ELCA Presiding Bishop Tells Clinton to Build Peace'

     CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Pledging to pray for the President Clinton, U.S. church leaders counseled him, "Pursue diplomacy. Urge Iraqi compliance. Resist the military option.  Offer aid and healing.  Build peace."  The Rev. H. George Anderson, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), Feb. 17 joined other Christian leaders in signing the letter.
     Writing to Clinton, leaders of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. (NCCC) called for Iraqi compliance with the United Nations-mandated dismantling of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction and full cooperation with U.N. inspectors.
     They urged the United States to provide a massive humanitarian response "to relieve the undeserved suffering of the Iraqi people" and joined the United States Catholic Conference in emphasizing that the embargo against Iraq was "an only partially effective strategy at the cost of needless human suffering."
     Anderson said, "The ELCA shares a concern for the innocent victims of the conflict   the most vulnerable, the men, women and children   who suffer greatly, whom God loves greatly.  Through our ecumenical family and its ministries we know them as friends, as brothers and sisters."
     Anderson expressed concern that military action against Iraq would "discourage Iraq from compliance with U.N. resolutions, undermine the international consensus with regard to Iraq as well as the regime of disarmament controls in place, and damage the credibility of the United States with the people of Iraq and other countries."
     The NCCC letter to President Clinton maintained that "the key lies in allowing the Iraqi people to see the United States and the community of nations as compassionate friends, not agents of injury, threat and pain."
     Signing the letter Feb. 16 were NCCC officers the Right Rev. Craig B. Anderson, president; the Rev. Joan Brown Campbell, general secretary; the Rev. Will L. Herzfeld, vice president for Church World Service and an executive of the ELCA's Division for Global Mission, and others.
     Members of the NCCC Executive Board signed it as well, including the Rev. Jon S. Enslin, bishop of the ELCA's South-Central Synod of Wisconsin (Madison).
     Bishop Anderson and the heads of 13 other NCCC member churches added their signatures Feb. 17.
     Twelve church leaders in the Pacific Northwest issued a similar pastoral letter.  The Rev. Donald H. Maier, bishop of the ELCA's Northwest Washington Synod, and the Rev. David C. Wold, bishop of the Southwestern Washington Synod, signed it.
     "As the international community has struggled with a frustrating and dangerous situation, our own government has become increasingly outspoken in threatening direct military action.  We believe dangerous situations must be resolved peacefully," the letter says.
     The letter concludes, "We call upon the members of our churches to join us in prayer for the leaders of our own nation and all the other nations who have a stake in the outcome of this  difficult situation - and especially for the Iraqi people whose lives are being threatened by military action and continued economic sanctions.  We call for actions that restore trust and give us a glimpse of our unity. May God turn the hearts and minds of all involved from war to peace, from fear to hope, from the anxiety that generates the use of deadly forces to the patience that comes in the art of diplomacy."
     The ELCA's social statement, "For Peace in God's World," adopted in 1995, calls the church "a reconciling presence" that serves reconciliation by "challenging stereotypes of `the enemy,' and by encouraging imaginative solutions to conflicts."
     The statement affirms "that governments should vigorously pursue less coercive measures over more coercive ones: consent over compulsion, nonviolence over violence, diplomacy over military engagement, and deterrence over war."

Editors: The following text is from "For Peace in God's World."  For a copy
of the statement, contact ELCA News and Information.

     "Wars, both between and within states, represent a horrendous failure of politics.  The evil of war is especially evident in the number of children and other noncombatants who suffer and die.
     "... love of neighbor obligates us to act to prevent wars and to seek alternatives to them, especially in view of modern weapons and their proliferation. ... Yet wars and their threat still thrust themselves upon us, and we cannot avoid making decisions about them.
     "In doing so, we face conflicting moral claims and agonizing dilemmas.  Helping the neighbor in need may require protecting innocent people from injustice and aggression. ... We must determine in particulate circumstances whether or note military action is the lesser evil.
     "We seek guidance from the principles of the `just/unjust war' tradition.  While permitting recourse to war in exceptional circumstances, these principles intend to limit such occasions by setting forth conditions that must be met to render military action justifiable.  We begin with a strong presumption against all war.
     "The principles for deciding about wars include right intention, justifiable cause, legitimate authority, last resort, declaration of war aims, proportionality, and reasonable chance of success."

For information contact:
Ann Hafften, Director (773) 380-2958 or NEWS@ELCA.ORG
http://www.elca.org/co/news/current.html