International church leaders plead for peaceful solution
2/27/2003
NOTE: A sidebar, UMNS story #108, and photograph are available.
By Joretta Purdue*
The
Rev. Bob Edgar, a United Methodist who heads the U.S. National Council
of Churches, opens a Capitol Hill briefing in which four European
ecumenical leaders (immediately flanking Edgar) and three other U.S.
religious leaders told congressional staff and media representatives
they were united in their message to stop the move toward war with Iraq.
A UMNS photo by Lionel Meyer. Photo number 03-64, Accompanies UMNS
#107, 2/27/03
No Long Caption Available for this Story
WASHINGTON (UMNS) - Congressional legislative staff
and media representatives crowded a room in a Senate office building to
hear top-level ecumenical representatives from Europe express
solidarity with the people of America and call for a peaceful solution
to the conflict with Iraq.
Two United Methodists were among the
four U.S.-based religious leaders who also spoke at the one-hour
briefing Feb. 26. They advocated for a peaceful solution to the standoff
with Iraq, which has resulted from dictator Saddam Hussein's alleged
buildup of weapons of mass destruction.
"As people of faith, we
are one in our concern about the rush to war. We are one in our
opposition to thinking war is an option," said the Rev. Bob Edgar, who
moderated the event. Edgar, a United Methodist, is head of the National
Council of Churches staff.
A former congressman from
Pennsylvania, Edgar stressed that none of the speakers favored the
policies of Iraq's government. "But we believe the president of the
United States and the U.N. have won," he declared. "The inspectors are
there; let them inspect. If we need more inspectors, bring more
inspectors in. If we find weapons of mass destruction, destroy them.
"We
don't need to go to war to (settle) the issues that are presented to us
in relation to Iraq," he said. Edgar described his experience in
Baghdad, which he visited during the New Year's holiday with a group of
13 people. He displayed a picture of a 4-year-old Presbyterian Iraqi
that he had met, and warned of the damage to children there and
everywhere in the event of war.
"The prevailing assumption in the
United States government is that war with Iraq is inevitable," said Jim
Winkler, staff head of the United Methodist Board of Church and
Society, the denomination's international agency for advocacy and social
justice. "As a Christian, I find such sentiment to be unacceptable." He
urged Christians to face up to the choice between their willingness to
participate in war and their faith in God and Jesus as the prince of
peace.
Winkler has traveled to Baghdad and Germany in the last
two months with NCC-led groups of U.S. church leaders. Such groups have
met with government leaders in Great Britain, France and Italy, and
plans are under way for a March trip to Russia.
"The only
government that refuses to speak with church leaders is our own," he
said, after noting that both President George W. Bush and Vice President
Dick Cheney are United Methodists.
"The notion that the United
States can remake Iraq and, indeed, the entire region into a democratic,
pro-Western zone through a military invasion is a fantasy," Winkler
declared. "No matter how contemptible Saddam Hussein is, the people of
Iraq do not want a U.S. Army general as their new dictator, viceroy or
proconsul. Further, the nearly complete lack of willingness on the part
of our government to address the root causes of the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict does not bode well for an absolutely necessary regionwide
settlement."
The Rev. Jean Arnold de Clermont, president of the
French Protestant Federation, defended his country's call for allowing
the U.N. weapons inspectors more time to do their work. "We are hurt and
shocked when the position taken by France is considered hostile to the
United States," he said. "Your best ally is not one who guides you into
error but helps you find the road to peace."
He also warned that
such a conflict would play into the hands of al-Qaida leader Osama bin
Laden. "A war in Iraq would be a catastrophe for the moderate American
and Muslim world," de Clermont said. "This is exactly what bin Laden is
hoping for."
"We are not anti-American," asserted Bishop Manfred
Kock, president of the Council of the Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland
(Germany). His church has stated that it rejects an attack on Iraq "for
reasons of ethics and international law."
"War is contrary to
the will of God," and it must be a last resort of policymakers, Kock
said. All war brings distress to innocent people and often does not
achieve its goal, he added.
"It's not for the United States of
America or the United Kingdom to decide when we should go to war, but
for the United Nations to decide about peace," said the Rev. Alan D.
McDonald, with the Church of Scotland.
McDonald, representing
the churches of Britain and Ireland, said the people in those countries
held unprecedented protests. "The overwhelming majority of the
denominations of the United Kingdom have spoken out clearly and
decisively against the rush to war with Iraq," he said. That's despite
Prime Minister Tony Blair standing shoulder to shoulder with President
Bush on the matter, he noted.
"Peace is a long-term process
without politically manipulated timetables," said Salpy Eskidjian, a
program executive with the World Council of Churches. The council
includes 342 churches and denominations in 120 countries with a
membership of 400 million Christians. The United Methodist Church is a
member.
Saying the international ecumenical fellowship is united
in its message to stop the war against Iraq, she asserted that "war is
not the work of God but a sin against God and a degradation of
humankind."
"U.N. diplomacy is not flawless," said Eskidjian, a
native of Cyprus. "But if diplomacy is flawed and frequently stumbles or
fails, war is most certainly a flawed instrument. Indeed, war is not an
alternative 'solution'; it is the absence of a solution."
Pax
Christi, an international Catholic peace movement, has repeatedly
condemned a pre-emptive war with Iraq, said Marie Dennis, a vice
president. One reason is that the lives of 1.26 million children in Iraq
will be endangered as "more than 60 percent of Iraq's population depend
heavily on the U.N.'s Oil for Food program, which will not be sustained
- or will be very difficult to sustain - in the event of war."
"The
burden of war will once again be carried by the poor and vulnerable as
military expenditures steal funds from social programs in the U.S. and
around the world," she said.
Even the suggestion that the United
States would use nuclear weapons "would, we believe, unleash a
destructive force," she said. Pre-emptive war in Iraq will further
destabilize the region, causing more deaths; "increase the threat of
terrorist attacks around the world, including on U.S. soil"; cause
ecological devastation; and open the door to similar acts of aggression
by other countries.
"We urge the U.S. Congress to withdraw its
support for war in Iraq and demand answers from the Bush administration
about the potential cost and consequences of a U.S.-led invasion and
occupation of Iraq," she said.
"The world is desperate," asserted
Jim Wallis, executive director and editor of Sojourners magazine. He
led the NCC delegation that met with British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
"We're desperate" to find an alternative course of action that is
neither war nor inaction, Wallis said.
He suggested that if the
inspections imposed are not strong enough, they need to be strengthened.
"If there are concerns about how effective they are, how might we make
them more effective? If resolutions are not being enforced, how might
they indeed be enforced?" He said the focus should not be on attacking
the people of Iraq but on addressing the problem: Saddam Hussein.
Said Wallis: "We must find a way to respond to Iraq without bombing the children of Baghdad."
# # #
*Purdue is United Methodist News Service's Washington news director.