Methodist Debate Over Iraq War Heats Up
A conservative Christian watchdog group based in Washington criticized a resolution released last week that condemned the U.S. military presence in Iraq.
WASHINGTON – United Methodist bishops are wrong for denouncing the war in Iraq and their criticism of the United States is “woefully absurd,” said a conservative Christian watchdog group based in Washington, D.C., on Thursday.
“These bishops, like other politically outspoken officials of mainline denominations, seem to be incapable of criticizing any government in the world except for the United States and its closest allies,” said Mark Tooley, director of the Institute for Religion and Democracy (IRD)’s Methodist Action.
Tooley was criticizing a resolution released by the Council of United Methodist Bishops last week during their annual fall meeting in North Carolina. The resolution, which was approved nearly unanimously by the bishops, condemned the U.S. military presence in Iraq and reiterated the denomination’s beliefs that war is incompatible to the teachings of the gospel.
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About half of the bishops also signed onto an unofficial statement further criticizing what they called an “unjust and immoral invasion and occupation of Iraq.”
“Our preoccupation with institutional enhancement and limited agendas while American men and women are sent to Iraq to kill and be killed, while thousands of Iraqi people needlessly suffer and die, while poverty increases and preventable diseases go untreated,” the bishops wrote.
Tooley, whose organization has long criticized the leadership in mainline denominations, said the bishops are "woefully absurd" for unilaterally blaming the United States for the violence in Iraq while saying little on the ensuing violence in other places around the world like Sudan.
“How woefully absurd that church prelates condemn the United States for attempting to build democracy in Iraq, but refuse to condemn the Sudanese regime’s deliberate destruction of hundreds of thousands of lives in pursuit of an Islamic theocracy,” Tooley said.
The eight-million-member United Methodist Church, like most large mainline denominations, have varying constituents that hold opposing views on numerous thorny issues, including the war in Iraq. The church’s constitution also reflects this diversity: in one part, the constitution denounces war as incompatible to the gospel; in another, it gives exceptions to cases involving genocide, brutal suppression and aggression.
According to Bishop Kenneth Carder, a retired bishop who helped draft last week’s unofficial statement, bishops are not meant to speak on behalf of the entire church.
“This was not intended to speak for all United Methodists, but it’s an expression of our own conscience and an invitation for others who may feel similar convictions to express them,” said Carder. “United Methodists are not of one mind on many issues, including the war.”
Carder, who serves as a professor of Pastoral Formation at Duke Divinity School, said he hopes such differences would not force Methodists to engage in “hateful debates” such as those taking place among politicians on Capitol Hill.
“If Christians cannot disagree without hatred and viciousness, why should we expect politicians and nations to behave differently?” he asked. “How we deal with differences is as important as the correctness of our specific position on the war.”
At that end, Carder said he believes all Christians – including bishops – are entitled to their opinions and should be free to express them, so long as they reflect deeply on what the Prince of Peace would desire.
“I encourage all Christians to come to grips with what it means to follow the Prince of Peace in a world committed to violence and war as solutions to problems and conflicts,” said Carder.
Tooley meanwhile criticized this “peace-only” approach as too ideological, and likened the bishops to those who censured the Allied Forces for their violence during the Second World War
“No doubt, these bishops, if transported back in history, would have impartially ‘lamented’ the ‘continued warfare’ between Allied and German forces in Normandy in 1944, while blaming the plight of millions of victims of fascist aggression on the United States,” Tooley suggested.
Carder rejected such criticisms, calling them “a distortion and failure to understand both the motivation and position that the bishops expressed in the document.”
“It is viewing the document through predominantly ideological and political lenses rather than theological and ethical lenses,” he said. “Vicious attacks even among United Methodists are symptomatic of the deeper problems that cause war, violence and destruction.”
Ultimately the bishop said he hopes everyone can commit to overcome differences in peaceful ways.
“I would encourage all those who have different positions to dialogue together,” said Carder. “This is not idealism. This is finding ways to engage, support, and promote understanding for forgiveness and justice.”
