Home >  Nation & World >  World News

Opponents of war more vocal, but not necessarily more numerous

Sunday, November 10, 2002

By Ann Rodgers-Melnick, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

By a hairbreadth 66-61 margin at its most recent meeting, the Pittsburgh Presbytery voted to oppose a U.S. war against Iraq.

"We refuse to conform to the patriotism that stifles disagreement, admits no error, claims that our nation has the right to act alone and that others must conform to our agenda," the resolution said.

What's noteworthy is that the resolution passed by only a handful of votes even though the national leaders of the 2.5 million-member Presbyterian Church (USA) had already spoken out against the war.

Religious groups and leaders across the country are of many minds about the prospect of military action against Iraq. And the view of the people in the pews is not always the same as that of their leaders.

Peace churches, mainline Protestants and the Catholic bishops have come out in opposition, while some well-known evangelical Protestants call it a just cause. Jewish groups tend to support potential unilateral military action, while Islamic groups oppose it.

While some groups oppose war under any circumstances, others, including the Catholic and Episcopal bishops, indicate that further developments could change their views.

Many of the Christian groups opposed to a unilateral attack on Iraq now also opposed the U.N -authorized coalition warfare against Iraq after it invaded Kuwait in 1990.

The Rev. Converse Hunter, a pacifist who retired to Pittsburgh two years ago from Rochester, N.Y., knew he was facing a conservative presbytery when he brought his anti-war resolution to the floor. But he knew almost no one who supported a war with Iraq.

The Rev. James Mead, pastor to Pittsburgh Presbytery, believes some members of the presbytery voted for the resolution even though they thought it was too harshly worded, and others who oppose war voted against it because they thought the wording too harsh.

"There is probably more support for a message of restraint to our government than the closeness of the vote shows," he said.

At St. Margaret of Scotland Church in Green Tree, Sister Jackie Ketter leads about 20 adults in regular discussion of the writings of Thomas Merton, a monk who opposed the war in Vietnam.

"There is really strong sentiment against the war [with Iraq], except for one guy. He came on very strong in defense of the Bush policy," Ketter said.

Some group members have written Washington to oppose a war.

"There is a sadness. You almost have a feeling it is going to happen, and it's terrible," she said.

No pre-emptive strike

Catholic leaders are often the religious swing vote on military action. They follow a doctrine of "just war" to determine when war is morally justified. Just wars must be defensive rather than aggressive, civilians must be protected and the war must not cause more harm than it is intended to prevent.

This summer, Cardinal Josef Ratzinger, head of the Vatican's doctrinal office, declared that there was no precedent in just war theory for a "pre-emptive strike." On Sept. 13, Bishop Wilton Gregory, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, wrote to President Bush, saying the bishops were not convinced that an attack on Iraq was justified at this time. He urged Bush to pursue diplomatic measures.

In the evangelical Protestant community, most leaders who have spoken have backed Bush.

Five influential evangelicals signed an Oct. 3 letter comparing Saddam Hussein's treaty violations to those of Adolf Hitler in the 1930s and warning against appeasement.

Bush's policies regarding Iraq's weapons of mass destruction "are prudent and fall well within the time-honored criteria of just war theory," said the letter from Richard Land, president of the Ethics & Liberty Commission of the 15.7 million-member Southern Baptist Convention; televangelist D. James Kennedy; campus ministry pioneer Bill Bright; public policy activist Chuck Colson; and Carl Herbster, the president of the American Association of Christian Schools.

Although Land can't speak for all Southern Baptists, he is confident that the vast majority see Saddam as a threat who must be eliminated. But unlike opponents of a war, the Southern Baptists are not making a big push to air their views.

That assessment is shared by Ken Martin, a local evangelical who has been active in Promise Keepers and at Northway Christian Community in Wexford, one of the largest evangelical churches in the region.

In his Bible study and in other gatherings, "most of the people I come in contact with are all backing the president 100 percent," Martin said.

"They feel very definitely that he is God's man for the time and that we have to have a strong military force to deter terrorism."

There is also strong backing for Bush's Iraq stance in Jewish circles. But it, too, is quiet support.

Both the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations and the Reform movement's Union of American Hebrew Congregations have said they would support a unilateral U.S. attack on Iraq should diplomatic efforts fail.

Religious groups that oppose a war are urging members to take a public stand. Members of pacifist faiths are especially inclined to.

Peter Eash-Scott, 25, a pastoral intern from the Pittsburgh Mennonite Church, is nearing the end of a two-week protest walk to Washington, D.C.

Jeanne Zang, 53, a foreign language translator who belongs to the Allegheny Unitarian-Universalist Church, is using the Internet to organize peace vigils outside her North Side church.

Supplies to Iraq

At noon on the third Saturday of each month, about 20 members of the Community for Mindful Living walk slowly in single file through Point State Park on behalf of peace. They carry no signs and chant no slogans.

They follow the teachings of Thich Nhat Hanh, a Zen Buddhist monk who was exiled from Vietnam during the war because of his efforts to make peace.

Concern about Iraq prompted their peace walks, but they are based on Hanh's philosophy that peace begins in each heart and radiates out through the family and community to encompass the world.

While walking in meditation, "One can be aware of implanting footsteps of peace as one walks with the intention that people who walk that path will find peace," said Tony Silvestre, a social worker who helped plan the walks.

Some local pacifists have visited Iraq. Joe Heckel, 77, a Presbyterian, went in October with a group sponsored by the Christian Peacemaker Teams, an initiative of the historic peace churches, such as the Mennonites, the Church of the Brethren and the Quakers.

Heckel, a World War II veteran, said that ridding Europe of Hitler was such a popular cause that he found himself unable to obey his understanding of Scripture and declare himself a conscientious objector.

"I wanted to go to Baghdad in peace instead of war," he said.

Members of the Bruderhof, a pacifist Christian community with two settlements in Fayette County, have carried medical supplies to Iraq, where they cleaned the hospital rooms of seriously ill children. Wars create only more wars, said Christoph Arnold, senior pastor of the Bruderhof communities.

Major Islamic groups in the United States oppose a unilateral U.S. attack on Iraq, but voice no fondness for the Iraqi regime.

Since the Vietnam war, liberal Protestant churches have generally opposed U.S. military action. Although there were exceptions for the war in Afghanistan, the threat of war with Iraq has united them in opposition.

For instance, Bishop Sharon Brown, president of the United Methodist Council of Bishops, called on all 8.4 million United Methodists, including Bush, to pray for peace.

"A pre-emptive war by the United States against a nation like Iraq goes against the very grain of our understanding of the Gospel, our church's teachings and our conscience," she wrote.

The entire Episcopal House of Bishops wrote to Bush on Oct. 2, saying, "With you, we recognize the possibility that war is sometimes unavoidable, but we do not believe that war with Iraq can be justified at this time."

Post-Gazette staff writer Ervin Dyer contributed to this report.

Ann Rodgers-Melnick can be reached at arodgersmelnick@ post-gazette.com or 412-263-1416.