March 21, 2003
GENEVA 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 the WCC web
site at:
http://www.wcc-coe.org/wcc/what/international/raiser.html
http://www.wcc-coe.org/wcc/what/international/martin.html
World Council of Churches
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