NEWS STORY: Religious leaders find calls for peace go unheard

c. 1999 Religion News Service UNDATED _ As head of the tiny Serbian Orthodox Church in the United States, Metropolitan Christopher had something to say about the NATO bombing in his native land. Problem was, he couldn’t get anyone at the White House to return his telephone calls.”It’s very difficult,”Christopher said in a telephone interview […]

c. 1999 Religion News Service

UNDATED _ As head of the tiny Serbian Orthodox Church in the United States, Metropolitan Christopher had something to say about the NATO bombing in his native land. Problem was, he couldn’t get anyone at the White House to return his telephone calls.”It’s very difficult,”Christopher said in a telephone interview from Illinois, where he oversees a flock of 130 churches acros the country.”They won’t listen.” The problem that Christopher faced was an extreme example of how difficult it can be for religious leaders to have their voices heard in a military crisis. Once policy-makers decide force is necessary, peace activists said, moral arguments often fall on deaf ears.”Obviously, they are not listening to the peacemakers,”said Roman Catholic Bishop Walter Sullivan, a leader of the peace movement Pax Christi.”Just look at the history of our country. We have a mind that the only solution can be a military one.” In Kosovo, the issue is muddled by the fact that some religious leaders had been outspoken critics of Serb violence against ethnic Albanians, most of them Muslims. President Clinton said the bombing was needed to end ethnic cleansing by Serbs.

A number of religious bodies quickly decried the escalating violence last week, but some official statements were tempered by criticism of the Serb military that they boiled down to a prayer for peace rather than a demand for it.”If (Yugoslav President Slobodan) Milosevic blinks, as some of us hoped he would, then maybe we’ll say the bombing was a good idea,”said Newark Archbishop Theodore McCarrick, president of the U.S. Catholic Conference’s International Policy Committee.”If he doesn’t, and he hasn’t so far, where do you go? It’s a mess.” The National Council of Churches, a liberal umbrella group of 35 mainline Protestant and Orthodox Christian denominations usually on good terms with the White House, was more forceful, calling for an immediate end to the bombing.


Mia Adjali, chairwoman of the NCC’s International Justice and Human Rights Committee, said she was appalled by repeated television footage of new Stealth bombers dealing death from the sky.”To show that airplane over and over and say that it’s a weapon for peace, for Clinton to say that it’s a bombing for peace, is something we as Christians can’t accept,”Adjali said.”I feel like they are just testing weaponry.” But even in cases where the Christian religious community speaks with one voice _ such as the ongoing condemnation of economic sanctions against Cuba and Iraq _ it is often difficult to get policy-makers to pay attention.”I think they hear it. They just don’t heed it,”conceded Frank Dworak, former coordinator of Pax Christi New Jersey.”As long as policy-makers feel they have a significant portion of the population behind them, they feel comfortable to go ahead.” Dworak and other religious leaders said it is important to voice moral objections regardless of past failures to influence government.”We have an obligation to witness to the truth and do what we can to prevent or halt violence,”Dworak said.”As Ghandi said in his nonviolent pursuits, `You can’t judge what you are doing based on its effectiveness.'” Brian Becker, co-director of the International Action Center, a secular peace group supported by numerous religious leaders and organizations, noted that years of demonstrations eventually turned the tide in the Vietnam War.”I’m not frustrated, because I know about history and politics,”he said.”These situations are very dynamic. In Somalia, the United States was out in one day after those soldiers were killed and mutilated in the streets of Mogadishu.” McCarrick, who participated in a peace dialogue in Macedonia two weeks ago, said some kind of action was necessary. But he questioned whether NATO bombing will achieve the desired result of ending the violence.

A coalition of Islamic organizations has voiced support for the bombing as have most major Jewish organizations.

Archbishop Spyridon, the spiritual leader of the Greek Orthodox Church in North America, on the other hand, had more luck than Christopher in getting Clinton’s ear. As luck would have it, he was scheduled to meet Clinton the morning after the bombing commenced.

Spyridon deplored the violence, but he also said his prayers were with American servicemen, the nation’s leaders and his fellow Orthodox Christians in Serbia.

The Rev. Mark Arey, a spokesman for Spyridon, said that in a democracy where the line between church and state is sharply delineated, doing more than praying for peace is difficult.”I don’t think we’re shouting in the wind,”Arey said.”What responsible religious and spiritual leaders must do in a society such as ours is continue to raise a voice of conscience.”

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