Accidental Rebel

About the Book

Following the accidental death of his wife, Jim Morgan, a recently retired Army doctor, returns to Colombia, where he had at one time been a medical missionary. As a favor to a woman he knows he secretly treats a friend of hers, only to learn later that the man is a guerrilla leader. To avoid interrogation by the authorities regarding this incident he fakes his own kidnapping and flees to the guerrilla camp. While there he witnesses attacks by paramilitary forces and by a team of American mercenaries and finds himself more than an innocent bystander.

Later while accompanying a seriously ill kidnapping victim to a hospital he is taken into custody by police and placed in a detention center. There he is pressured to betray his rebel associates. He eventually manages to escape and return to the States (accompanied by the woman who started it all, of course). Partly as a result of his testimony and the photographs he has taken there is a change in American policy toward the region.

Issues raised in this book include the following: How far should an American citizen go in opposing policies of his or her own government toward the foreign nation in which he or she may be residing? How should he or she defend their conduct if they are arrested for such opposition? What does he or she do if they are forced into actions that are in conflict with their ethical principles? Is what is called Liberation Theology of any help in identifying and correcting injustices in society?

About the Author

Besides the twenty years that James Morse has taught in medical schools he practiced medicine for eight years in Barranquilla, Colombia and six years in the U. S. Army (Japan, Korea, and Germany). A native of Oklahoma, he is a graduate of the A & M College of Texas and the University of Oklahoma School of Medicine. He was certified in pulmonary diseases by the American Board of Internal Medicine. Although he is the author of several scientific publications, this is his first novel.