Iraq

Anti-War Sermon Draws IRS Wrath

The IRS is threatening to revoke the tax exempt status of All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena, California because the priest there delivered an anti-war sermon shortly before the November election. Critics of the action point out that the sermon was critical of both President Bush and Senator Kerry. Is the Bush Administration using the IRS to silence anti-war critics? Or is the Bush Administration using the IRS to build support for a new law – opposed by mainline churches but supported by the Religious Right – that would allow congregations to engage in partisan political activity?

The Rev. Dr. C. Welton Gaddy, president of The Interfaith Alliance, is concerned there is more than one reason behind the IRS action. His office released a statement yesterday reading:

"The Interfaith Alliance reaffirms our commitment to the IRS guidelines forbidding houses of worship to endorse political candidates. However, having read the sermon delivered by the Rev. Dr. George Regas on October 31, 2004, I see in it no violation of those guidelines. Dr. Regas was exercising the responsibility of all religious leaders to evaluate moral issues from the perspective of their respective religious traditions.

“The Interfaith Alliance is investigating why the IRS challenged this particular sermon and why the IRS issued a warning about the sermon at this particular moment. Knowing the Religious Right's passion for advancing H.R. 235, a piece of legislation which, if passed, would change the IRS guidelines to allow for endorsements of candidates for electoral offices from the pulpit and thus fundamentally damage the historic constitutional wall separating the institutions of religion and government. I must confess cynicism about whether or not this challenge at this time is meant to build support for the advancement and passage of this dangerous legislation."

Visit the web site for All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena, California where you can read the sermon in question, the letter from the IRS, and the congregation’s response.


"Democrats force Senate into unusual closed session"

Democratic leaders forced the United States Senate to move into to an extraordinary closed session this afternoon in an effort to draw attention to the fact that the Republican leadership continues to cover-up the lies and deceits of the White House concerning the reasons we went to war in Iraq.

CNN’s Jack Cafferty – someone I certainly do not always agree with – had this to say about the move:

There's a perception in this country that we were lied to about the run-up to the war in Iraq. Maybe we were and maybe we weren't, but there are a lot of people who think we were. And a half a trillion dollars and 2,000 of our kids later, we're still there. We're mired in a thing that has no visible end.

If it was necessary and if the threats were real, fine and dandy. But if they lied to us, if there was some kind of intent to deceive, then they ought to find out who did it and tear their fingernails out and then get rid of them.

And it's not about being on, you know, one side of the political spectrum or the other. It's about what's right and what's wrong and what people who are entrusted to govern this country do with the power we give them. If it's being abused, we damn well have a right to know, and something should be done about it

Maybe the Republicans in Congress will finally be embarrassed enough to investigate this White House.


Religious Leaders Continue To Oppose Iraq War

Wash yourselves; makes yourselves clean; remove the evil of your doings from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow. - Isaiah 1:16-17 (NRSV)

The president has been on television this morning defending his Iraq policy. It is safe to say that most people – in the United States and across the globe – now see his invasion as both unjustified and a failure. Christians world-wide have spoken out clearly and often against America’s war in Iraq.

In May, religious leaders wrote the President and Congress with this message:

First, our nation entered into the war on false pretense and fear and violated international law. Religious leaders from every faith tradition opposed the preemptive war on the people of Iraq because of half-truths, our administration's haste to make war, and the reckless abandonment of democratic processes. The facts remain clear and evidential. After over two years, there has been no discovery of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and there was no Iraqi connection to the terrorist attacks of September 11th.

Second, the continued presence of American troops in Iraq only heightens the risk to the newly formed and fragile government of Iraq. The rising insurgency in post-election Iraq is a symptom of the occupation. The over 1500 U.S. casualties and over 15,000 injured American soldiers combined with the innumerable Iraqi lives lost and destroyed continue to bring dishonor to the precious name of democracy.

Third, against this backdrop of violence and manipulation, the current federal budget, with its cuts in social programs and attempt to privatize Social Security while increasing tax breaks that reward the wealthiest citizens, represents a domestic war on the poor and middle class. This budget supports the dual violence of war, which is the use of resources to kill abroad while depleting social programs at home. We raise this concern for justice for the poor of the world as one great unifying theme in the religions of the world which call for those in power to care for the most vulnerable among us.

Those who signed the letter called for an immediate withdrawal of American troops from Iraq. “It is with our faith in a higher power and our traditions of religious dissent that we strongly urge our government to honor the voice of the faithful and bring our troops home now. Out of our faith commitments, we will continue to speak out about the immorality of the war and occupation of Iraq,” they wrote. (Disclaimer: I was one of the original signers of the letter).

You can read the full text here.

Many religious people – including folks from the United Church of Christ (my denomination) – will be participating in a major march on Washington this weekend in the hope of continuing to draw attention to this administration’s moral failures in Iraq. Christian denominations continue to be nearly united in their opposition to the president’s actions. Don’t let the political activists on the religious right tell you otherwise.


"Faith Groups Across the Nation Asked to Toll Bells for Peace"

Another opportunity to honor those Americans who have died in Iraq will occur this Sunday. FaithfulAmerica.org reports:

This Sunday in Crawford, Texas, several clergy from around the nation will join Cindy Sheehan, fellow Gold Star Families, and supporters, in a service of prayer outside the President's ranch. It will be the final Sabbath before President Bush ends his five-week vacation and heads back to the White House.

The Vacation Will End – but the Vigil Will Not!

FaithfulAmerica is asking for your help to keep the vigil alive. We need you in two important ways:

1) Ringing in Remembrance: If you are part of a faith community, please join us in a nationwide commitment. Beginning this Sunday and continuing every Sabbath we ask your faith community to remember our nation's fallen soldiers and their families by tolling your bell* – once for every one who has died in the previous week. We will provide you with details and options for your faith community. Let us all pause to remember their sacrifice, to remember their families as we seek God's help in sharing the burdens of Cindy Sheehan, Celeste Zappala, and the other Gold Star Families “Why did our sons and daughters die in this war?”

2) Financial Support: We need your assistance to help keep this vigil alive across the nation. Together let's help insure that the message of peace will continue after Camp Casey is gone. Through regular contact, local speaking events with Celeste Zappala and other Gold Star mothers, and upcoming events in Washington, DC, FaithfulAmerica will continue to keep our attention focused on the well-being of our heroic men and women in uniform and the families who worry about them every day.

To date nearly 1,900 U.S. soldiers have been killed, more than 15,000 have been maimed and wounded, and untold numbers of Iraqi innocents have died tragic, violent deaths. Such sacrifice demands answers. Let us help Cindy Sheehan, Celeste Zappala, their families, and every citizen receive a fair hearing.

Please do what you can to help.


Who Will Say 'No More'?

Gary Hart, the former US senator from Colorado and noted foreign affairs expert, had this to say today in The Washington Post concerning Iraq and the Democratic Party:

History will deal with George W. Bush and the neoconservatives who misled a mighty nation into a flawed war that is draining the finest military in the world, diverting Guard and reserve forces that should be on the front line of homeland defense, shredding international alliances that prevailed in two world wars and the Cold War, accumulating staggering deficits, misdirecting revenue from education to rebuilding Iraqi buildings we've blown up, and weakening America's national security.

But what will history say about an opposition party that stands silent while all this goes on? My generation of Democrats jumped on the hot stove of Vietnam and now, with its members in positions of responsibility, it is afraid of jumping on any political stove. In their leaders, the American people look for strength, determination and self-confidence, but they also look for courage, wisdom, judgment and, in times of moral crisis, the willingness to say: "I was wrong."

To stay silent during such a crisis, and particularly to harbor the thought that the administration's misfortune is the Democrats' fortune, is cowardly.

Hart has always been one of the great thinkers of the Democratic Party. He’d make a great secretary of a defense in a future administration. Volunteering on his presidential campaign in 1984 (before I was even old enough to vote) is a great memory of mine. Click here to read his full op-ed. Senator Hart is right on target.


Guest Blog: American Culture, Religious Practice: How “faithful patriots” honor Widows and Soldiers

By: Diane Ford Jones

Late summer reports in two major New England newspapers brought some insight to misbegotten wars, detailing current events in Iraq and remembrance of Vietnam. Still, I hunger for more direct challenges to the current war—ones that expose its institutional supports like our cultural and religious bias in support of war and its aims.

Martin Luther King, Jr. once said that complicit silence and warped moral moorings combined would lead to the decline and eventual but certain demise of our nation. This weekend’s accounts show that King’s premonition still haunts us.

I serve our mainline Protestant denomination in a national capacity as an ordained minister. As a professional communicator, I also engage our members and the general public about morality, the reasons I take King’s prediction seriously.

A glance at the photojournal in the Sunday, August 7 edition of The Boston Globe halted my breath and shook me to my core. Photographer Julia Cumes captured Elaine Connors’ gaze as she mournfully drifted off into a pool of private thoughts about her husband and Vietnam veteran, Thomas. Judging by this depiction, Connors’ loss is crushing: maybe it was the way her clasped hands clutched a painstakingly folded American flag offered to her by the military as our nation’s final salute to her husband that captured the imagination.

During a week when the death toll of U.S. military personnel in Iraq soared to over 1,800, and when more than a dozen families in the heartland of Ohio learned that their loved ones lost their lives to an unapologetic apocalypse called the “war on terror,” I can’t help but wonder what any of us would do, or say, if we were presented with an American flag under such circumstances, as many others have been on behalf of their loved ones.

In a sublime and surreal turn of events, I imagined myself seated on a cold mono-chromatic chair, my feet planted on the crunching plastic green grass carpet camouflaging a mound of un-earthed soil cast aside for my only son’s grave.

A fiercely proud, stiff necked officer approaches me—respectful in demeanor, grim in performance of duty— presenting this carefully culturally cultivated symbol of liberty and freedom once draped on my son’s simple casket. Snapped together with chiropractic precision, this taut, triangular form was readied for me. Like all others who had already personally witnessed such events, I became one with them. Because of our mutual experience, they became me. We survivors were one and all.

And, that is when I heard it: the voice of our mothers, wives, husbands, sons, daughters, fathers, neighbors, employers, teachers and preachers saying, “Officer, I respect you. I thank you deeply for your thoughtfulness, sincerity and dutiful commitment of service to our nation. But because of my commitment to you, and to the nation which we love, I must respectfully decline this ‘gift.’ Currently, it is a symbol of the very failure of liberty, justice and freedom of conscious which it purports to elevate.

I will not be complicit or support, in any form or fashion, our nation’s myths that seek to equate loss of human life with heroism, misuse and contortion of faith with triumphant drum beating nationalism; nor the pursuit and squandering of global resources in support of our imperialism; nor a never-ending alignment of citizenship with the constant solicitation of (and our compliancy in) corporate and private greed at the expense of our nation. I won’t have any of it, particularly on this, the occasion of the commemoration of my loved one’s body having fallen victim to this madness.”

Such sentiments are startling, though seldom uttered publicly. What if these opinions were magnified in the mainstream press for all to hear? How might this model of national articulation transform our cultural, economic, military, policy, political, and faith practices? Could these actions become models? Begin to reset our nation’s moral compass? Since such occurrences are taking place, why not widely report them as noble?

An account written by The New York Times columnist Bob Herbert the next day focused on a young soldier’s experiences in Iraq and the strain that killing had placed on him as he examined the meaning of life and faith during a time of war.

What is striking about this man’s testimony isn’t concern for having taken life, fear for the salvation of his soul, need for forgiveness, or even his unwavering belief in Jesus—whom he felt was surely with him as he walked the proverbial valley of the shadow of death.

The most incredible thing revealed in this soldier’s account is implied, but often left unstated and unexamined: questions about our personal culpability and deeply-held, institutionally-fueled moral, communal and corporate failings.

Application of faith itself is not the problem; the young man is faithful to be sure. The propagation of false faith teachings left him, and leaves us, vulnerable and spiritually isolated. Reverence for grossly contorted faith is the very thing that we Americans condemn in others, particularly our “enemies.”

Our national defense is supported by faith claims that God blesses America, as is our notion of being “good” woven into our military strategy to prevail against the “dark forces of evil.” Our so-called Judeo-Christian nation has become what we say we abhor.

This young soldier is a professed Christian but should have been taught long ago that true Christian faith practice demands of its faithful the abiding business of waging peace.

Such is the case in the authentic faith teachings of Sunday schools, Temples and Mosques. In each of these settings, we still lack the will/fortitude to look at hard, compelling and mounting evidence of our moral failures that keep us from obtaining full and lasting peace. Peace threatens the status-quo and would turn over the table, forcing us to lose our present selves in order that that we might find our true selves as a nation.

We have lost (or perhaps never fully developed or had), our national collective will to hold our country, citizens, culture, and institutions accountable in ways that more fully allow us to live into our hopes of being at our best as a nation and participant on the world stage.

The widow and soldier each offer us an invitation to live private and corporate lives that are worthy of high moral esteem.

