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Semper Reformanda |
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Churches worldwide say no to war |
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Update 13/1 (February 2003) This article surveys attitudes in Alliance churches prior to the outbreak of the US-led war on Iraq. It appeared in Update as a Newsround Special. Perfectly normal people are behaving strangely, the church and nation committee of the Church of Scotland reports this month. "From all over Scotland we continue to receive messages from people who are perplexed, concerned, angry or sorrowful about the international situation and the part being played in it by the United Kingdom. People who have never taken political action before are asking what they can do: we know of a kirk session writing to its member of parliament, presbyteries having special debates and organizing petitions, people writing letters to MPs who have never done so before... people asking about marches or other demonstrations in which they can take part." Nor is this curious behaviour confined to Scotland. All round the world, perfectly normal people are rising to their feet to say no to war and yes to the gospel of peace. At the time of writing, it is not yet clear whether anything will deter Mr Bush and Mr Blair from killing lots of perfectly normal Iraqis, in pursuit of aims that become daily more transparently imperial. In this Newsround Special, we survey responses from member churches in different continents. Normal service will be resumed in our April issue, or when the world returns to normal. Africa From Johannesburg, the United Congregational Church of Southern Africa condemns the "warring language" of Mr Bush and Mr Blair. "Just as we applaud the USA for pledging a large sum of money to develop the African continent, we herewith express our strongest condemnation of their president's war plans," general secretary Steve Titus says. "It is like walking with water in one hand and fire in the other." "The US has more weapons of mass destruction than the rest of the world put together," Titus says. "It is time for the non-aligned nations in the United Nations to stand together to influence the US to set an example to Iraq and the rest of humanity by disarming itself..." Asia The use of "pre-emptive" military force is without justification, the bishops of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines say, calling on the US administration to respect the principles that govern relations among UN member states. The UCCP "despises any act that destroys and pointlessly sacrifices innocent people's lives," the bishops say. Caribbean The United Church in Jamaica and the Cayman Islands joins with other churches to reject the "sovereign right of any single nation, however powerful, to declare war" and cautions the Jamaican government against supporting US war efforts. They question the role of "sections of the Christian community" in providing the Bush administration with religious and moral justification. A pre-emptive strike and a regime change not initiated by the people of Iraq would set a dangerous precedent and are a "serious threat to international relations and global peace". Drawing extensively on WARC's statement, the Dominican Evangelical Church says that war can never be justified, except when peoples oppressed by colonialist powers are forced to rise up in arms to fight for their freedom. Europe "In the present difficult situation," a terse one-sentence statement from the Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren says, "we ask all Christians to pray that the conflict concerning Iraq might be resolved peacefully and that war might not be necessary." The United Protestant Church in Belgium underlines that it is the UN's responsibility to oblige Saddam Hussein to respect its resolutions, in particular UNSC 687. Only the UN can legitimately launch a war; moreover, it would need unquestionable evidence of effective Iraqi rearmament. A "surgical" war, says the Belgian church, is a snare and a delusion: an offensive by the US and its allies would threaten thousands of innocent people - children, women and men - to satisfy selfish economic-military-industrial desires. The Reformed Church of France declares itself against "preventive war", concurs that the findings of the inspectors to date do not justify armed intervention, and agrees that it is the UN's responsibility to manage the Iraqi crisis, within the framework of international law. "We must show the value we place on peace," says Landessuperintendent Walter Herrenbrück in a letter to ministers of the Evangelical-Reformed Church (Germany) asking them to open their churches for prayer. A war of aggression cannot be justified, Herrenbrück says; if Iraq does possess weapons of mass destruction, the threat must be contained by political means. Christians should be led by the vision of a just peace, not philosophize about a just war. They should eschew anti-US propaganda and a know-it-all political attitude and treat the quest for peace as a matter belonging to their faith. The Church of Lippe (Germany) reiterates its November 2002 warning against a unilateral attack, noting that the political goals of such an