wfn.org | NCCCUSA Statement on Iraq Resolution

[CAROL_FOUKE.parti@ecunet.org (CAROL FOUKE)]

National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA
Internet: wendym@ncccusa.org

A Statement on the
Resolution of Tensions with Iraq
by
The Rev. Dr. Joan Brown Campbell
General Secretary
National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA
February 23, 1998

Agreements brokered in Iraq are good news. The positive 
response of President Clinton is good news indeed. We give 
thanks to God!

With so many in our country and throughout the world, 
including President Clinton himself, we have hoped and prayed 
that diplomacy would nullify the possibility of conflict. It 
now appears that diplomacy has prevailed. Mindful of those who 
have been spared further jeopardy and suffering on all sides, 
we again give thanks to God.

On behalf of our churches we warmly commend UN Secretary 
General Kofi Annan for his good service to the community of 
nations. His readiness to undertake a mission with high stakes 
and his steady, confident style have been critical ingredients 
in achieving a peaceful resolution. Well done! The United 
Nations stands tall. 

Further we commend President Clinton for his support of the 
Secretary General's mission as well as his own restraint in 
this time of high tension. Quick responses or unseasoned 
judgments could have been calamitous. We continue to 
appreciate the consistent openness to a negotiated settlement 
displayed by Secretary Albright, Director Berger and others in 
our nation's leadership. Again, well done.

We are heartened by the insistence of so many Americans that 
we find a way of resolving this conflict peacefully. It offers 
a promising future for America's role in the family of 
nations. The "macho" among us was replaced by a maturity in us 
that the future will continue to need. Well done!

Finally, as we have previously expressed to President Clinton 
we believe that new ties between the Iraqi people, Americans 
and other peoples of the world must now be built. We continue 
to offer the capacity of our churches to deliver humanitarian 
aid to alleviate Iraq's suffering. We join with others in 
urging a softening of the embargo against Iraq to permit such 
aid. We believe that the reduction of tensions now provides 
the opportunity to build the framework for peace. 

We long for the day when weapons can be laid aside and the 
horrible instruments of wanton mass destruction become 
pointless and repugnant even to those who harbor them. We 
continue to lift up the Biblical vision of "swords turned into 
plowshares and spears into pruning hooks" and a family of 
nations that knows war no more.

As we pray in gratitude for the ending of the immediate 
confrontation with Iraq, so let us pray for a new and 
universal human commitment to pursue a just and lasting peace.

-end-

Contact: The Rev. Dr. Albert M. Pennybacker, 212-870-3264
2

2

 -0-