All of us who claim to be Christian should be reflecting on the many ways we have become complicit through our silence and inaction. We do too little, too late. Under our watch, our press is assaulted, our rights are eroded, our faith is hijacked, and our nation spirals further into spiritual decay. We each fall prey to decline.

Indeed, all people of faith have much to contemplate about the integration of faith, citizenship, nationalism, public policy and peace. As a nation, we must renew our efforts to earnestly examine what must be done in response to each of these ideals during the times in which we live.

What are we who are left to survive each passing day to do? What does it have to do with how we live in healthy relationships with one another? And why?

We are challenged to ask for the answers—not only for ourselves, but for our institutions in ways that best shape our culture, our nation and the world. We must not allow widows or soldiers to suffer from our lack of private, public or corporate moral fortitude. As a nation of self proclaimed “faithful patriots,” can we Americans do anything less?

The Rev. Diane Ford Jones serves in the national setting of the United Church of Christ as minister of communication and mission education for the Justice and Witness Ministries in Cleveland. She earned master’s degrees in divinity and in communication from Boston University where she specialized in the integrated study of media, religion and society. Rev. Ford Jones may be reached at [email protected] 


More Gold Star and Military Families Join Cindy Sheehan in Crawford

Family members from all across America that have lost loved ones in Iraq or have family members deployed there are traveling to Crawford, Texas to join Cindy Sheehan's vigil outside the president's vacation home. Most of us cannot make it to Texas to show our support. But FaithfulAmerica.org is asking that we take a moment together on Friday and Pause for Peace as religious leaders gather in Texas to pray for Sheehan and the other families.  Please join in.

Press Release from Military Families Speak Out

CRAWFORD, TX - More Members of Gold Star Families for Peace and Military Families Speak Out from Georgia, New Jersey, Illinois, Massachusetts, Oregon and Ohio are arriving in Crawford, Texas to add their voices to Cindy Sheehan's, calling for a meeting with President Bush and for troops to be brought home now. Over 30 military family members have joined the vigil in Crawford, with more arriving daily.

The following Gold Star and Military Families Speak Out members are available for interview and are arrving this week in Crawford:

Beatriz Salidvar of Fort Worth, TX arrived in Crawford last week. Her nephew Daniel Torres was killed February 4th, 2005 in Baygii 155 miles north of Baghdad on his 2nd tour of Iraq. IED device exploded and hit his unarmored Humvee.

Mary Ann Macombie of Atlanta, Georgia arrived in Crawford on Saturday, August 13. Mary Ann's son Sgt. Ryan Campbell served in the Army and was killed in action south of Baghdad on April 29, 2004.

Paula Rogovin of Teaneck, New Jersey arrived in Crawford on Saturday, August 13th. Paula's son is a Lieutenant in the U.S.Marine Corps, and has not yet been deployed to Iraq.

Pat Vogel of Barrington, Illinois arrived in Crawford on Sunday, August 14th. Pat's son, a member of the Army Reserves, served in Bacuba, Iraq from March 2003 - March 2004. He joined Iraq Veterans Against the War (www.ivaw.net) when he returned from serving in Iraq.

Mimi Evans of W. Barnstable, Massachusetts will be arriving in Crawford on Tuesday, August 16th. Mimi's son serves in the U.S. Marine Corps; he will be deployed to Fallujah, Iraq in the next week.

Linda Englund of Chicago, Illinois will be arriving in Crawford on Tuesday, August 16th. Linda's son served in the Army in Iraq from February to December, 2004. He was wounded in Iraq and received two Purple Hearts and a Bronze Star. He is currently stationed in Germany and may be re-deployed to
Iraq.

Michelle DeFord of Salem, Oregon will be arriving in Crawford on Wednesday, August 17th. Michelle's son Sgt. David W. Johnson served in the Oregon National Guard and was killed in action near Baghdad on Sept 25, 2004 when his convoy hit by an IED (improvised explosive device).

Adele Kubein of Corvalis, Oregon will be arriving in Crawford on Saturday, August 20. Her daughter is in the Oregon National Guard; she was wounded in Iraq during her tour of duty from April, 2003 to January, 2004, and was injured in Iraq.

Steve Fryburg of Bellbrook, Ohio will be arriving in Crawford on Sunday, August 21st. Steve's son, currently a member of the Army's Individual Ready Reserves, served for six months in Iraq and may be activated to serve another tour. Steve is himself a member of Veterans for Peace and served in the U.S. Army from 1974-1977.

Deb Hagerman of Beaver Creek, Ohio will be arriving in Crawford on Sunday, August 21st. Her husband is in the Navy Reserve and was deployed overseas at the start of the Iraq War. His contract with the military extends for several more years, and he may be deployed to Iraq during that time.

Beth Lerman of Dayton, Ohio will be arriving in Crawford on Sunday, August 21. Her oldest son is a Veteran of the first Gulf War; her daughter-in-law currently serves with the Air Force; and her youngest son entered the Coast Guard two and a half years ago. Her daughter-in-law and youngest son have
not yet been deployed to Iraq.

Teresa Dawson of Gahanna, Ohio will be arriving in Crawford on Tuesday, August 23. Her daughter serves in the Army Reserves; her son in the Ohio National Guard is currently serving in Iraq.

Karen Williams of Reynoldsburg, Ohio will be arriving in Crawford on Tuesday, August 23. Her son serves in the U.S. Marine Corps and has not yet been deployed to Iraq.

Other military families are expected to come in to Crawford from Vermont, Ohio, California and other states between now and August 31.


Two Oregon Moms Head To Texas To Join Cindy Sheehan; Prayer Campaign Started

More mothers who have lost children in Iraq are heading to Texas to join Cindy Sheehan. KGW reports:

Lynn Bradach, of Portland, and Michelle DeFord, of Salem, have something very sad in common: They both lost their sons during battles in Iraq. The pair boarded a flight from Portland to Texas together Wednesday morning.

It was two years, one month and five days ago that Marine Corporal Travis Bradach Nall was carried home from battle. Deford’s son David was killed in Iraq almost one year ago, and together, these two mothers have become one voice against the war.

“I don’t want to see another mother lose what I’ve lost,” DeFord said. “We're not just a bunch of crazy leftwing crackpots. We’re just moms and I truly believe this war was created from lies and it's wrong, just simply wrong.”

Both women believe their sons would root them on. Despite the fact that their sons volunteered to go to war, Bradach and DeFord said they don’t believe their sons wanted a war like this.

"There are a lot of mothers out there who still believe if they don't agree with the war that their child has died in vain and it was a useless death, and that's so not true," Bradach said.

The two Oregon moms will join protest organizer Cindy Sheehan, who lost her 24-year-old son in Iraq. Sheehan is camping along the winding, two-lane road that leads to Bush's ranch, hoping to lure out the President for a discussion.

Visit Military Families Speak Out to hear other stories of family members of soldiers opposed to this immoral conflict based on the deception of our president.

Meanwhile, FaithfulAmerica.org is urging people to join Cindy Sheehan in prayer on Friday for the American soldiers.

Imagine – an entire nation in prayer together for peace! We can make it happen on Friday! With your help we will create a nationwide blanket of love, support, and prayers for peace and an end to the war in Iraq.

Gold Star mother Cindy Sheehan has asked for a Friday noontime prayer service “as an opportunity for Americans and others across the world to pray for our soldiers in Iraq, their families and in particular the mothers of our fallen.” President Bush and the First Lady have been invited to join with Cindy and the hundreds of supporters outside the Bush ranch in Crawford, Texas where Cindy has been camping, waiting to see the President.

Now we have the opportunity to engage the hearts of millions in a collective prayer for peace. Whatever our religion – we are asking you to sign up to say “On Friday at noon, Crawford time (CDT) I will pray, meditate, light a candle, hold a loved one, remember one who has died, or simply be silent” – whatever your faith invites you to do.

To sign up and to invite others to join you in this pause for peace, please go to the link below.

Thousands of you have stood by Cindy Sheehan, Celeste Zappala and the families of those lost in the Iraq war. Hundreds of prayers have already flooded our website. Despite the few hateful things have happened in Crawford, Texas over the past week, your faith and support has helped to help make this little spot of earth “Holy Ground” by infusing it with your love and prayers for peace. Now the eyes and hearts of our entire nation can be on Crawford Texas in the quest for peace and an end to this war.

For the many clergy who are part of our FaithfulAmerica community, we invite you to organize prayer vigils. If you are a member of the clergy and close to Crawford and wish to attend the prayer service, see the link below.

Rarely is there such an opportunity to draw together, wherever we are, to pause for peace.

Please join us!

Click here to sign-up for Pause for Peace.


Invitation To Religious Leaders From Cindy Sheehan

August 15, 2005

Dear Religious Leader:

Family members of fallen soldiers, who have joined me in Crawford, and I invite you to attend a moment of silent prayer at 12:00 noon (Central Daylight Time) this Friday, August 19th at Camp Casey just outside the Presidents’ Ranch. We’re holding this moment of prayer as an opportunity for Americans and others across the world to pray for our soldiers in Iraq, their families and in particular the mothers of our fallen. We have also invited President Bush and the first lady to join us in praying for the troops.

Several family members of fallen soldiers have joined with me in Crawford and will take part in the moment of silent prayer. Outside the President’s ranch we have set up a temporary camp named “Camp Casey” and a memorial of crosses with names of fallen soldiers has been erected, which is where the prayer service will take place.

If you cannot attend our service in Crawford, Texas please consider hosting a prayer vigil in your city. We ask you to join us in a simultaneous moment of silent prayer to honor all who have been affected by this war. You are welcome to contact your local media and inform them of your vigil.

My son, Casey Sheehan, 24, of Vacaville, Calif., died in Baghdad, Iraq, on April 4, 2004, when his unit was attacked with rocket-propelled grenades and small arms fire. He was assigned to 1st Battalion, 82nd Field Artillery Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas. When President Bush began his 5 week vacation, I decided to camp outside his ranch in hopes of meeting with him to ask some unanswered questions about the war and the needless loss of lives of so many. Thus far the President has refused to meet, but my resolve is strong and I will remain in Crawford until the meeting takes place or his vacation ends.

Thank you in advance for your consideration and support of this interfaith prayer service.

Respectfully,

Cindy Sheehan, Mother of Casey Sheehan

Related Link: Bush invited to join Gold Star families at interfaith prayer service Friday outside his ranch

Related Post:  “Religious leaders offer prayers and hymns for Gold Star mothers waiting to see Bush”

Related Post:  Cindy Sheehan: American Hero


“Religious leaders offer prayers and hymns for Gold Star mothers waiting to see Bush”

The president is still ignoring Cindy Sheehan, right-wing hacks are keeping up their character assassination against this mother of a dead American solider, and one of the president’s neighbors is shooting off his gun in protest of Sheehan. But Sheehan is keeping up her vigil and is determined to have the president hear her message.

Religious leaders joined in yesterday in Crawford to offer support for mothers who have lost children in Iraq:

(National Council of Churches) General Secretary Bob Edgar and other religious leaders paid a pastoral visit August 12 on a grieving United Methodist Gold Star mother who is standing vigil outside President Bush's Crawford, Tex., ranch. Celeste Zappala, whose son, Sherwood, was killed in Iraq, has joined Cindy Sheehan and other Gold Star mothers in an effort to meet with Mr. Bush during his month-long vacation. Edgar said the purpose of their visit to the mothers "is not political or partisan. Anyone who would suggest that vastly underestimates the pain these sisters feel." He said he expected the President to meet with the women "because he is a good man who knows it is the right and compassionate thing to do." Edgar led a worship service for Gold Star families outside the Bush compound and both onlookers and media joined in. "It was a very appropriate service," said retired (United Methodist Church) Bishop Joe Wilson, who read Scripture. "It was like a love feast."

Click here to read more.

Related Post:  Cindy Sheehan: American Hero


Cindy Sheehan: American Hero

This post has been updated

Something got into me this morning on the drive into my church and I listened to talk radio. Every once and awhile this happens. It is like watching a car crash and you just can’t pull yourself away.

Cindy Sheehan, the mother of an American solider killed in Iraq that is holding vigil outside President Bush’s vacation home in Texas, was topic number one. Ms. Sheehan wants the opportunity to talk with the president about her concerns over the war. But you would have thought she was Osama bin Laden for all the comments being made about her on the radio this morning.

She was called a communist, terrorist, unpatriotic, and a feminist (is that still supposed to be a bad thing?) all in the space of my 15-minute commute to work.

I’ll throw in a label of my own: hero.

People have not only the right but the obligation in a democratic society to petition their government with grievances.

Ms. Sheehan is appropriately focusing the nation’s attention on the fact that Americans are dying every day (not to mention Iraqis) for a war fought under a false premise. That war has increased instability in the Middle East and been a rallying cry for real terrorists who seek to do this nation harm.

Why is the president so afraid of meeting with this mom?

