Among the nation’s major religious orders, only the Southern Baptist Convention publicly supports war with Iraq. But at least one local minister from that denomination said he is praying for peace.
“My personal prayers are that there won’t be a war,” said the Rev. Roger Patterson, minister of education at First Baptist Church of Friendswood. “Even at this late date, I hope Saddam Hussein will recognize the size of the forces aligned against him and leave the country.”
Patterson has a vested interest; his 19-year-old son is a sailor and members of his church are stationed in the Middle East.
“I know men from our church family that are on the front lines in Kuwait,” he said. “My son is in the Navy. That’s made the threat of war very personal and very scary.”
Eight protestant denominations, as well as the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Council on American-Islamic Relations and the Unitarian-Universalist Association all adopted a stance opposing the war.
Three Jewish sects — the Orthodox Union, Union of American Hebrew Congregations and the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism — took the position that all alternatives to war should be exhausted first.
Sharon Brown Christopher, president of the United Methodist Council of Bishops, called upon President Bush, a fellow Methodist, to consider a peaceful resolution in a February letter.
“I beseech you to listen to the voice of hundreds of thousands of Americans and citizens of other countries who demonstrate for peace and ask your utmost restraint,” she said.
United Church of Christ leaders issued a formal statement condemning a pre-emptive strike. “While we condemn Saddam Hussein’s repressive policies, we are alarmed that our nation’s leaders would consider taking unilateral military action to remove him,” the statement said. “To do so without any support from our Arab friends, without allied consensus, and without United Nations authorization puts U.S. leadership and credibility under international law at stake.”
The American Friends Service Committee (Quakers) drafted a joint statement against the war and calling on church members to take action.
“If ever there were a time for Friends to take action based upon our historic peace testimony, that time is now,” the statement said. “We call upon Friends to witness and work to prevent this war, to reverse this new military doctrine, to call upon our governments to implement multilateral, diplomatic responses to the threats posed by the government of Iraq, and to continue developing positive, nonviolent approaches to resolving international conflicts.”
The Presbyterian Church (USA), Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, the Episcopal Church, the Greek Orthodox Church in America and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) all took a similar stance.
Pope John Paul II, in a Feb. 23 address, said Christians should be guardians of peace. “It is a duty for believers, regardless of the religion to which they belong, to proclaim that we will never be able to be happy if we are against one another,” he said. “The future of humanity will never be able to be assured by terrorism and the logic of war. We Christians, in particular, are called to be like guardians of peace in the places where we live and work. We are asked, that is, to be alert, so that consciences will not yield to the temptation to egoism, falsehood and violence.”
Southern Baptist spokes-man Richard Land said in a published statement that the United States would not enter Iraq as conquerors but as liberators. He called it a just war.
“Many Christians argue that this war does meet just war criteria in that it has the just intent of freeing the Iraqi people and the entire region from the criminal behavior of Saddam Hussein — who, it must be remembered, has already attacked and gassed his own people and his neighbors,” Land said. “America’s just intent is to liberate the Iraqi people and their neighbors from Saddam Hussein’s state-sponsored terror.”
Patterson said he’s retained faith in the president, but remained worried. “I trust our president,” he said. “But in my heart, I pray for peace.”