attack are "obscure" and its moral justification and legitimacy in international law are "most problematic". In a carefully balanced statement, the general board of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland encourages the UN to ensure that Saddam Hussein is disarmed, using force only as a last resort; the governments of the UK and the Republic of Ireland to work towards an international consensus and discourage unilateral US action; and the international community to pursue a resolution of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. The Uniting Protestant Churches in the Netherlands continue to be guided by what they wrote last October, together with the other members of the Dutch Council of Churches, to foreign minister JG de Hoop Scheffer. There is, so far, no evidence to show that Iraq poses a threat to the international community sufficient to constitute a casus belli; unilateral military action to overthrow the Iraqi regime overthrows international law; and what is projected as a low-risk surgical operation is playing with human lives. They fear that "in the name of "the struggle against evil' the world is about to be dragged into a much greater evil". "If we reach the stage where an American president, or any world leader, by sheer force of power, can do what he wants, when he wants, how he wants, and where he wants, whether or not he has the support of the UN, then such a man is also capable of tyrannizing others," says the United Free Church of Scotland's committee on ethics and current affairs. "We are firmly of the view that the inspection team currently operating in Iraq must be allowed adequate time to do its work thoroughly and independently and that it should be accountable to the UN alone." In a joint statement with other Christian organizations, the Spanish Evangelical Church denounces "the war that is announced and prepared" as immoral and illegitimate. But "war is never a fate to which we must resign ourselves." They call on the people to "demonstrate massively" that they want Spain to oppose this "futile adventure". The Mission Covenant Church of Sweden tells the Swedish government that it has been too passive in opposing US plans. In pursuit of its own interests, the Bush administration is attempting to exploit the UN, "a guardian of world peace and human rights for all", as a catalyst of "a cruel attack war". The inspectors should be given the time they need to disarm Iraq completely. In the seven years after the Gulf war, the church points out, UN inspections discovered and destroyed 95% of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. The Swedish government should work to annul the economic sanctions against the people of Iraq, maintain effective weapons control and isolate the power elite, the church says. This, and not a massive offensive war, is the way to bring democracy to Iraq. The Federation of Swiss Protestant Churches "disapproves strongly" of a preventive war. "The population would be affected not only directly by the killings and injuries of the war, but also indirectly by the fatal (social, health and economic) consequences of such a war." It rejects the argument that asymmetrical warfare has torn up the international rule book: "When there is no imminent threat of attack, but a probable, yet vague insecurity, the universal standard of banning violence must be kept." The Pacific Current US intentions are a serious threat to world peace says Michael Thawley, moderator of the Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand, in a statement with other church leaders. War, they say, is never merely another means of settling differences between nations. Even a decision by the UN Security Council to attack Iraq should be taken only after a study of the consequences for the civilian population and the repercussions war might have on the region and on world stability. In a letter to Presbyterian congregations, Thawley invites them to take "appropriate" practical actions to declare their opposition to the threatened attacks. On January 23, James Haire, national president of the Uniting Church in Australia, condemned the Australian government for its own "pre-emptive strike" in sending troops to the Middle East. "This move pre-empts the Australian people, the Australian parliament and the UN," Haire said. "Nothing new has occurred for Australia to ratchet up its military response." The UCA endorses a call from the National Council of Churches in Australia to mark Ash Wednesday as a special day of prayer for peace. "Australia needs to find space for sober reflection at this time", says the NCCA's Jon Inkpin, "so that we turn to cultivating a culture of peace rather than war. What we require are ashes of repentance, in which we can find hope for the poor of the world, rather than ashes of destruction." Canada National church leaders commend a statement, "Prepare for peace in Iraq", to congregations and parishes across Canada, and call on all Canadians to endorse it. The statement, a joint initiative of Kairos: Canadian ecumenical justice initiatives, the justice and peace commission of the Canadian Council of Churches, and Project Ploughshares, proposes a seven-point strategy:
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