Related Post:  A Call to Speak Out On Iraq

Update:  FaithfulAmericans Offer HUNDREDS of Prayers for Gold Star Mothers in Crawford, Texas


Karl Rove’s Betrayal of America

We know now that Karl Rove told reporters the secret identity of a CIA agent in an attempt to discredit Ambassador Joe Wilson’s claim that the Bush Administration deliberately misused intelligence to bolster their case for war in Iraq. Wilson was proven correct in his assertions - the White House did lie about the reasons for going to war in Iraq - and The Washington Post published a story today confirming that administration representatives knew Valerie Plame’s identity was a state secret. Outing Plame put her life in danger and jeopardized national security. It may have also been a crime. That hasn’t stopped leaders of the religious right from defending their patron saint in the White House.

Tony Perkins of the conservative Family Research Council sent out an e-mail to supporters this week urging support for Rove:

Retired Ambassador Joseph Wilson IV has accused Rove of leaking the name of his wife, a CIA employee, to the media in an attempt to counter Wilson's public denunciations of President Bush's decision to go to war In Iraq. I won't repeat the details of this convoluted story, but it has all the hallmarks of a partisan witch-hunt, complete with New York Senator Chuck Schumer getting into the act last week…..

….Karl Rove can take some small comfort in the fact that the politics of personal destruction invariably aims at effective people. The attack he's facing now is just another phase in the liberals' failed war against the war on terrorism. They blame America first, and Rove makes a good second.

Perkins, a former Republican candidate for office with ties to David Duke and other white supremacists, has become one of the most prominent leaders of the religious right. Few figures are more partisan than Perkins and honesty does not seem to be one of his virtues.

Liberals have a war against the war on terrorism? Is he saying that liberals are in favor of terrorism? Of course he is.

This has been the party line of the Republicans since 9/11: criticize the administration on any issue and you are on the side of the terrorists. Karl Rove came up with the strategy.

Rove has proven that he’ll do anything or saying anything – even put the life of covert agents in jeopardy – for partisan gain. Were his actions illegal? The special prosecutor investigating will tell us that. But it was immoral. Perkins is no better. Together they make a great team.

The only honorable action for the president to take in this matter is to keep his promise and fire anyone who leaked the name of this CIA agent.  Karl Rove must go.


Nearly 25,000 Civilians Killed Since Iraq Invasion

The American government does not bother to count all the civilians who die in Iraq but a new independent report says that nearly 25,000 have been killed in violence since the US led invasion. The Guardian newspaper in the UK reports:

The number of Iraqi civilians who met violent deaths in the two years after the US-led invasion was today put at 24,865 by an independent research team.

The figures, compiled from Iraqi and international media reports, found US and coalition military forces were responsible for 37% of the deaths, with anti-occupation forces and insurgents responsible for 9%. A further 36% were blamed on criminal violence.

Civilian deaths attributed to US and coalition military forces peaked in the invasion period from March to May 2003 - which accounts for 30% of all civilian deaths in the two-year period - but the longer-term trend has been for increasing numbers to die at the hands of insurgents.

Figures obtained last week from the Iraqi interior ministry put the average civilian and police officer death toll in insurgent attacks from August 2004 to March 2005 at 800 a month.

John Sloboda of the Iraq Body Count project, which co-authored the report with Oxford Research Group, said the Iraqi civilian death toll was the "forgotten cost" of the decision to go to war in Iraq.

"On average, 34 Iraqis every day have met violent deaths since the invasion of March 2003," he said at the launch of the report in London.

"Our data shows that no sector of Iraqi society has escaped. We sincerely hope this research will help to inform decision makers around the world about the real needs of the Iraqi people as they struggle to rebuild their country."

The Iraq Body Count project is the most complete attempt of its kind to record the civilian dead in Iraq. The researchers work from media reports, information from mortuary officials and on-the-ground research projects. Its figures, which the group regards as conservative estimates, do not include irregular fighters or others who died while attacking coalition or Iraqi government forces.

Religious leaders from across the globe – including most Christian denominations – condemned the US invasion and have spoken out forcefully against the violence and mayhem that has occurred since. Our original justifications for war (claiming the Iraqi government had developed weapons of mass destruction to use against the US and were somehow linked to 9/11) have proven false and the secondary reason (to save the Iraqi people from a humanitarian disaster under the old regimen) has proven to be a sad joke at the expense of the Iraqi people.

Related Post:  A Call to Speak Out On Iraq


A Call to Speak Out On Iraq

Animatedflag1Each day brings new stories of suffering and death among Iraqi civilians and Americans soldiers serving in what has become a quagmire. Millions across the globe warned George W. Bush and Tony Blair that their cause would fail and sadly that prophetic voice – one often spoken by religious leaders from many faith traditions – has proven true. This 4th of July the National Council of Churches USA is urging Christians to sign a new statement expressing opposition to this on-going war – one with no end in sight – and to express support for policies that move us beyond war.

This year our nation is at war as we observe the 4th of July, a day that honors those founders who spoke out for independence from tyranny. Today in Iraq a cruel dictator has been deposed, yet the suffering of the Iraqi people continues. Mandated elections have been held, yet the future of Iraq remains as uncertain as ever. Day by day the cost of this war for the United States, for Iraq, for peace grows clearer. No weapons of mass destruction have been found; no link to the attacks on September 11, 2001 has been shown. It has become clear that the rationale for invasion was at best a tragic mistake, at worst a clever deception.

As people of faith, we believe in the transcendent sovereignty and love of God for creation, and that the responsibility of human beings is thus to pursue justice and peace for all. We also believe that, as the biblical prophets of old, who in faithfulness to God spoke out to a people and a nation they loved, in humility before God we too are to speak to a land and people we love. As religious leaders we invite others who share our affections and dismay to recognize the time has come to speak out.

The time has come to say:

- NO to leaders who have sent many honorable sons and daughters to fight a dishonorable war;

- NO to the violence that has cost over seventeen hundred American lives, left thousands grievously injured, and killed untold numbers of Iraqis whose deaths we are unwilling to acknowledge or count;

- NO to the abuse of prisoners that has shamed our nation and damaged our reputation throughout the world;

- NO to the price tag for this war that has rendered our federal budget incapable of adequately caring for the poorest of our own citizens; and,

- NO to theologies that demonize other nations and religions while arrogantly claiming righteousness for ourselves as if we share no complicity in human evil.

The time has come to say:

- YES to foreign policies that seek justice rather than domination, compassion rather than control;

- YES to an early fixed timetable for the withdrawal of United States troops and the establishment of a credible multinational peacekeeping force;

- YES to the honoring of human rights even for our enemies and for a restoration of our reputation as a people committed to the rule of law;

- YES to spending and taxing priorities that put the poor first, providing health care, housing, employment, and quality education for all, not just the few; and,

- YES to a restoration of truth telling in the public square and to “last resort” rather than “first strike” as the criterion for the use of force to restrain evil.

On the day we celebrate our freedom, we acknowledge that the freedom promised in the toppling of a dictator has been replaced by the humiliation of occupation and the violence of a civil war. The sacrifice of brave men and women has been used to serve policies that have diminished our nation’s prestige and our capacity to be agents of justice in the world.

It is time to speak out that this 4th of July will celebrate the best ideals of our nation for our sake and for the sake of the world.

To comment on or endorse this statement, please click here.

I've added my name.  Will you add yours?

Remember to keep the people of Iraq and the American soldiers in your prayers this coming holiday weekend.

Related Post:  An Open Letter to the President of the United States and U.S. Congress

Related Post:  Bush’s Failure To Follow Just War Principles Gives Just Cause For Voters To Oust Him In November


Karl Rove Should Resign

When support for a war dwindles and a president’s poll numbers tank what is a political adviser to do?

If your name is Karl Rove and you work for George W. Bush you question the loyalty of the Americans who dare question your failed policies. The Washington Post reports:

In an unusually incendiary public attack on the political opposition, Karl Rove last night suggested that liberals sympathize with the enemy and are intent on endangering American troops.

"Conservatives saw the savagery of 9/11 in the attacks and prepared for war; liberals saw the savagery of the 9/11 attacks and wanted to prepare indictments and offer therapy and understanding for our attackers," Rove said

In the days after 9/11, I signed on to the statement Deny Them Their Victory: A Religious Response To Terrorism. This is what we actually said:

First, we must find a word of consolation for the untold pain and suffering of our people. Our congregations will offer their practical and pastoral resources to bind up the wounds of the nation. We can become safe places to weep and secure places to begin rebuilding our shattered lives and communities. Our houses of worship should become public arenas for common prayer, community discussion, eventual healing, and forgiveness.

Second, we offer a word of sober restraint as our nation discerns what its response will be. We share the deep anger toward those who so callously and massively destroy innocent lives, no matter what the grievances or injustices invoked. In the name of God, we too demand that those responsible for these utterly evil acts be found and brought to justice. Those culpable must not escape accountability. But we must not, out of anger and vengeance, indiscriminately retaliate in ways that bring on even more loss of innocent life. We pray that President Bush and members of Congress will seek the wisdom of God as they decide upon the appropriate response.

Click here to read the full statement which was signed by over 3,000 prominent religious leaders across the nation.

Counseling sober restraint where the Bush Administration is involved is not an act of disloyalty. After all, this is the same administration that would later take us into a disastrous war based on deception.  Had the president used sober restraint after 9/11 the American people would have been safer and the world better off.

Rove should either apologize to the American people for his remarks or resign his position.

There is more on this story at The Daou Report.


National Council of Churches Urges Grassroots Campaign To Call On Congress To Pass Bi-partisan 'End The War' Resolution

Press Release from the National Council of Churches USA

New York, June 16, 2005 -- The National Council of Churches USA has welcomed bi-partisan legislation introduced in Congress today urging President Bush "to announce a plan for the withdrawal of all U.S. forces from Iraq by the end of the year."

Rep. Walter Jones (R-N.C.) and Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii) introduced the legislation.

NCC General Secretary Bob Edgar urged churches to participate in a grassroots campaign to encourage members of Congress to support the resolution.

"The development of an exit strategy for Iraq is long overdue," Edgar said. "It is time for the Administration to inform the American people as to when we will leave this war-torn country. While we are pleased that this legislation has been introduced, we call on all people of faith to contact their Members of Congress and urge them to pass it."

In a recent op-ed piece sent to U.S. media, Edgar and two other peace activists stressed the importance of a resolution that clarifies U.S. policy on when the war will end.

"It is of the utmost importance for the U.S. Congress to make this official. A declaration would ease growing concerns about U.S. imperial ambitions in the region and fears that the U.S. desires to secure the region's oil fields against the growing energy appetites of China and India," the op-ed piece said.

The other authors of the piece are Joe Volk, Executive Director, Friends Committee on National Legislation, and Jim Winkler, General Secretary, Board of Church and Society, United Methodist Church.

According to a Gallup poll released last week, three-quarters of Americans support a withdrawal of some or all troops starting immediately.

"The administration's policy in Iraq is failing," said former Congressman Tom Andrews (D-Maine). "There is no light at the end of the tunnel, only the lights from oncoming trains in the form of daily suicide bombings and ambushes. It is time to start bringing our men and women in uniform home."

The NCC is part of a national coalition urging an end to the war. The coalition, which includes MoveOn.org, True Majority, Sojourners, Working Assets and the National Organization of Women, is planning a national grassroots outreach campaign encouraging Members of Congress to sign onto the bi-partisan resolution.

"Iraq's future will be determined by how the political struggle among its factions plays out. The U.S. military occupation only complicates, and defers resolution of that struggle," said Susan Shaer, Executive Director of Women's Action for New Directions. "Meanwhile, over 1,700 American soldiers have been killed in Iraq. Many tens of thousands of Iraqis have also died," she said.

"It is a truism that there are no longer any good options in Iraq," Andrews added. "The question is how long will U.S. policy makers pursue a failing policy at an unacceptable cost, human and financial. It is time the Congress demand a plan for a phased withdrawal of U.S. forces."


Religious Leaders Urge Congress to Declare That War in Iraq is Not Open-ended

An Op-Ed by

Bob Edgar, General Secretary, National Council of Churches
Joe Volk, Executive Director, Friends Committee on National Legislation
Jim Winkler, General Secretary, Board of Church and Society, United Methodist Church

Having invaded and occupied Iraq, the United States must not abandon the Iraqi people. And U.S. military forces and bases must withdraw from Iraq as soon as possible.

We call on the Congress to go on record that it is the policy of the United States not to remain in Iraq as a military presence.

In September 2002, when it was clear the U.S. was moving toward war with Iraq, we called together faith leaders to organize opposition to the war. It was and remains our belief that there was no connection between al-Qaeda and Saddam's Baathist regime and we believed it was necessary to allow United Nations weapons inspectors in Iraq to do their job. Moreover, we believed the invasion of Iraq would be a catastrophe.

Over the following six months, opposition to the war grew dramatically. At the end of December 2002, we led a group of American church leaders to Iraq as "humanitarian inspectors." We discovered Iraq did not want war and was in a shambles as a result of a decade of punitive U.N. sanctions and the impact of depleted uranium weapons used by the U.S. in the first Gulf War.

