wfn.org | WCC: Bush religious claims

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World Council of Churches
Update Up-03-11
For Immediate Use
21 March 2003

WCC general secretary challenges Bush's religious claims

Free photos are available - see below

cf. Press release, PR-03-10 of 14 February 2003
cf. Press release, PR-03-14 of 20 February 2003

Speaking yesterday at an ecumenical service of prayer for peace held at World
Council of Churches (WCC) headquarters in Geneva, WCC general secretary Rev.
Dr Konrad Raiser denounced as "misuse of religious language" US president
George W. Bush's attempts to invoke divine legitimation for his war against
Iraq.

Noting an increasing tendency on the part of the US president "to invoke
religious, even divine legitimation for his intention to disarm Iraq by
force", Raiser suggested that a Christian response today to "the political,
ethical and spiritual challenge of war [...] declared with the alleged
purpose of restoring peace and justice" must be "an act of defiance:
denouncing this misuse of religious language in order to justify an act of
war that violates the legal order developed to protect world peace". 

In his reflection, Raiser quoted the German pastor and theologian Dietrich
Bonhoeffer who, in 1934 as war loomed, made the passionate plea: "Today God's
commandment for us is the order of international peace. To say this is to
express a quite definite recognition of the will of God for our time. [...]
As certainly as we leave the making of the last peace to God, so certainly
should we also make peace to overcome war." 

The prayer service for peace was attended by the papal nuncio in Geneva,
Msgr. Diarmuid Martin; the president of the Conference of European Churches
and metropolitan of Switzerland (Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarchate), HE
Jirimie; the general secretary of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, Dr
Setri Nyomi; the acting general secretary of the Lutheran World Federation,
Rev. Dr Karen Bloomquist, and other ecumenical organizations based in Geneva;
members of diplomatic missions at the United Nations (UN) and officials from
international organizations; and many people from the Geneva community. 

Raiser emphasized that although "many now feel helpless, full of anger and
fear", the fact that all churches are acting together in "common, prophetic
discernment" is a remarkable and encouraging development. Highlighting the US
churches' great courage "in speaking the truth to power", he suggested that
"We should celebrate that, for the first time, the churches together have
placed the  commandment of God above their respective political loyalties."  
  

The United Nations' credibility has not been damaged by the war, Raiser
argued. Rather, "The sheer fact that the overwhelming majority of UN member
states have rejected the project of war against Iraq is an indication that
the basic values upon which it was founded are still being affirmed. The war
against Iraq is not a defeat for the UN, but a moral and political defeat for
the government of the United States and her allies", he said.  

Speaking in the crowded chapel of the Ecumenical  Centre, the papal nuncio
Msgr. Diarmuid Martin suggested that "The rule of law and the vigour of
solidarity" are means by which civilization can "overcome the logic of the
war and dismantle the instruments of terror". "Our civilization deserves
better than war. We are capable of better," he said. That is why, he
continued, "it is time for our world, once and for all, to move beyond the
logic of war and all forms of the arrogance of power".	Recalling Pope John
Paul II's criticism of "the very personal sins of those [...] who take refuge
in the supposed impossibility of changing the world," Martin urged that "We
should never give up on this possibility."

Guided by HE Jirimie, the gathered community prayed for "the Iraqi people and
the people who live in the surrounding countries", "the women in Iraq, who
will be subjected to a lot of pain and suffering", the Iraqi children, so
that they "may have the chance to dream of the future and experience security
and peace", and for government officials and country leaders, so that they
"understand that violence cannot and will not end violence". 

The full text of Rev. Dr Konrad Raiser's and Msgr. Diarmuid Martin's
reflections can be found on our website at:
http://www.wcc-coe.org/wcc/what/international/raiser.html 
http://www.wcc-coe.org/wcc/what/international/martin.html 

Free of charge photos to accompany articles related to this press update are
available upon request to the Media Relations Office. The photos can be seen
at:
http://www.photooikoumene.org/events/irakcrisis/8013-02.html 
http://www.photooikoumene.org/events/irakcrisis/8013-11.html 
http://www.photooikoumene.org/events/irakcrisis/8014-01.html 

For further information, please contact the Media Relations Office, 
tel: +41 (0)22 791 6421 / 6153	

**********

The World Council of Churches (WCC) is a fellowship of churches, now 342, in
more than 100 countries in all continents from virtually all Christian
traditions. The Roman Catholic Church is not a member church but works
cooperatively with the WCC. The highest governing body is the assembly, which
meets approximately every seven years. The WCC was formally inaugurated in
1948 in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Its staff is headed by general secretary
Konrad Raiser from the Evangelical Church in Germany.

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