c. 1998 Religion News Service

UNDATED _ Here is the text of the interfaith appeal for healing, signed by prominent religious leaders:

As pastors and rabbis we have found ourselves asking what is happening to our country. In this moment we speak out of diverse religious heritages that have historically called us to wholeness in our common life.”The tragedy is not that things are broken, the tragedy is that things are not mended again”(Alan Paton,”Cry, the Beloved Country”).

We want our country back! We urge a return to the real needs of people. Urgent issues are before us. We want our presidents to be allowed to be president. We want religious leaders, the media and public life to be guided by self-discipline, responsibility and compassion. We want legal processes to be embraced by ethical considerations and by simple human decency.

The words of the prophet Micah instruct us:”… what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God?” Our religious heritage has taught us to name unacceptable behavior, private or public, as unacceptable. It is the route toward healing. The president confessed:”It was wrong.”What more must we know? We are not shocked by human failure. We are familiar with the needs of the human spirit and reach out to those in pain. We ourselves speak as the flawed to the flawed.

We want the eyes and ears of children to see, hear and feel the Word of the Living God. We want them to see and hear images and voices of reconciliation, grace, mercy and redeeming love.

It is now a time for forgiveness and healing. Governments err and presidents make mistakes; we are all sinners. But the God of love and justice does not judge us without the hand of grace and mercy. It is a time to reclaim the nation’s finer character. We believe that health and dignity can grow anew to serve us.

We counsel:

It is time to put to rest what has occurred, to do things that will set this matter right and to focus anew on the needs in our own land and threats to stability, justice and peace in our world. It is our common humanity that yearns for healing. It is time once again to be led by our president.

We need our country back.

We appeal to the conscience if all citizens of good will. We appeal for prayer for the president and his family. We appeal for prayer for our nation and by our nation. Let us pray for all who have sadly been caught up in this web of human agony.

Initial signatories (titles for identification only):

Bishop Vinton Anderson, Second Episcopal District, African Methodist Episcopal Church; the Rev. Amos Brown, pastor, Third Baptist Church, San Francisco; the Rev. Joan Brown Campbell, general secretary, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA; Tony Campolo, professor of Sociology, Eastern College, St. Davids, Pa.; Rabbi David J. Gelfand, senior rabbi, Jewish Center of the Hamptons, East Hampton, N.Y.; the Rev. C. Welton Gaddy, pastor, Northminster Baptist Church, Monroe, La.; the Rev. Otis Moss, Jr., Olivet Institutional Baptist Church, Cleveland; the Rev. John Wade Payne, senior minister, Park Avenue Christian Church, New York; Rabbi Arthur Schneier, senior rabbi, Park East Synagogue, New York; the Rev. Gardner Taylor, pastor emeritus, Concord Baptist Church, Brooklyn, N.Y.; the Rev. Andrew Young, president-elect, National Council of Churches;

DEA END RNS