In February 2003, we sent delegations of U.S. leaders to London, Berlin, Rome, Paris and Moscow to meet with Tony Blair, Gerhard Schroeder, Pope John Paul II, and senior aides to Jacques Chirac and Vladimir Putin.

On February 15, 2003, 10 million people marched against the war in 600 cities across the globe in the largest anti-war demonstration in human history. On March 6, we coordinated prayer vigils for peace in 6,000 locations around the world. Still, the U.S. military invasion happened and the situation in Iraq continues to deteriorate.

The United States military has been occupying Iraq and effectively controlling the political situation for more than two years. In May the Congress voted final approval for tens of billions of dollars to fund the Iraq war and occupation. Military leaders tell us that U.S. troops will be needed in Iraq for years to come. We believe there is a way to change this dynamic, to shift the discussion from troop strength and weapons to how the U.S. may responsibly withdraw.

In the midst of this turmoil and tragedy, surely we can all agree that the United States does not intend to remain in Iraq indefinitely or establish permanent military bases.

While the situation in Iraq remains volatile and the possibilities of a Western-style democracy appear increasingly remote, President Bush has repeatedly stated that the U.S. has no plans to stay in Iraq.

Therefore, now is an important time for the Congress to go on record with a declaration that it is the policy of the United States not to remain in Iraq. Such a declaration requires no timetable -- it simply establishes that the official policy of our nation is to eventually depart from Iraq.

It is of the utmost importance for the U.S. Congress to make this official. A declaration would ease growing concerns about U.S. imperial ambitions in the region and fears that the U.S. desires to secure the region's oil fields against the growing energy appetites of China and India.

Oil and gas production in Iraq is expected soon and then will begin a steady decline. As energy demand increases throughout the world and the supply of fossil fuels declines, we face the possibility of endless warfare and instability. Surely there is a better way.

The oil and gas fields of the Middle East, the Caspian Sea basin and Central Asia are of vital importance from a geo-strategic point of view. Might this be the reason the U.S. is reluctant to leave Iraq?

Wouldn't it be better to pursue new U.S. energy policies to liberate us from dependence on Middle East oil? Wouldn't it be more responsible of us to protect our grandchildren from a big power war later this century rather than begin now to prepare them to fight that war over declining reserves of fossil fuel?

Let's ask Congress to set U.S. policy in the direction of energy independence and the prevention of the next big power war. Let's make it possible for our grandchildren and the world's grandchildren to live in peace, unafraid.


Litany of Repentance for Iraq

Each day we hear and learn more about the crisis unfolding in Iraq as a result of the America occupation. Life has not improved for the Iraqi people. In fact, it is measurably worse in many ways. The Roman Catholic organization Pax Christi USA has made resources available on their web site for those Christians concerned about the on-going crisis in Iraq. The resources include this moving Litany of Repentance. I commend it to you and your congregations for use in worship:

Let us acknowledge the history of our nation’s relationship with Iraq and pray for forgiveness. Our response is: Jesus, forgive us.

For the times we have failed to choose life over death...Jesus, forgive us.
For the times we have chosen ignorance over knowledge...Jesus, forgive us.
For the times we have not stood up to evil...Jesus, forgive us.

For our nation’s support of the regime of Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq war...Jesus, forgive us.
For the chemical and conventional weapons our nation sold to Iraq in the 1980s...Jesus, forgive us.
For our nation’s willingness to partner with brutal dictatorships when it serves its own political agenda...Jesus, forgive us.

For the hundreds of thousands of Iraqis who died during the First Gulf War...Jesus, forgive us.
For the environmental damage to air and water, the babies born with deformities, and soldiers and civilians suffering from strange illnesses due to our use of depleted uranium munitions in the First Gulf War...Jesus, forgive us.
For the bombing of Iraq’s civilian infrastructure during the First Gulf War...Jesus, forgive us.

For twelve years of crippling economic sanctions which left hundreds of thousands of innocent children dead because they had no medicines or food...Jesus, forgive us.
For our own addiction to oil and the policies which fuel the addiction...Jesus, forgive us.
For the seeds of grief and anger we planted in generations of young people who saw their brothers and sisters die because of the sanctions...Jesus, forgive us.

For the lies which our government perpetrated to make its case for war against Iraq, especially the suggestions that Iraq was responsible for 9-11...Jesus, forgive us.
For the ongoing rape of Iraq’s natural resources to serve the corporate greed of U.S. and transnational corporations...Jesus, forgive us.
For our government’s sanction and use of torture...Jesus, forgive us.
For military assaults against mosques...Jesus, forgive us.
For the racism that is inherent in our policies toward Iraq and throughout the Middle East...Jesus, forgive us.
For our nation’s military occupation of Iraq and manipulation of its internal politics...Jesus, forgive us.
For the mounting deaths of U.S. soldiers and Iraqi civilians...Jesus, forgive us.

For the times we have not stood up to evil...Jesus, forgive us.
For the times we have chosen ignorance over knowledge...Jesus, forgive us.
For the times we have failed to choose life over death...Jesus, forgive us.


Religious Humiliation of Muslim Detainees Widespread

The retraction of a Newsweek story claiming that Americans had desecrated copies of the Koran is not the end of the story. There is widespread evidence that the United States has engaged in systematic torture and religious humiliation of Muslims. Human Rights Watch reports:

(New York, May 19, 2005)—U.S. interrogators have repeatedly sought to offend the religious beliefs of Muslim detainees as part of their interrogation strategy,

Human Rights Watch said today. Human Rights Watch said that the dispute over the retracted allegations in Newsweek that U.S. interrogators had desecrated a Koran at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, has overshadowed the fact that religious humiliation of detainees at Guantánamo and elsewhere has been widespread.

“In detention centers around the world, the United States has been humiliating Muslim prisoners by offending their religious beliefs,” said Reed Brody, special counsel for Human Rights Watch.

On December 2, 2002, U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld authorized a list of techniques for interrogation of prisoners at Guantánamo, which included “removal of all comfort items (including religious items),” “forced grooming (shaving of facial hair, etc.),” and “removal of clothing.” Each of these practices is considered offensive to many Muslims. These techniques were later applied in Afghanistan and Iraq as well.

The purpose of these techniques, Human Rights Watch said, is to inflict humiliation on detainees, which is strictly prohibited by the Geneva Conventions.

Several former detainees have said that U.S. interrogators disrespected the Koran. Three Britons released from Guantánamo have alleged that the Koran was kicked and thrown in the toilet. A former Russian detainee, Aryat Vahitov, has reportedly made the same claim. A former Kuwaiti detainee, Nasser Nijer Naser al-Mutairi, has said that the throwing of a Koran on the floor led to a hunger strike at Guantánamo that ended only after a senior officer expressed regret over the camp's loudspeaker. Human Rights Watch also interviewed detainees who described a protest at a U.S. detention site at Kandahar airbase in Afghanistan in early 2002 that was set off by a guard’s alleged desecration of the Koran.

Click here for more.

The National Council of Churches USA has issued several statements calling for the protection of the human rights of prisoners in Guantánamo. The most recent statement issued this week reads:

NCC General Secretary Bob Edgar, in a letter to Newsweek editor Mark Whitaker, has urged a second look into allegations that the Qur'an has been desecrated on U.S. military installations. Newsweek retracted a report that Guantanamo Bay interrogators flushed a Qur'an down a toilet after the magazine's source proved unreliable. But Edgar said there are similar stories documented in the press, including the New York Times. In his May 19 letter to Newsweek, Edgar urged "the Secretary of Defense to immediately inquire into these allegations and appropriately and officially reprimand those who are responsible for the desecration of the Qur'an." He also urged President Bush to clearly echo the remarks of Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice "that the desecration of holy books is not in keeping with the values this country holds dear."

Click here to read the full text of the letter.

All people of faith should be concerned over the on-going pattern of human rights abuses fostered by the United States government. This is a moral and spiritual crisis. We should pray to God for forgiveness and work for justice.


An Open Letter to the President of the United States and U.S. Congress

We, the undersigned, write this letter to express our deep disappointment and moral outrage at the passage of the $81 Billion supplemental budget for the continued war against and occupation of Iraq. We as people of faith stand firmly against this war. The best support for our troops would be to bring them back to their families. It is highly disingenuous on the part of the administration to attach the war appropriation bill to the funds for the Tsunami relief efforts and other humanitarian aid. We see this as a political ploy to secure votes and make Tsunami victims no more than political pawns. We write this letter in the light of the above to remind ourselves and others including our national leadership of the following:

First, our nation entered into the war on false pretense and fear and violated international law. Religious leaders from every faith tradition opposed the preemptive war on the people of Iraq because of half-truths, our administration's haste to make war, and the reckless abandonment of democratic processes. The facts remain clear and evidential. After over two years, there has been no discovery of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and there was no Iraqi connection to the terrorist attacks of September 11th.

Second, the continued presence of American troops in Iraq only heightens the risk to the newly formed and fragile government of Iraq. The rising insurgency in post-election Iraq is a symptom of the occupation. The over 1500 U.S. casualties and over 15,000 injured American soldiers combined with the innumerable Iraqi lives lost and destroyed continue to bring dishonor to the precious name of democracy.

Third, against this backdrop of violence and manipulation, the current federal budget, with its cuts in social programs and attempt to privatize Social Security while increasing tax breaks that reward the wealthiest citizens, represents a domestic war on the poor and middle class. This budget supports the dual violence of war, which is the use of resources to kill abroad while depleting social programs at home. We raise this concern for justice for the poor of the world as one great unifying theme in the religions of the world which call for those in power to care for the most vulnerable among us.

Therefore, out of our diverse faith traditions, in humble prayer, we issue these demands:

  1. We call for the immediate withdrawal of American troops from Iraq by the ceasing of all U.S. military action and the deployment of U.S. troops to the borders of Iraq.
  2. We demand that no U.S. military bases are left behind to insure that no vestiges of occupation remain.
  3. We call upon the U.S. and its interests to relinquish all control over reconstruction funds including Iraqi ministries, new police and security forces in support of Iraqi sovereignty and reparations. This relinquishment means termination of contracts with U.S. companies and the turning over of projects to Iraqis, while providing transparent accounting for all contracts, including all oil contracts.
  4. We call for full funding for Veteran Affairs to provide psychological counseling, health care, and benefits to returning Iraq war veterans and their families as an expression of care for those who have gone to war.
  5. We call upon our government to honor the rights of those in the armed forces who seek conscientious objector status until such a time that the war has ended.

It is with our faith in a higher power and our traditions of religious dissent that we strongly urge our government to honor the voice of the faithful and bring our troops home now. Out of our faith commitments, we will continue to speak out about the immorality of the war and occupation of Iraq.

Signers

  • Bishop Michael Banks, Mennonite Church of New York
  • Rev. Edie Beaujon, New York Theological Seminary
  • Rabbi Leonard I. Beerman, Leo Baeck Temple
  • Dr. Rita Nakashima Brock , Co-Director, Faith Voices for the Common Good
  • Rev. Michael Caine, New York Conference, United Church of Christ
  • Pat Clark, Executive Director, Fellowship of Reconciliation
  • Rev. John Collins, Methodist Federation for Social Action
  • Chuck Currie, Seminarian, United Church of Christ
  • Neena M. Das, NYC Campaign for a Religious Freedom Peace Tax Fund
  • Dr. James M. Dunn, Professor of Christianity and Public Policy, Wake Forest University Divinity School
  • Rev. S. Emmanuel Epps, St. Stephen Outreach, Inc.
  • The Rev. Dr. Thom White Wolf Fassett, Emeritus General Secretary, General Board of Church and Society, The United Methodist Church
  • Ethan Vesely-Flad, Editor, "The Witness" Magazine
  • Rev. Dr. Robert Michael Franklin, Presidential Distinguished Professor of Social Ethics, Emory University
  • Rev. Dr. David Frenchak, President, Seminary Consortium for Urban Pastoral Education
  • Rev. James Gertmenian, Senior Minister, Plymouth Congregational Church
  • The Right Reverend Maximus Gregorios, Community of Inner Light
  • Dr. Susannah Heschel, Chair, Jewish Studies, Dartmouth University
  • Dr. Joseph C. Hough, President, Union Theological Seminary
  • Rabbi Steven Jacobs, Rabbi, Kol Tikvah Temple
  • Rev. Dr. Earl Kooperkamp, Pastor, St. Mary's Episcopal Church
  • Rabbi Douglas E. Krantz, Congregation B'nai Yisrael
  • Nazir Khaja M.D, Chairman, Islamic Information Service, Los Angeles
  • Dr. Michael Kinnamon, Miller Professor of Mission and Peace , Eden Theological Seminary
  • Rev. Ken Brooker Langston , Director, Disciples Justice Action Network (Disciples of Christ)
  • Rabbi Michael Lerner, Editor, Tikkun Magazine
  • Bill Marx, Volunteer Coordinator, Pax Christi Western NY Region
  • Eric McFadden, President, Catholics for Faithful Citizenship
  • Rev. Dr. Albert M. Pennybacker, Chair/CEO, Clergy and Laity Network
  • Rev. Osagyefo Uhuru Sekou, National Coordinator, Clergy and Laity Concerned about Iraq
  • Cindy Sheehan, Co-founder, Gold Star Families for Peace
  • Rev. Fredrick Streets, Chaplin, Yale University
  • David Wildman , Board of Global Ministries, United Methodist Church
  • Rev. Nathan D. Wilson, Minister, Clintonville Christian Church
  • Dr. Cornel West, Professor of Religion, Princeton University
  • Rev. Terrance Yearwood, Hip Hop Caucus

Want to add your name to the list?  Click here.


