ZGram - 10/20/2002 - "Kentucky Council of Churches opposes Iraq war"

irimland@zundelsite.org irimland@zundelsite.org
Sun, 20 Oct 2002 12:13:06 -0700


ZGram - Where Truth is Destiny

10/20/2002

Good Morning from the Zundelsite:

On this clouded, dismal Sunday morning it is comforting to find the 
following, right in my own neighborhood:

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Churches oppose war with Iraq

U.S. SHOULD WORK WITH U.N. INSTEAD, RESOLUTION SAYS
By Frank E. Lockwood

HERALD-LEADER STAFF WRITER

The Kentucky Council of Churches yesterday voted unanimously to 
oppose war with Iraq, calling military conflict "contrary to the will 
of God."

Delegates from 11 denominations voted for the resolution, which 
called on the U.S. government to "stop the rush to war" and to work 
with the United Nations to find a diplomatic solution to the impasse.

The vote came during the council's 55th annual assembly yesterday in 
Lexington. Its members include the Roman Catholic Church, the United 
Methodist Church and many of the state's other mainline Protestant 
churches -- groups with 3,000 churches and 1 million adherents across 
Kentucky.

The council's affiliates do not include the Kentucky Baptist 
Convention--- by far the state's largest religious group, with 
980,000 adherents -- or most pentecostal and evangelical 
denominations.

In yesterday's resolution, council delegates said that if America 
acts unilaterally, it will backfire, causing instability in the 
Middle East and divisiveness around the globe.

"Moreover, we also believe that there is a grave danger that military 
action, far from defeating terrorism, will create even more 
terrorists, triggering a conflagration of hatred that will last for 
generations to come," the resolution states.

In the past, the Kentucky Council of Churches has opposed the death 
penalty, supported a ban on assault weapons and called for universal 
health-care coverage.

Some of the 120 delegates who attended this year's assembly say they 
hope the anti-war resolution will help avert unnecessary death.

"Christianity is a religion of peace and love of neighbor," said the 
Rev. Nancy Jo Kemper, the council's executive director. "Our calling 
is to be in the middle of places of conflict, to be agents of 
reconciliation, to find another way."

David Bondurant, a member of the council's board of directors from 
Lexington, said he's leery of a pre-emptive strike on Iraq and 
worries that the conflict will be easier to start than to stop. 
"George Bush will be out of office and gone, and we'll still be in 
Iraq trying to put out the bonfires. ... I think we learned that 
lesson in Vietnam."

Eleanor Workman, a Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) delegate 
from Berea, said she worries that war with Iraq could bring chaos to 
the region and lower the United States' standing in the global 
community. Added Workman: "It will give more people more reason to 
hate America as well as American policies."


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(Source:  http://www.kentucky.com/mld/heraldleader/4319885.htm )