April 24, 2003
WASHINGTON - A one-page advertisement in The
Christian Century magazine, signed by more than 100 United Methodists,
has called on U.S. President George Bush to "repent" of certain
domestic and foreign policies, including the use of violence in
dealing with Iraq.
The ad, titled, "A Prophetic Epistle from United
Methodists Calling Our Brother George W. Bush to Repent," appeared
in the magazine's April 5 issue.
The message was written and signed before U.S.-led
forces began military action against Iraq on March 19, explained
the Rev. Jennifer Kimball Casto, a signer and pastor of New Life
United Methodist Church in Columbus, Ohio.
"It was our hope that it would be a prophetic
word to our nation's leaders to consider other options - other than
going to war," she said. "Unfortunately, it came out after we had
already engaged in war in Iraq."
Casto said she believed the ad's signers share
the belief from Scripture that "we don't overcome evil with more
evil, but we overcome evil with good."
The Rev. Eric A. Stone, the chaplain-director
of the Wesley Foundation at Central Michigan University, wrote the
document as a petition to his annual conference. Someone suggested
that he make it an ad, "and I felt that a distinctly United Methodist
voice (among the other ads and online petitions) would be appropriate
in challenging one of our own" members. President Bush is a United
Methodist.
"Since we do not excommunicate people in our
denomination, I ruminated on possible ways I might respond to someone
who I feel should be held accountable," Stone said.
He felt that the best step "would be to call
brother George to repent," he explained. His friend, the Rev. Thomas
E. Sagendorf, circulated the document and asked the signers to help
pay the cost of running the ad. Sagendorf told United Methodist
News Service that he began circulating the document in the last
week of February, and the ad cost $1,565.
Using the language of religion, the document
called Bush "to repent from domestic and foreign policies that are
incompatible with the teaching and example of Christ."
"It is our judgment that some policies advanced
by your administration give evidence of the spiritual forces of
wickedness that exist in our world today," the ad stated. It called
the notion of "pre-emptive violence" incompatible with Christ and
his teaching.
"Violence is not the way of Christ, and yet you
threaten the very earth and all its inhabitants with open discussion
of the use of nuclear weapons," the ad stated. "As Christians we
are convinced that weapons of mass destruction are not justifiable
for any leader or nation."
The ad also challenged the president's domestic
policy and urged a Christ-like focus on "justice for the poor and
oppressed, not (on) making the rich richer."
"I wanted this call to repentance to reflect
the prophetic role of our heritage," Stone recalled. .".. The one
who is ultimately responsible must be called to turn away - to turn
away from the myth of redemptive violence, to turn away from war
without end, to turn away from the idolatry of placing trust in
weapons of mass destruction (and) to turn away from policies that
increase the wealth of the wealthiest while ignoring the needs of
the poor and hungry."
The Rev. Scot H. Ocke, senior pastor at Marysville
(Ohio) First United Methodist Church and a member of the board of
the Evangelical Fellowship of West Ohio, disagreed with the ad's
message. "The United Methodist Church has had a longstanding opposition
to slavery, injustice and terrorism. The church has also declared
its support for those in the armed forces.
"President Bush's decision on Iraq has not been
quick tempered, but a firm and measured response to free the innocent
people of Iraq from a brutal regime, economic poverty and to protect
neighboring nations from a historically legitimate threat of weapons
of mass destruction," Ocke said.
"The signing and release of the mentioned document
does not support the armed forces called there, or their families,
and brings no viable solutions or hope to the injustices there that
have long been ignored by our church under the disguise of peace
and justice," he said.
More than half the people who signed the ad,
which was clearly labeled "paid advertisement" in the magazine,
were clergy. The seven bishops were Melvin H. Wheatley Jr., Judith
Craig, Melvin G. Talbert, Joseph H. Yeakel, James S. Thomas, Jesse
R. DeWitt and C. Joseph Sprague.
United Methodist News Service
|