The Pitstop Ploughshares

Tutu_1Five members of the pacifist Catholic Worker Movement in Ireland are set to go on trial this week for disarming a US war plane in February 2003. The plane was involved in hostile activities in Iraq. “The peace activists poured human blood on the runway that has been servicing U.S. military flights, troop and munition deployments to U.S. military bases in Kuwait and Qatar,” a statement on their site WarOnTrial.com reads. “They constructed a shrine on the runway to Iraqi children killed and threatened by U.S./British bombardment and sanctions. The shrine consisted of copies of the Bible and Quran, rosary and muslim prayer beads, flowers, photographs of Iraqi children and Brigid's crosses. They then began to take up the runway, working on its edge with a mallet.” The group has drawn support from Roman Catholic activist and Martin American actor Martin Sheen and South African Anglican Arch Bishop Desmond Tutu. Ongoing protests where the five committed their act of civil disobedience resulted in three of four companies contracting with the US military to ferry soldiers and weapons to Iraq to leave Ireland and relocate operations. The five activists have been nicknamed the “Pitstop Ploughshares.” They face jail time for their acts of religious faithfulness.  Most Christian groups - including the Roman Catholic Church and the World Council of Churches - opposed the invasion of Iraq.


The Iraq War and Beyond

Action Alert from Clergy and Laity Network

THE IRAQ WAR AND BEYOND

End the Violence!  Embrace Our Neighbors!

Claim God's Future for Us All!

Join a faith witness to the nation: March 19 - April 4...and Beyond!

       For too long the attacks on freedom and justice endorsed by religious voices from the right have gone effectively unanswered. Now progressive religious communities are organizing and their respected religious leaders are speaking out.  Please add your voice!

       On March 19 America's people of conscience are turning up the volume. That's the day a coalition of antiwar believers, social justice organizers, progressive interfaith leaders including conservative and evangelical Christians, and others led by their ethical commitments -- a remarkable and growing Community of Conscience! -- will begin a new address and challenge to the nation and its directions.

       On that day, CALC-I (Clergy and Laity Concerned about Iraq) launches its prophetic public witness against the Iraq violence, in a dramatic gathering in New York at the Riverside Church.  CALC-I will be taking peace and social justice teachings to every local faith community where its witness is welcome.  It looks ahead to launching a "sanctuary movement" of pastoral care for those who resist participating in the Iraq War.
      
       Simultaneously from the Midwest FREEDOM RIDE 2005 kicks off. A national bus tour, it provides a rolling forum for hundreds of thousands of caring Americans who want to speak out against the Iraq War and its conduct, and to speak out as well for economic, civil and social justice in our own land.

       To contribute to and learn more about this progressive interfaith movement go to www.drivedemocracy.org.  More information is also available at the Clergy and Laity Network (CLN): www.clnnlc.org. You can find more about CALC-I's antiwar and social justice agenda at www.unitedforpeace.org.

       FREEDOM RIDE 2005 will initially visit Dallas, Tulsa, Kansas City, St. Louis, Chicago, Indianapolis, Columbus. Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Washington and Philadelphia, stopping also for rallies along the way.  Suggestions for route stops are welcome. FREEDOM RIDE 2005 will arrive in New York on the eve of April 4 for the major event planned there. To learn more about FREEDOM RIDE 2005 and how you can help to make it happen, click here: drivedemocracy.org.

       These events, begun in March in New York at Riverside Church, will now climax in an open gathering on April 4, also at Riverside Church. A MEMORIAL SERVICE AND RALLY on Monday, April 4, will claim for our time the faith and courage voiced in Dr. Martin Luther King's prophetic sermon "Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence." It was delivered from the pulpit of Riverside Church on April 4, 1967.  Dr. King's antiwar heritage and social justice commitments remain strikingly relevant today.

       Also to be presented in the service will be A DECLARATION TO THE NATION drawn from one million committed Americans! So, get this WRITE-IN invitation to everybody:

       JOIN A VIRTUAL "WRITE-IN RALLY"
    with ONE MILLION FAITHFUL PEOPLE
     Sending A DECLARATION TO THE NATION against the Iraq War
    and Affirming God's Future for Us All

       One million Americans committed to peace and justice will share their ideas and visions online. The WRITE-IN uses a friendly new collaborative writing system.  You can participate from any Internet computer anywhere. You can focus your passion and concern over the Iraq War, share your insights, and create fresh new ways of speaking for peace and justice in our time, all while participating from your own computer space. You will need to register March 20 - 27 at www.faithvoices.org. You can also receive further details at that site.

       Co-sponsors include the National Council of Churches, United for Peace and Justice, Clergy and Laity Concerned about Iraq (CALC-I), Fellowship of Reconciliation, Unitarian Universalist Association, The Shalom Center, Faith Voices for the Common Good, DriveDemocracy. org, Disciples Justice Action Network, Progressive Christians United and a growing number of religious and social justice bodies. The Riverside Church, New York, is graciously the host church. Clergy and Laity Network (CLN), also a co-sponsor, serves as coordinator. A growing list of co-sponsors is posted on the Clergy and Laity Network website: www.clnnlc.org.


Iraq Elections: What Next?

This post has been updated

The Center for American Progress is offering some first thoughts on the elections held yesterday in Iraq. There is no reason, in my opinion, to think anything will change now in Iraq or that US troops will be coming home any sooner. Despite the courage of those who voted the situation remains a huge mess.  It is certainly a hopeful sign, however, that despite all the problems more people turned out to vote than expected.  From CAP's Talking Points:

January 31, 2005

Yesterday's vote in Iraq was an historic and hopeful advancement for democracy in the country. While it is too soon to offer a complete assessment of the elections, the higher than expected turnout bodes well for the legitimacy of the new government that will emerge in the coming days. However, the Bush administration -- which did not want this election to begin with -- must not simply claim victory. Tough hurdles remain.

Security problems remain. Efforts to train Iraqi security forces to assume responsibility for securing the country have been slow and plagued by desertion and equipment shortages. Although the administration continues to claim that 120,000 Iraqis have been trained, the real number is more like 14,000, with only one-third of them battle-ready. Yesterday's vote was marked by dozens of attacks throughout the country – authorities report that at least 44 persons were killed.

Sunnis must be represented. As anticipated, a majority Shiite government is expected to emerge. Sunnis largely stayed away from the polls in response to calls for a boycott and insecure polling sites. Over the next twelve months, the new assembly will form a government, draft a new constitution, and prepare for a second vote in December. If not managed carefully, the country could easily slip into civil war.

"Elections don't fix economies." Significant reconstruction hurdles remain. Anthony Cordesman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies warns: "We do not see coming out of this any of the elements of economic stability… that underpin the election." Less than one-fifth of the $18 billion dollars in aid that the United States pledged two years ago has been disbursed in the country, which is plagued by high unemployment and low levels of development. Unless the new government can deliver on improving Iraqis' everyday lives, the post-election honeymoon will be short-lived.

Update:  Christian peacemakers question conduct of Iraq elections.  Full story

Update:  Rev. David Fischler, pastor of First Moravian Church of Greensboro, North Carolina, writes the blog Ecumenical Insanity.  He has a post up on his site complaining that progressive Christian bloggers still aren't supporting the war.  Does one election make all the deaths worth it?  Not in my mind.  Moravian leaders have issued some good statements on Iraq - one of which you can find here


In Defense Of Barbara Boxer

US Senator Barbara Boxer was fantastic during the confirmation hearings for Condoleezza Rice.  She wasn't able to turn the tide but she forced another debate over the failed US policy in Iraq.  Margaret Carlson reports in The LA Times that the reviews of Boxer's performance haven't been as glowing as I would have imagined.  "For her trouble, Boxer was blasted — even by those who agreed with her — not so much on substance but on style. Sen. Robert Byrd gets called "irascible." Why can't women get called irascible? It's so much nicer than the other words we get called," writes Carlson.  The people of California did America a favor by re-electing her to another six-year term in the Senate this past November.  I hope she keeps speaking out for reasonable policies in Iraq.  This week she was one of the few Senators with the courage to do so.


Kennedy: Bring Troops Home

US Senator Edward Kennedy has done something that no other American political leader has done since the invasion of Iraq: offer a blueprint for withdrawing American forces.  From his speech today:

We have the finest military in the world. But we cannot rely primarily on military action to end politically inspired violence. We can’t defeat the insurgents militarily if we don’t effectively address the political context in which the insurgency flourishes. Our military and the insurgents are fighting for the same thing – the hearts and minds of the people – and that is a battle we are not winning.

The beginning of wisdom in this crisis is to define honest and realistic goals.

First, the goal of our military presence should be to allow the creation of a legitimate, functioning Iraqi government, not to dictate it.

Creating a full-fledged democracy won’t happen overnight. We can and must make progress, but it may take many years for the Iraqis to finish the job. We have to adjust our time horizon. The process cannot begin in earnest until Iraqis have full ownership of that transition. Our continued, overwhelming presence only delays that process.

If we want Iraq to develop a stable, democratic government, America must assist -- not control -- the newly established government.

Unless Iraqis have a genuine sense that their leaders are not our puppets, the election cannot be the turning point the Administration hopes.

To enhance its legitimacy in the eyes of the Iraqi people, the new Iraqi Government should begin to disengage politically from America, and we from them.

The reality is that the Bush Administration is continuing to pull the strings in Iraq, and the Iraqi people know it. We picked the date for the transfer of sovereignty. We supported former CIA operative Iyad Allawi to lead the Interim Government. We wrote the administrative law and the interim constitution that now governs Iraq. We set the date for the election, and President Bush insisted that it take place, even when many Iraqis sought delay.

It is time to recognize that there is only one choice. America must give Iraq back to the Iraqi people.

Click here to read the full speech.

Senator Kennedy’s speech will force a new debate in the United States over the appropriate role of the use of our forces in Iraq. How long does the Bush administration plan for our soldiers to stay? What is our exit strategy? The truth is that the president has no plan. Senator Kennedy has offered one. Let the debate begin and bring the troops home.

Related Post: Confessing Christ In A World of Violence


"The Salvador Option" is Not an Option!

Action Alert from Sojourners

Newsweek recently reported that the Pentagon is considering a new plan for Iraq, known as "The Salvador Option," modeled on U.S. support of paramilitary "death squads" in Central America in the 1980s. In El Salvador and Guatemala alone such groups assassinated or "disappeared" well over 150,000 civilians.

The invasion of Iraq was sold to the American public as a necessary means to stop terrorism and to promote democracy. Two years later, the United States is on the verge of initiating death squads. Urge your elected officials to oppose "The Salvador Option." 

Click here to send your Congressional representatives a message.

Please support this blog


No WMD In Iraq. Can We Have All The Money & Lives Lost Back Now?

Any chance the president will admit he was wrong?

By Dafna Linzer

Washington Post Staff Writer

Wednesday, January 12, 2005; Page A01

The hunt for biological, chemical and nuclear weapons in Iraq has come to an end nearly two years after President Bush ordered U.S. troops to disarm Saddam Hussein. The top CIA weapons hunter is home, and analysts are back at Langley.

In interviews, officials who served with the Iraq Survey Group (ISG) said the violence in Iraq, coupled with a lack of new information, led them to fold up the effort shortly before Christmas.

Four months after Charles A. Duelfer, who led the weapons hunt in 2004, submitted an interim report to Congress that contradicted nearly every prewar assertion about Iraq made by top Bush administration officials, a senior intelligence official said the findings will stand as the ISG's final conclusions and will be published this spring.

President Bush, Vice President Cheney and other top administration officials asserted before the U.S. invasion in March 2003 that Iraq was reconstituting its nuclear weapons program, had chemical and biological weapons, and maintained links to al Qaeda affiliates to whom it might give such weapons to use against the United States.

I sure wish we were getting ready to swear-in Howard Dean.


Continued Failure In Iraq

This post has been updated

The death toll continues to climb in an attack today against US forces in Iraq. Very few have confidence in our mission or our leaders. Our prayers must go out to the soldiers, their families, and the Iraqi people.

Related Post: Confessing Christ in a World of Violence

Update: This news story from The LA Times lifts up another important and related issue to the events today in Iraq:

WASHINGTON — FBI agents have lodged repeated complaints of physical and mental mistreatment of prisoners held in Iraq and Cuba, saying in reports that military officials have placed lighted cigarettes in detainees' ears and humiliated Arab captives by wrapping Israeli flags around them, according to new documents released Monday.

