wfn.org | [PCUSANEWS] U.S. religious journalists condemn Amman bombings

[PCUSA NEWS <PCUSA.NEWS@ECUNET.ORG>]

Note #9020 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

05611
Nov. 11, 2005

U.S. religious journalists 
condemn Amman bombings

Associated Church Press group 
also 'saddened' by violence in Iraq

by Jerry L. Van Marter
President, Associated Church Press

LOUISVILLE - A group of U.S. religious journalists visiting Jordan has
condemned the Nov. 9 bombings of three hotels in Amman. 

	The group, from the Associated Church Press, checked out of a hotel
across the street from the Radisson Hotel in Amman just hours before it was
bombed.

	The group - Jim Rice, managing editor of Sojourners magazine;
Patricia Edwards-Konic, editor of Quaker Life magazine; Everett Thomas,
editor of The Mennonite; Sherri Wood Emmons, managing editor of
DisciplesWorld, a magazine of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ); and
Jim Pitts, chairman, Smyth & Helwys Publishing - issued the following
statement on Nov. 10:

	As Christian journalists visiting Jordan, we join people of faith and
good will around the world in condemning yesterday's terrorist attacks in
Amman. We have observed among the gracious, hospitable people here the same
shock and grief many of us in the U.S. experienced following the attacks on
our own country on 9/11.

	We not only decry the cowardly strikes against innocent people, but
we recognize and are saddened by the connection with the violence that has
been brought upon neighboring Iraq by our own country's military action.

	The terrorists who attacked Amman yesterday seek to instill fear, not
only in their direct victims but also in anyone who would consider a visit to
this breathtakingly beautiful land, which has been at the very heart of so
many of our religious traditions. Those of us who have walked in the
footsteps of our Biblical forebears and marveled at the magnificent and
ancient wonders of this crossroads of history can testify to the power of
this place to reach the deepest part of our humanity.

	We grieve with and pray for our Jordanian sisters and brothers. We
pray that people of faith around the world will refuse to allow fear to
separate us from the people of Jordan and the Middle East, but will instead
reach out and connect ever more deeply as we move forward in hope.

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