. Stay out of my zone, you should be alright.
Today's session is meant to illustrate what you might expect if you find yourself on the wrong side of an American prison. It seems an unlikely lesson for this group of devour Christians. But they may soon be heading to some of the most dangerous locations on earth and they say they are willing to make the ultimate sacrifice in the name of peace.
CLAIRE EVANS, CHRISTIAN PEACEMAKER TEAM: We think we have to be ready to take it all the way. If we're following Jesus, he went to his death for the sake of truth.
REPORTER: So you're talking about being prepared to go to your death?
CLAIRE EVANS: Yeah, we are.
WOMAN: Excessive praying will get you a night in jail, I guarantee it. I've been there.
Until recently, the Christian Peacemaker Team - or CPT - was a relatively unknown pacifist group working quietly on the fringes of armed conflicts in the Middle East and Latin America. But late last year the group's profile changed dramatically when four of its members were taken hostage in Iraq.
HOSTAGE: I'm a Christian peacemaker. I'm a friend of Iraq. I have been opposed to this war - Mr Blair's war - since the very beginning.
The four CPT members had only been in Iraq for a few weeks before their capture on November 26. The militant group that took them, calling itself the Swords of Righteousness, soon threatened their execution if US and British forces did not withdraw from Iraq.
TOM FOX, HOSTAGE: My plea to the people of America, not to the Government of America, a plea for my release from captivity and also a plea for the release from captivity for all the people of Iraq. We are all suffering from the same fate, and that is the occupation of the American troops and the British troops, which have brought me to this condition and has brought the Iraqi people to the condition they are in.
For Canadian James Loney, New Zealand resident Hameed Sooden, American Tom Fox and Englishman Norman Kember, the bitter reality of captivity. Their dire circumstances far more confronting than any role-playing they had encountered in their training.
CLAIRE EVANS: It's a really bad feeling to call up somebody and say, "Your loved one has been kidnapped in Iraq." And we fervently pray every day that it will turn out well and knowing still that it might not. It might turn out awful. And how to live with that and continue on with our work.
GIRL, ROLE PLAY: We'll take care of you, Mum.
MUM, ROLE PLAY: I don't know if you're going to be back today. You might be taken off the street. You might talk to somebody. They may take you hostage right away.
CPT members are trained to placate friends and relatives who don't want them to take part in such risky work.
GIRL, ROLE PLAY: Why would you knowingly put yourself in a position where there's a likelihood you will die?
WOMAN, ROLEPLAY: Well, that's part of the calling I have.
GIRL, ROLE PLAY: The calling? That's not rational.
WOMAN, ROLE PLAY: You're right. It's not. I might die while you're gone. Don't you care? Is she going to hold my body till you come home?
But the CPT members say their commitment to becoming peace warriors is based on centuries of non-violent Christian tradition. Although the Christian peacemaker team is truly ecumenical, it was born out of Mennonite and Quaker churches which have always preached non-violence. The main aim is to put themselves between perpetrators and the victims of violence and war.
In Israel, on the West Bank, team members monitor local police and Israeli settlers as a way of protecting Palestinian residents from violence.
CLAIRE EVANS: What we do is document what's happening and stand beside the people who are facing this violence every day just trying to live their lives.
Although some suspect the CPT team in Iraq was targeted because of its Christian name, the group says it doesn't preach or try to convert people. In fact, the team in Iraq was trying to set up Muslim peacemaker teams to widen their appeal of their peace warrior philosophy.
Unfortunately, that philosophy makes a happy ending to the hostage crisis unlikely. The CPT is firmly opposed to an armed rescue attempt.
KRYSS CHUPP, CPT: I think our concern from the very beginning is the concern that the four who have been abducted have also spoken out, which is not wanting to see any violence used in any form.
REPORTER: So that means you wouldn't like to see an armed rescue attempt?
KRYSS CHUPP: Correct, and neither would the men who are being held. They've made that very clear in statements they've made and documents they signed going into the situation. So that's a language that not all governments understand as readily.
WOMAN: We're going to remember this. We're not going to forget this easily. You are a regular pain in the ass. Alright, you're under arrest.
Before they're sent to the world's hot spots, team members try their best to prepare for violent situations.
WOMAN: Let's grab him by the clothes here. Have we cleared this space?
But ultimately the CPT puts its faith in the purity of its intentions. Rightly or wrongly, it's convinced that pacifism is contagious.
KRYSS CHUPP: I think it would be a tragic loss of life, were they to be killed. But I just, I really believe in my heart that those who are holding them also, by getting to know them, the longer they stay there, for sure, recognise that these are good people who want to do good in the world and whose energies and convictions and commitments are needed for making peace in the world, and that they will release them.
WOMAN: What are you doing? You need to get out of here! Why are you giving me the evil eye? You need to get out of here! Why are you looking at me like that? Get off of me! Get off of me! Get off of me!
WOMAN 2: Shut your mouth!
