IRD Spokesman: Liberal NCC's Anti-War Rhetoric Smacks of Vietnam Protests
by Jim Brown
July 11, 2005
(AgapePress) - A Protestant renewal group says a council of 37 liberal religious denominations is once again blaming the U.S. for Iraq's problems. The National Council of Churches recently used the July 4 statement of its Governing Board exclusively to condemn the U.S. military effort in Iraq and call for an immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops.Mark Tooley is director of the United Methodist Action Committee of the Institute on Religion and Democracy. He says the National Council of Churches (NCC) questioned the involvement of the United States in Iraq in an "abrasive" and even "poisonous" way. For instance, the NCC statement criticizes America's alleged abuse of prisoners and claims the U.S. military effort in Iraq has "rendered our federal budget incapable of caring for the poorest of our own citizens."
"I thought that the statement was very reminiscent -- in fact, virtually an echo -- of the anti-war statements of the Vietnam War era of 35 and 40 years ago," Tooley notes. "And, therefore, I did not think it was very effective in making its case. It seemed very dated and archaic in its terminology."
Meanwhile, Tooley says the NCC has never expressed concern about human rights abuses committed in anti-American countries. And, he contends, it has virtually never voiced outrage over Saddam Hussein's brutal treatment of the Iraqis while he was in power.
"This most recent statement briefly refers to Saddam," the IRD spokesman notes, "although not by name. It simply acknowledges that a dictator was overthrown but never expresses great concern over Saddam having killed over one million of his own people; nor does the NCC explain how Saddam could have been removed short of military action."
Even though the National Council of Churches is made up of denominations that include more than 40 million mainstream Americans, Tooley contends that the organization itself "has for 40 years been a voice for unending 1960s' radical protest." And its July 4 statement, he says, rather than being a celebration of two centuries of American democracy and religious liberty with gratitude to God, was instead a harangue against what the NCC calls "a dishonorable war" in Iraq.
Jim Brown, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
