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NEW YORK: Conservative Christian group rejects censure of WCC
Letter apologizing for U.S. 'terror' called 'abuse of the sacred Christian rite of confession'
February 23, 2006
by Chris Herlinger
Ecumenical News International
NEW YORK - A conservative U.S. Christian group has criticized a statement from U.S. church leaders attending the Assembly of the World Council of Churches (WCC) that seeks forgiveness because the church hasn't done enough to protest against what they called sins committed through U.S. foreign and domestic policies.
The Feb. 18 declaration by the U.S. church leaders was written as a letter and read during a media conference at the WCC's Assembly in Porto Alegre, Brazil.
In it, the U.S. Conference for the World Council of Churches accused the United States of "raining down terror on the truly vulnerable among our global neighbors."
The letter, which was not individually signed, said U.S. religious leaders and institutions have failed "to raise a prophetic voice loud enough and persistent enough to deter our leaders from this path of pre-emptive war (in Iraq)."
In response, the Washington-based Institute on Religion and Democracy (IRD) declared: "This penitence is false. These church leaders are not confessing their own sins; they are trying to confess the sins of George W. Bush, who never asked them to perform that service for him."
The Feb. 21 statement from the institute continued: "Nor did the members of their own churches ask them to make this kind of statement on their behalf. This letter is a blatant political abuse of the sacred Christian rite of confession."
The IRD noted that some of the church leaders had previously criticized the policies of the administration of President Bush - in particular the war in Iraq. It added: "It is not clear why U.S. denominational officials believe that another, still shriller denunciation, in this latest letter to the WCC, will make them any more effective in swaying the president or their own church members."
The IRD is an advocacy group that has long argued that the World Council of Churches and the U.S. National Council of Churches advocate a left-wing political agenda.
The Rev. Leonid Kishkovsky, chief ecumenical officer of the Orthodox Church in America, the moderator of the U.S. Conference for the WCC - which represents WCC member churches in the United States - told reporters it was important for U.S. church leaders to make the statement at a global forum.
That is because "around the world the U.S. Christian voices that are heard support President Bush and the war," Kishkovsky said, adding: "We want the world to know that there's a serious moral struggle going on, and in reality a majority of Americans do not support this war."
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