Bush’s Own Church Calls For Pulling Troops Out Of Iraq
United Methodist Church leaders helped launch a week of protest and civil disobedience against the war in Iraq by signing a declaration of peace urging President Bush to pull U.S. troops out of the country.
This brings up an interesting question of where Church authority and governmental authority mix.
However, trying to look at this declaration from a Biblical perspective has a lot of issues in the first place… female bishops, the stance they are taking in the first place, authority structure, etc.
Oh what a tangled web we weave.
Technorati Tags: bush, iraq, war, methodist, church
The “Declaration for Peace” ( http://www.declarationofpeace.org/files/pdf/Declaration-of-Peace.pdf ) is an explicitly political document, with participation from “more than 500 antiwar, peace, and justice organizations.”
If the Methodists have any spiritual reasoning for their position, I can’t find it anywhere.
And yes, I managed to read all of this without punching a hole in my monitor.
My response will be in the form of a separate blog post probably next week.
Short answer, even if they are right (sizable ‘if’, but one I’m more amenable to for no reason other than my own possible shift), the reasons, more specifically the facts on the ground, are inconsistent with reality
Whoa…this sounds familiar. Who remembers 2k4 when the Bishops of New England said he’d deny communion to any Catholic elected official who did not oppose abortion? I suppose if any of our elected officials change their minds about policy just because a church tells them to do so, it will prove only too true what Karl Marx once said:
“Religion is the opium of the masses.”
And if I may expound upon this quote, please keep two things in mind:
1) The nation of Iraq, while being a toilet before American troops were ordered to invade, will be even worse once American troops are ordered to leave, and nothing can change that; and
2) I’m not a Marxist (but even Karl Marx said that). Our fearless leader the President of the United States, on the other hand…
Start writing your hate mail now.
Some randumb thoughts…
1)I”m going to leave alone the whole main point of this post because I moslty agree with the position.
2)The Catholic bishops (there are more than one) who have said not to give communion to pro-choice politicians in thier (can’t come up with the right word) regions are mostly considered whack-os by their own Parishioners… at least the guy in St. Louis was judging from what I read and saw.
3) I will mention that some of those who have commented against the mix of church and state in THIS context… I have herad some of you cheer loudly when the mix in question agreed with your personal point of view, and to remember this the next time ANY conversation of religion influncing government comes up.
4) to Matt: My methodist church has always been fairly liberal. Please explain the comment about female bishops? Does it really hurt your opion of methodism so much that methodists (who DO preach jesus is our savior, love your neighbor, and more) DON’T believe the bible is literall truth, and most of the man/woman rolls described therein are cultural and not neccessarily the way god wishes us to act??? I KNOW there are many “laws” described in that you consider as such… or did a few years ago anyway.
This blog connects some dots but you get no clear picture after doing so. Matt, how about an opinion next time rather than leading that up to your readers.
…or is this some kind of blogging ploy to prompt replies. Hmmmm…
The post was intended to create a bit of discussion, not give a definitive stance (yet). Looks like it’s working.
Just wanted to call attention to the story.
I meant “leaving” not “leading” in my earlier post. A Freuding slip, I’m sure.
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Dave-
I have no problem with my faith influencing my politics - in fact, I think it would be hypocritical if it did not. My point here was that the Declaration for Peace has nothing to do with the Bible. It is a political statement signed by religious leaders with no spiritual justification. This, to me, is pretty telling. You can be pretty lazy and still come up with a few out-of-context verses to justify almost anything.
Bah… pulling “a few verses” out of context is for lightweights…. watch this…
“…and God said… …Mathew… …is… …wrong…”
-The bible
“…burning bush… …would be… …a blessing… …unto the people…”
-The bible
Sorry… I couldn’t resist… even though I know it weakens my position…
You laughed… admitt it!
Yes, I did. Still giggling, in fact.
And that’s my point - that probably took very little effort. It would probably take even less to pick out a few verses and apply them to the document, which they didn’t do.
Love your neighbor as yourself. Whatever you did for one of the least of these, you did for me.
See, that was easy! Don’t tell me a bunch of bishops can’t pull that off.
Turn the other cheek
Love your enemies
Our enemies are not flesh and blood
uhh… thou shalt not kill
This really isn’t hard at all. You just have to ignore half of the Bible… :)
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