WOMAN 3: You're OK. It's alright.
At this training session in Chicago, a group of Christian pacifists are challenging themselves with some very un-Christian-like role-playing.
WOMAN 2: Pisser in that corner. Crapper in that corner. Stay out of my zone, you should be alright.
Today's session is meant to illustrate what you might expect if you find yourself on the wrong side of an American prison. It seems an unlikely lesson for this group of devour Christians. But they may soon be heading to some of the most dangerous locations on earth and they say they are willing to make the ultimate sacrifice in the name of peace.
CLAIRE EVANS, CHRISTIAN PEACEMAKER TEAM: We think we have to be ready to take it all the way. If we're following Jesus, he went to his death for the sake of truth.
REPORTER: So you're talking about being prepared to go to your death?
CLAIRE EVANS: Yeah, we are.
WOMAN: Excessive praying will get you a night in jail, I guarantee it. I've been there.
Until recently, the Christian Peacemaker Team - or CPT - was a relatively unknown pacifist group working quietly on the fringes of armed conflicts in the Middle East and Latin America. But late last year the group's profile changed dramatically when four of its members were taken hostage in Iraq.
HOSTAGE: I'm a Christian peacemaker. I'm a friend of Iraq. I have been opposed to this war - Mr Blair's war - since the very beginning.
The four CPT members had only been in Iraq for a few weeks before their capture on November 26. The militant group that took them, calling itself the Swords of Righteousness, soon threatened their execution if US and British forces did not withdraw from Iraq.
TOM FOX, HOSTAGE: My plea to the people of America, not to the Government of America, a plea for my release from captivity and also a plea for the release from captivity for all the people of Iraq. We are all suffering from the same fate, and that is the occupation of the American troops and the British troops, which have brought me to this condition and has brought the Iraqi people to the condition they are in.
For Canadian James Loney, New Zealand resident Hameed Sooden, American Tom Fox and Englishman Norman Kember, the bitter reality of captivity. Their dire circumstances far more confronting than any role-playing they had encountered in their training.
CLAIRE EVANS: It's a really bad feeling to call up somebody and say, "Your loved one has been kidnapped in Iraq." And we fervently pray every day that it will turn out well and knowing still that it might not. It might turn out awful. And how to live with that and continue on with our work.
GIRL, ROLE PLAY: We'll take care of you, Mum.
MUM, ROLE PLAY: I don't know if you're going to be back today. You might be taken off the street. You might talk to somebody. They may take you hostage right away.
CPT members are trained to placate friends and relatives who don't want them to take part in such risky work.
GIRL, ROLE PLAY: Why would you knowingly put yourself in a position where there's a likelihood you will die?
WOMAN, ROLEPLAY: Well, that's part of the calling I have.
GIRL, ROLE PLAY: The calling? That's not rational.
WOMAN, ROLE PLAY: You're right. It's not. I might die while you're gone. Don't you care? Is she going to hold my body till you come home?
But the CPT members say their commitment to becoming peace warriors is based on centuries of non-violent Christian tradition. Although the Christian peacemaker team is truly ecumenical, it was born out of Mennonite and Quaker churches which have always preached non-violence. The main aim is to put themselves between perpetrators and the victims of violence and war.
In Israel, on the West Bank, team members monitor local police and Israeli settlers as a way of protecting Palestinian residents from violence.
CLAIRE EVANS: What we do is document what's happening and stand beside the people who are facing this violence every day just trying to live their lives.
Although some suspect the CPT team in Iraq was targeted because of its Christian name, the group says it doesn't preach or try to convert people. In fact, the team in Iraq was trying to set up Muslim peacemaker teams to widen their appeal of their peace warrior philosophy.
Unfortunately, that philosophy makes a happy ending to the hostage crisis unlikely. The CPT is firmly opposed to an armed rescue attempt.
KRYSS CHUPP, CPT: I think our concern from the very beginning is the concern that the four who have been abducted have also spoken out, which is not wanting to see any violence used in any form.
REPORTER: So that means you wouldn't like to see an armed rescue attempt?
KRYSS CHUPP: Correct, and neither would the men who are being held. They've made that very clear in statements they've made and documents they signed going into the situation. So that's a language that not all governments understand as readily.
WOMAN: We're going to remember this. We're not going to forget this easily. You are a regular pain in the ass. Alright, you're under arrest.
Before they're sent to the world's hot spots, team members try their best to prepare for violent situations.
WOMAN: Let's grab him by the clothes here. Have we cleared this space?
But ultimately the CPT puts its faith in the purity of its intentions. Rightly or wrongly, it's convinced that pacifism is contagious.
KRYSS CHUPP: I think it would be a tragic loss of life, were they to be killed. But I just, I really believe in my heart that those who are holding them also, by getting to know them, the longer they stay there, for sure, recognise that these are good people who want to do good in the world and whose energies and convictions and commitments are needed for making peace in the world, and that they will release them.