The FBI records, which are among the latest set of documents obtained by the ACLU in its lawsuit against the federal government, also include instances in which bureau officials said they were disgusted by military interrogators who pretended to be FBI agents as a "ruse" to glean intelligence from prisoners.

The FBI complained that military interrogators had gone beyond the restrictions of the Geneva Convention that prohibit torture; the agents cited Bush administration guidelines that permit the use of dogs and other techniques to harass prisoners.

The records disclosed Monday are the second set in which FBI officials objected to military detention practices, and are notable because some instances occurred after revelations this year of prisoner abuses at the U.S.-run Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

Full story


U.S. Special Forces Will Get Special Government Issued Bible

Here’s a story from Sojo Mail that caused my blood pressure to go up:

Custom-printed Bibles for U.S. Special Ops on the way

by Steve Peacock

Although the International Bible Society (IBS) indeed will crank out a limited-run, special edition of the New International Version Bible in the near future, it's unlikely that readers will discover, for example, a previously unreleased surprise ending to the Good Book. Rather, according to FedBizOpps.com, a site for federal government procurement opportunities, the Department of Defense intends to award the IBS a sole-source contract for the production of 10,000 Bibles containing military-specific messages and imagery. The Bibles - which will be distributed to soldiers of the elite U.S. Special Operations Command - will feature a "custom-designed cover" and "Army designed color photographs and text inserts."

It appears that IBS's crafting of the Special Ops Bible will rely on the "new package, same great taste" approach that the commercial sector often takes when introducing a new logo or easy-grip handle for an existing product. It's hopefully safe to assume that though the Bibles are new, they will not be "improved." IBS has an extraordinary task ahead of it, as they must juxtapose, hypothetically, Christ's "Blessed are the peacemakers" pronouncement with army-centric motivational messages and images. A tough job indeed, given the context of 100,000 "excess casualties" - consisting mainly of women and children - that U.S. and British military forces may have caused since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, as indicated in the Oct. 29, 2004, edition of The Lancet, a British medical journal.

The army can always use this photo as the cover art for their new Bible. 042912


US Must Allow Relief Agencies Into Fallujah

Aljazeerafalluja2US troops have refused the Iraqi Red Crescent access to Fallujah.  The city has been under assault for days and reports on the conditions within the city are grim.  It is unknown how many civilians have been killed but the numbers will undoubtedly be high.  Violence has broken out in several other Iraqi cities since US troops launched their recent offensive.  The US-installed government in Iraq has declared marshal law as the situation in Iraq continues to deteriorate.

Our government has a moral obligation to allow the Red Crescent and other relief agencies Aljazeerafalluja1 immediate access to Fallujah.  Continued civilian causalities only further undermine our position in the region.  Christians across the globe spoke out against the invasion of Iraq in part because they foresaw the human toll and chaos that was likely to ensue.  Those concerns have turned out to be obviously valid.  We must offer our prayers for the safety of the Iraqi people during this new wave of violence and for the safe return of US soldiers from a misguided and mishandled military campaign.

These pictures were taken from Al Jazeera.  US media is reluctant to show the human cost of war.  That means we sometimes have to get our news from sources outside of our own country.  The Republican National Convention gave Al Jazeera renewed creditability when they allowed the Arab media company to cover their convention. 


Bush’s Failure To Follow Just War Principles Gives Just Cause For Voters To Oust Him In November

The conflict in Iraq continues to dominate the news and none of that news is good. American soldiers and Iraqi civilians continue to die in large numbers. The American government remains upbeat about the prospects for democracy taking hold in Iraq but a memo leaked this week (written by US intelligence officials) raised the real possibility that civil war will soon tear the country apart.

Theologians debated in 2003 (and no one really listened) the question of whether or not invading Iraq would be in Christian terms a “just war.” The concept is ancient and revolves around principles such as stating that preemptive wars cannot be just and that civilian lives have to be protected in any conflict. Most Christian theologians came to the conclusion George W. Bush’s planned invasion of Iraq did not reach the just war threshold. The National Council of Churches USA opposed the war and so did most mainline Christian denominations. The only major Christian denomination to offer support for Bush’s war was the Southern Baptists Convention.

The message could not have been more different from the mainline churches and the Southern Baptists. The Rev. Dr. Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite President, Chicago Theological Seminary, spoke on behalf of many mainline Christians when she preached:

For Augustine, the intent of both the nation and the individuals in war have much to do with evaluating whether a war can be justified. “[F]or it makes a great difference by which causes and under which authorities men undertake the wars that must be waged.” (Against Faustus the Manichean, 222) “The real evils in war are love of violence, revengeful cruelty, fierce and implacable enmity, wild resistance, and the lust of power, and such like” (City of God, book 22) for “the natural order which seeks peace” (Ibid) to be upset, it must be that the reason for undertaking war is to restore human affairs to peace. (Ibid). “For peace is not sought in order to kindle war, but war is waged in order that peace may be obtained.” (Letter 189) Even in war, soldiers must conduct themselves as peacemakers, targeting the enemy and not engaging in wholesale slaughter. The innocent must be protected, not killed as combatants.

The virulent, revengeful cruelty and the lust for power that Augustine so feared as the worst moral evils in war are our biggest risk. Are we just lashing out in emotional desire for revenge and to just get out from under this anxiety? For even more dispassion and reason in considering the use of violence, look at the development of Just War theory in the work of Thomas Aquinas in the 13th to 14th centuries.

Aquinas’ time was far different from the cosmic struggles of Augustine’s. In the high Middle Ages the divinely run society seemed finally to have arrived, at least for the elites. Influenced by the reintroduction of Aristotle’s writings into the West via the Muslim world, Aquinas posited a seamless, great chain of being from God as first cause to the last spec of secondary causality in the material world. Whereas Augustine was preoccupied with intentionality and the corruptions of the lust for power, Aquinas, as a rationally deductive thinker, took Augustine’s question “What is the moral evil in war?” (Book 22) and sanitized it to the question “When is a war just?” His answer is not an exploration of the corruptions of the will to power, but a straightforward list: “For a war to be just three conditions are necessary.” (Summa Theologiae, 2a2ae.23-46) The list is not unhelpful. There needs to be a right authority to declare war, a just cause and finally a right intention on the part of the belligerents, i.e. achieving some good or avoiding some evil. This list is subsequently expanded to eight.

So, it all really comes down to whether we have a Just Cause or not. Are we defending ourselves from attack (and that only came in with Aquinas; Augustine didn’t include self-defense in his original writings on Just War), are we defending someone else from attack? No and no. We are proposing to act pre-emptively; to strike first because some suppose this will prevent a future attack. 100 Christian Ethicists this fall published a rejection of a pre-emptive war with Iraq based on Just War criteria. The major protestant denominations, the American Catholic church and the National Council of Churches all have issued statements questioning the proposed war with Iraq and have often referred to Just War theory. To have a just cause, you have to be defending yourself (or defending someone else from attack).

Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, was a strong advocate for the war. He conducted numerous appearances before the media to offer Bush theological cover for his policies. Baptist Press news covered his pre-invasion views:

DALLAS (BP)--In refusing to rule out military force against Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, President Bush has an ally in Southern Baptist ethicist Richard Land -- and that has the talking heads talking.

"I have stirred up a hornet's nest," Richard Land said Oct. 12 on his weekly talk show, "Richard Land Live!"

"It seems that I have surprised many Americans, at least those in the media, with my views about 'just war' theory and how it applies to the unfolding situation in Iraq," said Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission….

Land was the lead signatory on an Oct. 3 letter to President George W. Bush that affirmed the president's policies concerning Hussein's Iraqi regime were "right and just." Prison Fellowship's Chuck Colson and Bill Bright, founder of Campus Crusade for Christ, were among others who signed the letter that said the administration's efforts were "within the time-honored criteria" of just war theory…..

Just war theory, Land explained, was constructed by St. Augustine and other early church fathers in the late 4th and early 5th century A.D. as a tool to determine when military action could be justified within a Christian framework.

"We cannot give blind allegiance to the government; we can't give over control of our conscience to the government," Land noted. "Jesus made clear that ultimate allegiance must always be to God, not Caesar. We cannot allow the government to take control of our ethical and moral decision-making process."

Land said Jesus made clear individuals are not to seek private retribution for wrongs done against them. "Romans 13 tells us God ordained the civil magistrate to punish evildoers and reward those who do right and that the state bears not the sword in vain," he said, noting the Greek word the apostle Paul used for sword in this instance was the lethal instrument used to decapitate those found guilty of capital crimes.

"We do not have the right to take the law into our own hands. Only the government is authorized to use lethal force," said Land, explaining the foundation of just war theory.

"Sometimes war is necessary; sometimes war is permissible under certain criteria," he continued, noting the theory requires a "just cause" be in place. "Only defensive war is defensible," he said.

Lethal military action must have a just intent; the motive must not be revenge, conquest or economic benefit, Land said. And such action must be a last resort, he said, noting that Saddam Hussein has had 11 years to comply with U.N. sanctions and resolutions.

The issue of legitimate authority was settled when Congress gave Bush authority to use force against Hussein, Land added.

The end result of the war in Iraq is from nearly all independent observers considered a disaster. No weapons of mass destruction were ever found and a new US government report confirms that none may have existed. The Bush Administration also called the invasion a response to 9/11 by claiming a link between Iraq and the terrorists. It turns out there was no link. Large numbers of civilians have been killed. American troops have even tortured Iraqi prisoners. Bush walked into Iraq without just cause and now we are stuck there with an even further diminished moral authority.

Bush claims at nearly every opportunity that God guides his foreign policy. During his acceptance speech before the Republic National Convention he talked about Iraq and America’s role there:

"Freedom is not America's gift to the world, it is the Almighty God's gift to every man and woman in this world."

Bush apparently sees his role as God’s instrument for freeing oppressed people (though this doctrine only seems to apply to oppressed people with large oil reserves).

The president is right on one thing: God does not want God’s people to be oppressed.

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free

- Luke 4:18. (NRSV)

Yet neither Jesus or God asked nations to raise armies in their service. Jesus’ weapon in the pursuit of God’s goals was the weapon of love. Jesus did not kill for his ministry.

Voters should consider the record of George W. Bush and his actions in Iraq before casting their votes. I’m confident that John Kerry would not have brought us into this disaster.

Bush misunderstood the concept of just war and only listened to those who would agree with him. The president refused to meet with the United Methodist Bishops (Bush is a United Methodist) because of their opposition to the Iraqi conflict. In the end, he dishonored God by waging an unjust war, killing large numbers of civilians and soldiers, and creating a climate where more terrorists attacks are likely. No one should call his actions the Christian position. Most of all him.


1000 Dead And Counting In Iraq

front_funeral3Yesterday marked the death of the 1,000th US military casualty in Iraq. Sadly, these Americans have given their lives in a war that did not have to be fought. Pray for them and their families as the death toll continues to climb. CNN.com maintains a site listing all the American deaths with short biographical information on each solider. It is a moving memorial.

Click here to see current estimates of the number of Iraqi civilians killed in the conflict.

For more information about US deaths visit Bring Them Home Now. This web site was set-up for families of US soliders.


Lt. Gen. William G. Boykin Must Go

boykinA Pentagon investigation has determined that U.S. Lt. Gen. William Boykin “violated regulations by failing to make clear he was not speaking in an official capacity when he made church speeches casting the war on terrorism in religious terms,” according to press reports.

The probe by the Defense Department's deputy inspector general also found that Boykin, the deputy undersecretary of defense for intelligence, violated Pentagon rules by failing to obtain advance clearance for his remarks, which gained wide publicity last fall.

Readers of this blog will remember that Boykin made dozens of appearances in uniform before evangelical Christian organizations where he claimed God had put George W. Bush in the White House despite the obvious preference voters had for Al Gore and that Islam was a satanic religion.

Now the Pentagon has to decide what punishment Boykin will face.

He should be made to resign.

His remarks have hurt America’s prestige around the world and our relations with Muslims across the globe. Boykin dishonored the country by making his religious and political comments while in uniform. He is not fit to serve the nation.

Related posts:

A General Problem

Gods and Generals

General Boykin Should Resign


Republican Doug Bereuter: "it was a mistake to launch that military action"

A Republican House member has done something that neither John Kerry nor John Edwards have had the courage to do: admit their vote to authorize war in Iraq was a mistake. The AP (Via CNN) reports:

LINCOLN, Nebraska (AP) -- A top Republican congressman has broken from his party in the final days of his House career, saying he believes the U.S. military assault on Iraq was unjustified and the situation there has deteriorated into "a dangerous, costly mess."

"I've reached the conclusion, retrospectively, now that the inadequate intelligence and faulty conclusions are being revealed, that all things being considered, it was a mistake to launch that military action," Rep. Doug Bereuter wrote in a letter to his constituents.

"Left unresolved for now is whether intelligence was intentionally misconstrued to justify military action," he said.

Bereuter is a senior member of the House International Relations Committee and vice chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.

Congressman Bereuter's website does not include the letter written to his Nebraska constituents. But you can send him a thank you note at the following locations.


