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:
[START]
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 )