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Board of Church and Society calls for withdrawal from Iraq

Oct. 19, 2005

NOTE: Photographs are available with this report at http://umns.umc.org.

By Mark Schoeff Jr.*

WASHINGTON (UMNS) - On a day when officials at the State Department were
monitoring the results of a constitutional referendum in Iraq, a couple
of miles away in a local hotel the United Methodist Board of Church and
Society passed a resolution calling on the United States to withdraw its
troops from the country.

"As people of faith, we raise our voice in protest against the tragedy
of the unjust war in Iraq," the resolution stated. "We urge the United
States government to develop and implement a plan for the withdrawal of
its troops. The U.S. invasion has set in motion a sequence of events
which may plunge Iraq into civil war."

Criticizing a war "waged on false premises," the resolution went on to
state, "Thousands of lives have been lost and hundreds of billions of
dollars wasted in a war the United States initiated and should never
have fought. ...We grieve for all those whose lives have been lost or
destroyed in this needless and avoidable tragedy. Military families have
suffered undue hardship from prolonged troop rotations in Iraq and loss
of loved ones. It is time to bring them home."

The resolution passed easily on the last day of the board's Oct. 13-17
meeting, with only two no votes and one abstention.

In a separate resolution, the board called on Congress to create an
independent, bipartisan commission to investigate detention and
interrogation practices at U.S.-run facilities in Guantanamo, Iraq and
Afghanistan. The board applauded the U.S. Senate's vote to prohibit the
"cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment" of prisoners, and stated: "We
do not believe that all those responsible have been held accountable."

The agency's directors also urged the government of the Philippines to
end human rights violations; hailed the recent presidential election in
Liberia; endorsed a boycott of Turtle Bay Resort by the church's
California-Pacific Annual (regional) Conference to support the hotel
workers' collective bargaining efforts; and announced that the agency's
board of trustees would seek a declaratory judgment for the Superior
Court of Washington D.C. regarding the use of the United Methodist
Building Endowment Fund and Trust.

The board is the social action and advocacy agency of the church,
supporting a range of ministries, including health care, the
environment, economic development, education, human rights and
international affairs.

The timing of the Iraq resolution, at a moment when the Bush
administration is hoping a new constitution will start to stabilize that
country, did not concern James Winkler, the board's top staff executive.

"A lot of people voted for the constitution to hasten the exit of the
United States," he said. "Iraqis want the United States out of Iraq, and
we want the United States out of Iraq. I see us acting hand in glove
with the Iraqi people today."

But first, members of the board had to work to overcome disagreement on
the resolution. Drafted during the first three days of the meeting, the
measure was tabled for a vote Oct. 15 when two board members objected to
wording they interpreted as critical of U.S. troops and that they
thought might give comfort and support to Iraqi insurgents.

Pat Curtin, a board member from Conroe, Texas, and a veteran of the
Korean War, said he remembered being shunned when he returned from the
battlefield. "They haven't been there, they haven't had this stuff
thrown at them," he said of some of his board colleagues.

Howard Mason, a board member from Seaford, Del., and a veteran of both
World
War II and the Korean War, joined Curtin in pushing for changes to the
original draft.

"It's an emotional thing because we were there," he said, referring to
wartime combat. "We're against war, but we appreciate the G.I.s'
sacrifice."

After the board approved a tabling motion put forward by Mike Freeman, a
member from Jackson, Tenn., a group of eight people, including Curtin
and Mason, began negotiating alternative language.

The next day, the board debated the resolution for an hour, voting on
five amendments to edit language. "This is what the church is about -
seeking consensus," Freeman said.

The Rev. Steve Sprecher of Lake Oswego, Ore., chairperson of the Peace
with Justice Committee, praised the resolution process. "This board
holds as a high value hearing all opinions and finding ways to come as
close as it can to reflect the beliefs of all," he said. "There is a
real respect for each other that is heartening. I hope it's something
that can be used as a model for other parts of the church."

Trust fund question

In other business, the board learned that its trustees have decided to
seek a judgment from the Superior Court of the District of Columbia on
the issue of whether the board is misusing its Building Endowment Fund
and Trust.

Although the board received a clean audit from the KPMG accounting firm
in 2003, its 2004 audit has not been completed because a member of the
General Council on Finance and Administration's audit and review
committee, for the second year in a row, has raised a concern about the
possible misuse of board funds.

The allegations stem from the definition of the kind of activities the
Board of Church and Society can engage in. The unnamed GCFA audit
committee member is asserting that the board's predecessor agency, the
Board of Temperance, Prohibition and Public Morals, could only pursue
alcohol-related programs.

Established in 1917, the original board was combined over time with the
boards of World Peace and Social and Economic Concerns to form what is
today the Board of Church and Society. Winkler said the mandate of the
Board of Temperance, Prohibition and Public Morals went beyond
anti-alcohol efforts. Three legal opinions have upheld that the Board of
Church and Society is operating within the law in offering a wide range
of programmatic activities.

Bishop James Swanson of the Holston Conference, chairman of the board's
trustees, urged other board members not to become emotional about the
issue. "The trustees are not anxious about this," he said. "We would
seek the declaratory judgment so that we can put this to rest one way or
another. Don't be fighting and fussing. Behave like persons who have
been transformed by the blood of Jesus Christ."

Winkler said that he spends time each day addressing the allegations.
"There is a campaign of deliberate disinformation, distortion and
misrepresentation taking place about the so-called misuse of the United
Methodist Building Endowment Fund," he said. "The claim that the income
is being misspent is the great urban legend of the United Methodist
Church."

One area of advocacy work for the board has been workers' rights. During
their meeting, the board members endorsed a consumer boycott against the
Turtle Bay Resort Hotel in Hawaii. The hotel owners and management have
been in contract negotiations with the hotel workers for several years,
and the National Labor Relations Board issued a complaint against the
hotel last January, charging unfair labor practices.

"It shows that this board truly implements the (United Methodist) Social
Principles and that they're supporting all workers," said JoAnn Yoon
Fukumoto, the board's peace with

justice educator in the California-Pacific Conference. The workers in
Hawaii "came to the United Methodist Church because they knew our stance
on worker justice."

*Schoeff is a freelance writer based in Washington.

News media contact: Tim Tanton, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5470 or
newsdesk@umcom.org.

********************

United Methodist News Service
Photos and stories also available at:
http://umns.umc.org

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