Honoring the fallen

By J. Bennett Guess
United Church News
July-August 2004

Public images of flag-draped, military coffins—once common during wartime—are now forbidden by the U.S. government. But that hasn’t stopped several United Church of Christ churches from finding creative ways to help their communities grieve the deaths of hundreds of U.S. service members and thousands of Iraqi civilians.

On June 21-22, about 1,000 people from across northern Ohio wandered about the expansive green lawn at The First Church in Oberlin (Ohio), UCC to view "Eyes Wide Open," a traveling, multimedia exhibit of the American Friends Service Committee. Its centerpiece is a makeshift memorial containing rows and rows of black combat boots, each identified with the name of a fallen U.S. soldier. Reminiscent of the somber, orderly feel at Arlington National Cemetery, Oberlin’s emotional tribute paid homage to 837 military personnel who had died to-date during the 2003 Iraqi invasion and subsequent occupation.

Inside the church, 10,000 bullet casings, each representing an Iraqi civilian killed during the war, surrounded a primitive plow—a symbolic, prayerful reminder of Isaiah’s biblical, swords-into- plowshares image. Accompanying education-oriented displays helped visitors grasp the cost of war both in human and financial terms.

Full story


World Council Of Churches Statement On Church Bombings In Iraq

Statement from the World Council of Churches

The World Council of Churches has forcefully denounced the series of bombings which targeted Christian churches in Iraq on 1 August 2004.

Responding to the news, the general secretary of the WCC, Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia said "I was appalled to learn about the bombing of churches in Iraq. This action further undermines efforts to rebuild Iraq as a democratic society where all religious communities and peoples can live in harmony. The WCC has worked for many years to foster understanding and dialogue among Muslims and Christians, which have a long history of peaceful co-existence in the region. The Council has been at the forefront of ecumenical efforts to promote peace in Iraq and condemned the US-led intervention in the country. WCC and its member churches have actively supported humanitarian relief work in Iraq since the conflict started. We strongly condemn all forms of violence which target religious communities or any group of people, and which seek to introduce religious enmity into this conflict."

The general secretary of the World Council of Churches Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia, in a pastoral letter addressed to the churches in Iraq, has expressed his solidarity with all the people of Iraq as they pass through these critical and turbulent times and has assured them of prayers of support.

Speaking from Cairo, the WCC Middle East secretary Lina Moukheibar emphasized that this was the first time Christian churches had been the object of attack. "We should remember that the escalation of violence in Iraq has affected thousands of people, both Muslims and Christians, and our solidarity is with all victims."

According to reports, the bomb blasts in Baghdad also damaged offices and property of the WCC-related humanitarian organization ACT-Action by Churches Together, as well as of the Middle East Council of Churches (MECC).

Middle East church leaders respond to Iraq bombings: solidarity and work for peace needed

Middle Eastern church leaders have condemned attacks on Iraqi churches and called for solidarity following bombings at churches yesterday.

Speaking today at the World Council of Churches (WCC) Faith and Order plenary commission meeting in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Bishop Nareg Alemezian of the Armenian Apostolic Church (Catholicosate of Cilicia) said: "This is the first time Christian churches have been targeted. We condemn this attack and we are very concerned about it."

Metropolitan Dr Mar Gregorios Yohanna Ibrahim, from the Syrian Orthodox Church of Antioch, urged Christians and Muslims to work together for peace. "Solidarity is very important, both inside and outside the region, both among Christians and between Christians and Muslims," he said.

Gregorios stressed that "the WCC and others should encourage anything that brings Christians and Muslims together, not only in theological dialogue but also in the dialogue of life and work."

"I address my appeal to the Arab world, which can support any plan for peace, and also to the Iraqi people themselves. If they are not in solidarity, how then can they solve these problems?" he asked.

Alemezian called on international and local people to work for peace. "This is not just a problem for Syrians and Armenians," he said. "The situation in Iraq is not isolated. It is related to the general political situation in the world.

"We have a conflict, and we have to solve it - the US, the UN, all parties involved in the creation of this situation, but also local people and faith communities."

Both leaders stressed the good relations between Christians and Muslims in Iraq prior to the bombings.

"Christians are an integral part of the society they are living in, they are not newcomers. They are not there for any superficial reason," said Alemezian. "Middle Eastern Christians are the people of the land where Christ was born," he added.

They both stressed the dangers posed by pressure on the nearly one million Iraqi Christians, leading to increased emigration.

"The diminishing number of Christians in Iraq is a terrible thing," said Gregorios. "The same picture is replicated in other countries like Turkey, Iran, and Palestine. We are losing our people."

Could a situation arise, they asked, where there were no Christians in the Middle East and no Muslims in the West? This would be "dangerous for everybody," said Metropolitan Gregorios. "This is very important. It's not good for humanity."

According to news reports, at least 11 people were killed and dozens injured as bombs exploded at four churches - two of them Syrian and two, Armenian Orthodox - and a monastery.


The Rev. Dr. Robert Edgar Talks About The National Council Of Churches, Iraq, and Voter Registration

bobedgarThe Rev. Dr. Robert “Bob” Edgar is the general secretary of the National Council of Churches, a partnership of “thirty-six Protestant, Anglican and Orthodox member communions, with 140,000 local congregations and approximately 50 million congregants.”

He was ordained as an elder in the United Methodist Church and served as the president of Claremont Theological School. From 1975 – 1987 he served as a member of the United States House of Representatives. Dr. Edgar was named general secretary of NCC on January 1, 2000.

Dr. Edgar took time this week to answer some of my questions about the mission of NCC, what it has been doing to promote peace in Iraq, and how NCC is launching a new nation-wide voter registration program.

Not everyone is familiar with the National Council of Churches USA. Could you give some background on who makes up the council and what the mission of the organization is?

The National Council of Churches is the nation’s leading organization in the movement for Christian unity, with 36 Protestant and Orthodox member communions (denominations) organized in more than 100,000 local churches with 50,000,000 members. The member communions regard the Council as a community in which they make their unity in Christ visible by working together on common tasks and by bringing a strong voice of faith to the public square.

Because our member churches have a concern for the whole person and the whole society, the work they do together in the Council is wide-ranging—everything from common Bible study outlines to faith-based training on environmental issues, curricula for congregations on the role of America in the world community, a multi-year anti-poverty mobilization and many other endeavors.

Over the last year the NCC has been involved in two high-profile issues: the war in Iraq and poverty in the United States. What are the theological assumptions behind having churches tackle these issues in particular?

Recently the Council issued a pastoral letter with the Iraq War as the context. In the letter we said, “Two central claims of the Christian faith are crucial in our thinking: that every person, as a child of God, is of infinite worth; and that all persons, as participants in God’s one creation, are related in their humanity and vulnerability.” That is why our member communions agree that war is contrary to the will of God.

Our member communions include those that subscribe to some form of just war theology and those that are pacifist. In theory, some would say the use of violent force may, at times, be a necessity of last resort, but all of our members who spoke on the subject denounced the War in Iraq. Ultimately, we all are disciples of Jesus Christ, who pronounces his blessing on the peacemakers.

The same faith claims about the inherent worth and dignity of each person and of our relatedness undergird our efforts to alleviate poverty. Furthermore, God calls us to be advocates for those who are most vulnerable in our society. We believe that you cannot read the Bible and escape this directive.

You recently discussed the situation in Iraq with United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan. Do you see any hope that the Bush administration will reverse course and truly involve the international community in rebuilding Iraq? Or is there a chance the situation will continue to worsen?

I don’t want to speculate on what the Bush Administration will or will not do in Iraq in the weeks and months ahead, but the emerging details of the so-called handover of sovereignty to Iraqis are extremely disappointing. The ever-expanding U.S. role in Iraq and the fact that U.S. troops and contractors remain above Iraqi law make a mockery of Iraq’s sovereignty. Things will surely get worse if we as a nation continue on a unilateral course of action. When Iraqis realize how much of the “handover” is window dressing, their dashed expectations will only increase the levels of frustration and anger directed against the United States.

Faith leaders in the U.S. have a far different vision of how America should act in Iraq and elsewhere around the globe. The leadership of the National Council of Churches and its member communions, along with other faith partners, continue to press toward the day when the United States will take its place among the nations in a cooperative, multilateral and sustainable way.

As you said, I led an international ecumenical delegation in May to meet with U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan to express our conviction that lasting peace and security will only come to Iraq when the international community is involved. We said at that time that we hoped President Bush would not just repackage the occupation, but rather welcome significant involvement by the United Nations, and allow the U.N. to function in an independent role. We continue to call for a change in our government’s direction that would make such a course of action possible.

We also are working so that people in our congregations might gain a deeper understanding of the events that are unfolding day by day and that have such a powerful impact on our world. The National Council of Churches has developed and tested a faith-based curriculum on multilateralism that can be used by congregations and other groups. Study groups that use the curriculum will come away with a better understanding of why America cannot afford to “go it alone.” We hope to market the study widely. Look for further developments at www.ncccusa.org.

FaithfulAmerica.org, one of NCC’s projects, is planning on airing television commercials in the Middle East. What is the purpose behind these commercials and when will they air?

We are deeply concerned when high government officials engage in splitting legal hairs in order to justify torture. We cannot be silent in the face of such a deep failure of moral leadership

Beginning June 15, viewers of Arabic-language television Al-Jazeera and Al-Aribiya began seeing our ad, which expresses the sorrow we feel about the abuse, our conviction that the abuse is sinful and that it has been systemic, and our pledge to work to right these wrongs that have been committed in our name. There has been a wonderful response to the ad in the Arab world, and to date some 100,000 Americans have endorsed the ad—and the number is growing. Visitors to the FaithfulAmerica.org site also have given $150,000 to put the ad on the air, and FaithfulAmerica has pledged to keep the ad running for as long as funds keeping coming in for that purpose. We see these responses as a hopeful sign that the cycle of mutual suspicion and dehumanization between the Arab world and the United States can be broken. You can learn more at www.FaithfulAmerica.org.

One of the exciting new projects launched by NCC is the “Let Justice Roll” initiative. What is the purpose behind this effort and how can individual Christians in local communities participate?

Poverty is once again on the rise in the United States, and we think that should be a campaign issue in this electoral season. We are asking the question, “What will you do to end poverty?” of both parties, their candidates and delegates to the party conventions. We are also asking a related question, “Why are low-income people less likely to register and vote than people in other income groups—and what can we do about it?”

Along with the Center for Community Change and a huge array of local partners, the National Council of Churches is pressing these questions in the “Let Justice Roll” Campaign, with events being held in approximately 15 cities this summer and fall—including Boston and New York during the Democratic and Republican Conventions respectively. The campaign is sponsoring a series of nonpartisan public events in each of the cities that will include rallies, worship services and press opportunities. We will seek commitments from local, state and national public figures and delegates to the Republican and Democratic National Conventions that they will work to shape public policies to help meet the needs of the poor. The project also includes support for voter registration, education and mobilization efforts in the cooperating cities—and such efforts will proceed throughout the electoral season.

Let Justice Roll offers great opportunities for faith and community voices to be heard in these cities—and I hope that many of your readers can join us. A list of the cities thus far committed to participate in the project and the primary sponsoring bodies in the several cities can be found at http://www.ncccusa.org/letjusticeroll/index.html.

The NCC will hold it’s General Assembly on November 9-11 here in St. Louis. What is going to happen at this event? How can people become involved with it?

When representatives of the Council’s member communions gather as the General Assembly once a year, it is the most visible expression of the Council as a “community of communions.” It can be a moving sight to see clergy and lay persons from so many different traditions united in worship, celebration, fellowship, and in the work of setting NCC policy on crucially important issues of our times. Our daily schedule for the upcoming Assembly is still developing, but interrelated issues of unity, poverty, peace and war, and protecting God’s creation are always high on our agenda.

The General Assembly, which this year explores the theme “Weave Anew: Unity, Peace and Justice, Hope (Ephesians 4:15-16), is an open meeting and visitors are welcome. Members of the faith community in St. Louis may be particularly interested in public events that are scheduled as part of the Assembly, including a worship service at Christ Church Cathedral the evening of November 9, and an awards banquet on November 10. If you are a young adult interested in what the churches are doing together, you may want to apply to the Stewards Program at the General Assembly, which provides a wonderful ecumenical experience for young adults. (Applications should be received by August 2, 2004.) There is also a day-long pre-Assembly event for young adults on November 8.

Many more details about all the events I have outlined will be available at www.ncccusa.org as we get closer to the General Assembly.

One final question: many of the issues you and NCC deal with are difficult ones. What is it for you about the Christian faith that keeps you hopeful and active during difficult times like these?

In James 1.22 we are encouraged to “Be doers of the word, and not merely hearers.” I would say that throughout its history the NCC and all the people associated with it have tried their best to be faithful doers of the word—and that frequently does require a giant leap of faith. That is true today and is has been true many times in our past. What keeps me hopeful and active in the face of difficult issues is the same thing that has always sustained the ecumenical community: We can act with certainty in an uncertain world because we trust the promise that no matter what happens, nothing can separate us from God’s love for us in Christ. In that conviction is our hope and our strength to persevere.

