U.S. church alliance denounces Iraq war
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1102AP_Brazil_Churches_Iraq.html
Saturday, February 18, 2006 Last updated 10:05 a.m. PT
By BRIAN MURPHY
AP RELIGION WRITER
In this photo released by Agencia Brasil, President Luiz Inacio Lula da
Silva, speaks during the 9th Assembly by the World Council of Churches in
Porto Alegre, Brazil, on Friday, Feb. 17, 2006. Brazilian President Luiz
Inacio Lula da Silva urged churches and religious leaders Friday to
cooperate more closely to speed social and economic reforms in Latin
America's largest nation. Speaking to a World Council of Churches
gathering, Silva said churches have an "irreplaceable role in the task of
transforming Brazil," whose economy has been growing but remains burdened
by widespread poverty and limited public services in some regions. (AP
Photo/Ricardo Stuckert-AGENCIA BRASIL/HO)
PORTO ALEGRE, Brazil -- A coalition of American churches sharply denounced
the U.S.-led war in Iraq on Saturday, accusing Washington of "raining down
terror" and apologizing to other nations for "the violence, degradation
and poverty our nation has sown."
The statement, issued at the largest gathering of Christian churches in
nearly a decade, also warned the United States was pushing the world
toward environmental catastrophe with a "culture of consumption" and its
refusal to back international accords seeking to battle global warming.
"We lament with special anguish the war in Iraq, launched in deception and
violating global norms of justice and human rights," said the statement
from representatives of the 34 U.S. members of World Council of Churches.
"We mourn all who have died or been injured in this war. We acknowledge
with shame abuses carried out in our name."
The World Council of Churches includes more than 350 mainstream
Protestant, Anglican and Orthodox churches; the Roman Catholic Church is
not a member. The U.S. groups in the WCC include the Episcopal Church, the
Presbyterian Church (USA), the United Methodist Church, several Orthodox
churches and Baptist denominations, among others.
The statement is part of widening religious pressure on the Bush
administration, which still counts on the support of evangelical churches
and other conservative denominations but is widely unpopular with
liberal-minded Protestant congregations.
The Very Rev. Leonid Kishkovsky, the moderator for the U.S. group of WCC
members, said the letter was backed by the leaders of the churches but was
not cleared by lower-level bodies. He predicted friction within
congregations about the tone of the message.
"There is much internal anguish and there is division," said Kishkovsky,
ecumenical officer of the Orthodox Church of America. "I believe church
leaders and communities are wrestling with the moral questions that this
letter is addressing."
On Friday, the U.S. National Council of Churches - which includes many WCC
members - released a letter appealing to Washington to close the
Guantanamo Bay detention facility and saying reports of alleged torture
violated "the fundamental Christian belief in the dignity of the human
person."
The two-page statement from the WCC group came at the midpoint of a 10-day
meeting of more than 4,000 religious leaders, scholars and activists
discussing trends and goals for major Christian denominations for the
coming decades. The WCC's last global assembly was in 1998 in Zimbabwe -
just four months after al-Qaida staged twin bombings at U.S. embassies in
Kenya and Tanzania.
"Our country responded (to the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks) by seeking to
reclaim a privileged and secure place in the world, raining down terror on
the truly vulnerable among our global neighbors ... entering into imperial
projects that seek to dominate and control for the sake of national
interests," said the statement. "Nations have been demonized and God has
been enlisted in national agendas that are nothing short of idolatrous."
The Rev. Sharon Watkins, president of the Christian Church (Disciples of
Christ), worried that some may interpret the statement as undermining U.S.
troops in Iraq.
"We honor their courage and sense of duty, but ... we, as people of faith,
have to say to our brothers and sisters, `We are so profoundly sorry,'"
Watkins said.
The message also accused U.S. officials of ignoring warnings about climate
change and treating the world's "finite resources as if they are private
possessions." It went on to criticize U.S. domestic policies for refusing
to confront racism and poverty.
"Hurricane Katrina revealed to the world those left behind in our own
nation by the rupture of our social contract," said the statement.
The churches said they had "grown heavy with guilt" for not doing enough
to speak out against the Iraq war and other issues. The statement asked
forgiveness for a world that's "grown weary from the violence, degradation
and poverty our nation has sown."
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Russ T. Nale
http://grace.break.at
God is still speaking
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