Church leaders do not represent people in the pews on Iraq war, renewal group says
The Layman Online, March 18, 2003
FAIRFAX, Va. – Statements by church officials opposing war with Iraq do not represent the views of most members of those churches, leaders of the Association of Church Renewal said in a statement released Tuesday.
“This is not a new phenomenon,” said James Heidinger of Good News, a magazine dedicated to renewal in the United Methodist Church. “Most church elites do not consult the members of the church before issuing such statements, largely because they know that their opinions are not representative.”
Heidinger is chairman of the Association for Church Renewal, an ecumenical association of mainline church organizations committed to advocating orthodox Christian teaching and practice in their respective denominations.
A CBS News poll released early Tuesday supported the Association for Church Renewal statement. The poll, conducted after President Bush – in a televised address to the nation Monday night – gave Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and his sons 48 hours to flee the country and avoid invasion, found that Americans appear to have lost patience with U.S. allies and the United Nations, and a majority would approve of a strike against Iraq with or without U.N. support. Seventy-two percent of Americans backed the president’s issuance of the ultimatum.
A Gallup poll conducted before Bush’s televised address also confirmed Heidinger’s observation, noting that opinion among Christians about possible war with Iraq tracks closely with national opinion. In fact, 60 percent of those who found religion to be “very important” in their lives supported military action against Iraq. Only 49 percent of those who found religion to be “not very important” in their lives supported war with Iraq. Of all Americans, 59 percent support military action.
“The simple fact is that in this issue – as is the case with many others wherein denominational officials purport to speak for their constituencies – ecclesiastical bureaucrats are making statements that most of their members would disavow,” said Parker Williamson, chief executive officer of the Presbyterian Lay Committee and editor in chief of its publications.
“Reverends Clifton Kirkpatrick (Presbyterian), Frank Griswold (Episcopal), Melvin Talbert (United Methodist) and their associates are not leaders. They are moving in lockstep, marching to the cadence of the National Council of Churches, an organization that has scant credibility among Protestant Christians in the United States,” he said.
Heidinger also had strong words for the National Council of Churches, which has sent anti-war delegations to France, Germany and the United Kingdom. A spokesperson for the NCC delegation to France said his group represented “the official position of the National Council of Churches – with 50 million members in 36 denominations – and the Roman Catholic Church, with nearly 64 million U.S. members,” implying that they spoke for over 110 million American churchgoers.
“It’s ludicrous for the NCC to claim such a thing,” Heidinger said. “It is simply untrue. American Christians, while certainly not eager for war, are still largely in support of the president’s policy.”
Williamson said such statements were a particularly egregious example of misrepresentation by the NCC.
“The NCC claim is false,” he said. “They know that there is a variety of opinions on this issue. Lying to the people of France, Germany and England about the opinion of Christians in the United States misleads the European public, undermines honest debate and, in the end, discredits the ecumenical movement which these delegations fraudulently purport to represent.”