Fahrenheit 9/11

911posterFriday we’re planning on hitting the theaters for Fahrenheit 9/11, Michael Moore’s new film which recently won the Best Picture Award at the Cannes Film Festival. Republican operatives have launched a campaign to scare theatres into not showing the movie. The Fahrenheit 9/11 web site bills this film this way:

One of the most controversial and provocative films of the year, Fahrenheit 9/11 is Academy Award-winning filmmaker Michael Moore's searing examination of the Bush administration's actions in the wake of the tragic events of 9/11. With his characteristic humor and dogged commitment to uncovering the facts, Moore considers the presidency of George W. Bush and where it has led us. He looks at how - and why - Bush and his inner circle avoided pursuing the Saudi connection to 9/11, despite the fact that 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudis and Saudi money had funded Al Qaeda. Fahrenheit 9/11 shows us a nation kept in constant fear by FBI alerts and lulled into accepting a piece of legislation, the USA Patriot Act, that infringes on basic civil rights. It is in this atmosphere of confusion, suspicion and dread that the Bush Administration makes its headlong rush towards war in Iraq - and Fahrenheit 9/11 takes us inside that war to tell the stories we haven't heard, illustrating the awful human cost to U.S. soldiers and their families. Lions Gate Films will release the film nationwide on June 25th.

Click here to watch the trailer for the film. MoveOn.org is asking people to pledge to see the film on the opening weekend so that those on the right trying to shut it down don't win their fight (thanks to Heather Hyland for pointing out the MoveOn.org link).


Dick Cheney Promises To Lie No Matter What

Dick Cheney promised today to continue lying to the American people no matter how many times people point out he isn’t telling the truth. Reuters reports:

"Hell no!" (an) administration official said when asked if Cheney would retract his statements after the commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks found no evidence that Iraq aided al Qaeda attempts to strike the United States.

At least you can say the vice-president is upfront about his dishonestly.


9/11 Commission: No Iraq Link To Al Qaeda

Diplomats and Military Commanders for Change Call For Bush Defeat

The federal panel investigating the 9/11 terrorist attacks has determined that there were no links between Al Qaeda and Iraq. George W. Bush alleged that such a link was a primary reason for invading Iraq. CNN reports:

The panel said it found "no credible evidence that Iraq and al Qaeda cooperated on attacks against the United States."

The report contradicts statements from the Bush administration that Saddam Hussein had ties to al Qaeda.

Bush also came under criticism today from a group calling itself Diplomats and Military Commanders for Change. The group, made up of former officials of the Reagan, Bush and Clinton administrations, held a press conference today calling for the defeat of Bush in the November election. The AP reports:

According to the group, Diplomats and Military Commanders for Change, from the start of his presidency, "Bush adopted an overbearing approach to Americas role in the world, relying upon military might and righteousness, insensitive to the concerns of traditional friends and allies, and disdainful of the United Nations."

"Instead of building upon Americas great economic and moral strength to lead other nations in a coordinated campaign to address the causes of terrorism and to stifle its resources, the administration, motivated more by ideology than by reasoned analysis, struck out on its own."

The group accused the Bush administration of manipulating "uncertain evidence" about Iraq's weapons programmes to justify an "ill-planned and costly war from which exit is uncertain".

Among the signatories are William Crowe, a retired admiral who was a chairman of the joint chiefs of staff under president Ronald Reagan (news - web sites), Stansfield Turner, another retired admiral and past director of the Central Intelligence Agency (news - web sites), and several former prominent ambassadors.

All this kind of makes you wonder who is going to be left supporting Bush in November.


American Religious Leaders Reach Out To The Iraqi People Via FaithfulAmerica.org Television Ad

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American faith leaders - representing Christians, Jews and Muslim - will reach out to the people of Iraq with a television ad (which I have endorsed) supporting their desires for justice in the prison abuse scandal. From FaithfulAmerica.org:

The torture scandal continues to grow, and with it the outrage of the Arab world. As our leaders continue to blame a few rogue soldiers, a cycle of mutual suspicion and dehumanization between the Arab world and the United States deepens.

We need to send a message directly from us, the people of the United States, to the people of Iraq and the Arab world telling them that, as Americans, we stand shoulder-to-shoulder with them in demanding justice for these sinful abuses committed in our name.

To do this, we’ve filmed a television ad with Christian, Jewish and Muslim faith leaders to be broadcast on Arabic-language television in the Middle East. You can view the ad using the link below. If you feel the message expresses what is in your heart, let the world know by endorsing the ad. You can even donate to help put it on the air.

www.faithfulamerica.org/AdClip.htm

As the number of endorsers grows, we will add that figure to the end of the ad. The more people who endorse the message, the more effective it will be. Please send this e-mail to anyone you think might want to get involved.

Please watch the ad, endorse it if you are a person of faith, and send money if you can.


Has The Bush Administration Ordered Torture?

A Bush Administration memo leaked this week that gives the President authority to order the torture of war prisoners. International law prohibits the practice and yesterday the attorney general refused to answer questions from a Senate committee on this issue. NPR reports:

June 9, 2004 -- Attorney General John Ashcroft refuses senators' demands for copies of legal memos, prepared by Bush administration lawyers in 2002 and 2003, that reportedly state the president has the right to order torture in his role as commander in chief. In refusing to discuss the contents of the memos, Ashcroft said his department's advice to the president must remain confidential.

In testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee Tuesday, Ashcroft also refused to say whether President Bush has authorized force or other techniques in interrogation.

You can hear the incredible exchange between Senate members and Ashcroft on the NPR report and read the leaked Defense Department torture memo here.


What Is Up In The World Of Faith This Week?

Call to Renewal held their conference "Pentecost 2004: Making Poverty a Religious and Electoral Issue" last week. It resulted in the signing of the Unity Statement on Overcoming Poverty:

As Christian leaders in the United States, we recognize that we live in a time when political and social issues threaten to divide the church. Although there are issues on which we do not agree, we come together to affirm that justice for those in our society who live in poverty is, for all of us, a deeply held religious belief on which we are firmly united. We affirm God’s vision of a good society offered to us by the prophet Isaiah. His words are as relevant today as they were 3,000 years ago, and show us the way forward. Isaiah envisions a society where:

No more shall there be in it an infant that lives but a few days, or an old person who does not live a lifetime…They shall build houses and inhabit them: they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit. They shall not build and another inhabit: they shall not plant and another eat; for like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be, and my chosen will long enjoy the work of their hands. They shall not labor in vain, or bear their children for calamity; for they shall be offspring blessed by the Lord….” (Isaiah 65:20-25)

The Rev. Chris Hobgood, General Minister and President of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and the Rev. John H. Thomas, General Minister and President of the United Church of Christ wrote a letter recently to President Bush on the crisis in the Middle East:

Mr. President, we urge you to do all that is within your power to restrain Israel from further assaults on the Palestinians of Gaza, particularly those refugees living in the Rafah Camp. Mr. President, we appeal to you to seek the acquiescence of Israelis and Palestinians to abide by agreements to stop all forms of violence and to desist from unilateral alterations to the facts on the ground. Mr. President, we implore you to mobilize the resources of your good office to resuscitate the Road Map and to re-engage in the steps necessary to bring about peace between Israelis and Palestinians. Such engagement, we believe, is in the best interest of the United States, and must be a priority for peace-loving people throughout the world. In that vein, please find enclosed our denominations’ resolutions from our 2003 General Synod (United Church of Christ) ucc.org/synod/resolutions/res24-26a.pdf and General Assembly (Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) disciples.org/ga03/resolutions/ on U.S. Policy in the Middle East, which we share for your positive consideration.

Christian Peacemakers Team has been in the news a lot this month. This is the organization that helped uncover the abuse of Iraqi prisoners under US control. Read their report and recommendations on Iraqi detainees.

The Interfaith Alliance is asking Americans to take part in multi-faith effort to draw attention to the atrocities in Iraq:

Washington, May 26—Today, The Interfaith Alliance announced “Lights for Human Dignity,” a joint, nationwide response to atrocities in Iraq, calling on the nation to turn on lights or light candles all night Sunday, May 30 until dawn Monday, Memorial Day.

“We are asking all Americans who believe in human dignity to please light up your houses of worship, homes, businesses, community centers, and anywhere else you feel is appropriate,” Gaddy said. “By this simple action we can demonstrate to the world that we share common values as people of faith and as patriots.”

A growing list of religious and community organizations, representing Christians, Muslims, Jews, Sikhs, and more than 75 faith traditions, will join to illuminate the nation.

Click here to learn more.

The National Council of Churches USA held a memorial service on Thursday for all those who have died in Iraq. Earlier in the week a group including NCC leaders met with the Secretary-General of the United Nations to discuss the situation in Iraq.

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Church Leaders Discuss Iraq With Kofi Annan; Urge UN Role

unphotoToday leaders from the National Council of Churches USA, Churches Together in Britain and Ireland, and the Canadian Council of Churches met with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to discuss the situation in Iraq. The religious leaders asked that the UN support:

* a phased withdrawal of US troops by a date certain

* an end to US attempts to control the Iraqi economy, particularly oil

* a substantial long-term commitment of US funds for rebuilding Iraq

* an internal conference of all relevant parties in Iraq to determine the people, plans and processes to move from the current impasse to Iraqi self-rule as well as an international conference to ensure broad multi-lateral support for the country’s reconstruction efforts

Following the UN meeting the group that talked with the Secretary General held a conference call with religious leaders and reporters. I took part in the call and asked The Rev. Dr. Robert Edgar, general-secretary of the National Council of Churches USA, what he wanted to hear from President Bush in his address to the nation that will be given later this evening:

Well, I’d like the president to say the next time he’s going to give a speech he isn’t going to do it at the War College, but do it at … some other important venue seeking peace.

My hope is that the president realizes that this is an important opportunity and moment to move with a solution that is an international solution and not a unilateral solution. And that the president is able to even perhaps admit a mistake or two which he has had difficulty doing and agree that at this late hour, moving up to this 30th of June, that very delicate negotiations are being done by (the UN) and that they are taking a lead role in a solution that can’t be seen simply as a US solution, but has to be seen as an international solution.

Click here to download the audio of this part of the conference call.

Among those who participated in the UN meeting were: Reverend Bob Edgar, General Secretary for NCC; Reverend Keith Clements, General Secretary of Conference of European Churches; Bishop Mark Hanson, Presiding Bishop of Evangelical Lutheran Church of America; Reverend Cliff Kirkpatrick, Stated Clerk of Presbyterian Church USA; Reverend Paul Renshaw, Coordinating Secretary International Affairs, Churches Together in Britain and Ireland; Rev. Dr. Karen Hamilton, General Secretary of the Canadian Council of Churches.

Church leaders in the United States recently released a Pastoral Letter on Iraq that can be found here.

Update: Click here for the AP story now running on this meeting.

Update: The National Council of Churches has just released a press statement regarding the UN Meeting:

CHURCH LEADERS MEET WITH KOFI ANNAN ON IRAQ, SUPPORT SIGNIFICANT U.N. LEADERSHIP ROLE

May 24, 2004, NEW YORK CITY – Church leaders who met with United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan about Iraq today (May 24) said they hoped President Bush, in his address tonight, would state clearly his commitment to engaging the international community in planning for the future of Iraq.

“The increasing chaos in Iraq makes clear that the U.S. government needs to change course,” said the Rev. Dr. Bob Edgar, General Secretary of the National Council of Churches USA, who led the 11-member delegation. “We hope President Bush goes public with the U.S. government’s apparent realization that the peace the United States seeks can only come with international participation.”

The delegation included church leaders from the United States, Canada, Europe and the United Kingdom, and had support from the World Council of Churches, Middle East Council of Churches and the All Africa Conference of Churches as it went into the meeting with Secretary General Annan.

Religious leaders in the group had opposed going to war against Iraq, Dr. Edgar acknowledged. “But now, people who were for the war and people who were against the war need to come together to find an alternative way out of the current situation.”

The religious leaders’ 40-minute meeting with the U.N. Secretary General came on the day that the U.N. Security Council began discussing a new resolution defining the role of the United Nations in Iraq following the transfer of sovereignty to an Iraqi interim government on June 30.

“We’ll be watching for indications that the transition to Iraqi sovereignty is genuine and complete,” Dr. Edgar said. “We expect that the resolution will foster the integrity and unity of Iraq, specify who does what in terms of security, and make clear the role of the United Nations.”

Said the Rev. Dr. Clifton Kirkpatrick, Stated Clerk of the Presbyterian Church (USA) following the meeting with the U.N. Secretary General, “Clearly the United Nations is ready and able to provide leadership in Iraq. This will be good for the United States, Iraq and the world.”

Said Dr. Antonios Kireopoulos, NCC Associate General Secretary for International Relations and Peace, “International involvement is Iraq’s only chance for peace and the United Nations is the international organization rightfully to take that role.”

Update: Read US, European, Canadian church leaders meet Annan, urge UN Iraq role from Ecumenical News International.