Witherspoon Society: Support U.S. troops who refuse to fight
By John H. Adams, The Layman Online, April 10, 2003
The Witherspoon Society has posted on its Web site a summons to support only the U.S. troops who refuse to fight to liberate the Iraqis from Saddam Hussein’s murderous regime.
The Witherspoon Society is a special-interest group that lobbies for liberal causes in the Presbyterian Church (USA) – including ordaining practicing homosexuals. It also offers a running commentary on Iraq and other issues.
That commentary now includes a radical pacifist statement titled “On the Question of ‘Supporting the Troops'” by a group known as the Not in Our Name Steering Committee.
The April 4 statement says the war for Iraqi freedom “was and remains unjust, immoral and illegitimate and must continue to be opposed and resisted. The troops also need to know that there are hundreds of thousands of people in this country, from clergy to friends and family members, who will support them if they follow their conscience and refuse to carry out unjust orders or commit war crimes.”
The statement includes a peace chant:
- This war is wrong
- To resist is right.
- We support the troops
- Who refuse to fight.
“‘Supporting the troops’ will not take them out of danger,” the statement says. “Only stopping the war NOW and withdrawing all U.S. military will do that.”
While the Witherspoon Society did not indicate if it agreed with “On the Question of ‘Supporting the Troops,'” the society included no disclaimer with its publication of the statement.
The society has opposed U.S. military response to acts of terrorism since Sept. 11, 2001. Following that event, Jane Hanna, president of the Witherspoon Society, said, “I am as disturbed about the lack of reflection and inquiry about why such a thing could happen as I am about the disaster itself.”
In its previous postings about the war, the Witherspoon Society included a link to a story by The Philadelphia Inquirer, which covered a sermon by Stated Clerk Clifton Kirkpatrick on March 10 at Collingswood Presbyterian Church in Camden County, Pa.
The Inquirer noted that Kirkpatrick and his anti-war allies in the National Council of Churches tried to dissuade President George W. Bush from using military force against Hussein and his soldiers. The pacifists never got an audience with Bush, but they did get to make their pitch to British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
In his sermon at Collingswood, Kirkpatrick reiterated the “alternative approaches” that he proposed to Blair, “including working through the United Nations to empower the Iraqi people, strengthening the process of weapons inspections, dealing deeply with the Palestinian question, building global policy which addresses the gap between rich and poor and building inter-faith relations.”
The Inquirer story concluded, “During Kirkpatrick’s visit to Collingswood yesterday, the congregation was by no means united. ‘We’re going to have to deal with [Hussein] sooner rather than later,’ said veteran Art Moffett, 72. ‘If he’s not going to relinquish power, I’m 100 percent behind Bush, as much as I hate war. I have to have faith Bush knows what he’s doing.'”
The Witherspoon Society’s members named their organization after John Witherspoon (1723-1794), the sixth president of Princeton and one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. In pledging their lives, fortunes and sacred honor to each other, Withspoon and other signers knew that their document was tantamount to a declaration of war against England. They were willing to take up arms to secure their freedom from England’s repressive rule over the colonies.
John Adams, the second president of the United States, once described Witherspoon “as high a Son of Liberty as any Man in America.”