March 24, 2003
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| AN UNIDENTIFIED Baptist chaplain baptizes U.S. Marine Albert Martinez from Sunnyvalle, Calif., after a Protestant Sunday service at a base in northern Kuwait, close to Iraqi border, March 16. A chaplain baptized infantrymen in the early morning sunlight, pushing their heads under the water of a field pool built from sandbags and plastic sheeting. Fellow soldiers cheered as the newly blessed raised their soaking heads. (REUTERS/Damir Sagolj Photo) |
Pastors, churches respond to Iraq war
___By Mark Wingfield
___Managing Editor
___Last August, Bob Campbell preached against a United States-led warwith Iraq on the basis of just-war theory. In January, he preached another sermon saying he had changed his mind and urging his congregation to pray for a peaceful solution despite the obvious movement toward war.
___Campbell, president of the Baptist General Convention of Texas and pastor of Westbury Baptist
Church in Houston, stands among a host of Texas pastors who have pondered before pontificating from the pulpit on the one topic church members have been talking about for months.
___Many religious leaders nationwide have condemned the march toward war as unjustified and unethical--in short, as not something Jesus would do. Southern Baptist Convention leaders have taken the spotlight in the religious community for advocating war with Iraq.
___Texas Baptist pastors have taken both sides of the issue, or perhaps expressed ambiguity about the moral rightness of the cause, while many church members have supported President Bush's call to arms from the outset.
___The issue holds more than a political or theological interest for Campbell, however. His son-in-law serves as company commander of an Army Medical Corps unit now stationed in Kuwait.
___In August, Campbell preached about what constitutes a just war based on traditional Christian understandings. At the time, he questioned whether a conflict with Iraq met such a standard, and he expressed his concern in a letter to President Bush. He took the position even though it was contrary to the majority opinion of his congregation.
___Since then, he has watched and prayed.
___"As time has passed, I have come to believe Saddam is a criminal who points weapons at people," Campbell explained last week. "If I have a weapon and he has a weapon and he has a history of using it, I'm probably not going to wait for him to shoot first. I see it as a just war in that sense. It is a pre-emptive strike, true. But because of the history ... . This person is out of hand."
___By January, he said, he was "getting pressure" from church members to speak on the subject again. Some asked: "Since you've changed your opinion, don't you think you need to tell the church?"
___Like many other Texas Baptist churches, Westbury has done more than preach about war, however. The church began a prayer support effort by collecting photos of all the military personnel who are relatives of church members and posting them on a bulletin board.
___Elsewhere in Houston, Pastor John Ogletree has not addressed the looming conflict in a sermon, but he has led his congregation at First Metropolitan Baptist Church to pray.
___On a recent Sunday morning, he called to the altar everyone who had a family member directly affected by the threat of war.
___"We had about 35 people at the altar that day," said Olgetree, who is vice chairman of the BGCT Executive Board. "We just prayed mightily for the president, for Colin Powell, for generals, for families. We prayed a long time for the families who were going to be left behind here. We asked God for protection.
___While many members of his co
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| A U.S. MARINE sings during a Protestant worship service in a military camp in the Kuwaiti desert near Iraq's border March 16. (REUTERS/ Oleg Popov Photo) |
ngregation may not believe the war is justified, Ogletree has called them to continued prayer.
___"Whether we agree with it or not, we're here," he said. "We just have to pray that God can still rule and control and protect even with war."
___As President Bush issued a 48-hour deadline for Saddam Hussein to leave Iraq last week, Ogletree was on the phone with other Houston pastors organizing a weekend citywide prayer meeting.
___Some Texas congregations have been directly impacted by the military build-up because of their proximity to military bases. And that sometimes shapes the way pastors address the matter.
___"How do you speak of a war when you have church members so deeply touched by it?" asked Phil Christopher, pastor of First Baptist Church in Abilene, home to Dyess Air Force Base.
___For services on Sunday, March 23, Christopher planned worship with the expectation that the nation would be at war by then.
___"I decided not to use the pulpit to debate just-war theory as much as to say God is still at work," explained Christopher, who planned to preach from Romans 8.
___"In the context of worship, I see my role right now more as to reassure," he added. "We've heightened the fear factor so much. I don't want to deny it, but to say within the midst of it there's hope."
___In a proactive measure, the Abilene church has poured itself into ministry among the families of service members who have been deployed overseas.
___"We are so polarized as a country over so many issues," he noted. "We wanted to see it as an opportunity to minister and share the kind of love we have for the world in this way."
___Further north, Pastor Robert Jeffress also ministers to a congregation with military ties at First Baptist Church of Wichita Falls, home to Sheppard Air Force Base.
___On Sunday morning, March 16, he preached a sermon titled "A Psalm for Saddam," based on Psalm 5.
___"There are a number of people from our church and city being deployed," Jeffress reported. Even the church's maintenance director has been deployed to the Middle East for three months.
___To his congregation, Jeffress described the war as potentially a case of God using human agents to "punish evildoers" and bring about justice.
___"While war isn't preferable, there are times God uses his judgment upon evildoers," the pastor explained.
___In the case of Saddam, many Americans wonder why God hasn't pu
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nished him already and why God has allowed the dictator to commit atrocities against his own people, Jeffress said. His answer: "Although God's justice isn't always swift, it is always certain. And that's a warning to all of us."
___He added: "The good news is God punishes evildoers. The bad news is we're among the evildoers. God is going to judge us individually as well as as a nation by the same standards by which he judges Iraq and Saddam Hussein. I warned our congregation: 'When the bombs start falling, don't take pleasure in that. Take joy in the fact that we can avoid judgment through faith in Christ.'"
___In San Antonio, home to five military bases, Pastor Roland Lopez has addressed a congregation at Northside Hispanic Baptist Church that he said "strongly agrees" with President Bush's actions.
___"We've not only discussed it, but I've brought a couple of messages," Lopez said. His emphasis has been on supporting a nation at war and honoring the authority of elected leaders.
___"I don't see any of our congregation saying, 'No, we don't believe we need to move out in that direction.' It's totally the opposite. We strongly believe we back our president."
___Several members of the church already have been deployed from Lackland Air Force Base and Fort Sam Houston. Others in the congregation are anticipating deployment orders any day.
___A few weeks ago, Lopez led an emotional service where the congregation blessed their service members and pledged to pray for them and minister to their families.
___"We want to show a unity in our people that are going out there that they might see a strong support from their church," he said. "It was good--not only a spiritual type of service but very therapeutic for them to know it's OK for me to feel the way I'm feeling."
___Other pastors and congregations have struggled more to come to terms with the moral and theological implications of the looming war.
___At First Baptist Church of San Angelo, Pastor Kyle Reese took a stand against the war in a recent sermon. In a message on the prophet Elijah's transport into heaven, Reese made the observation that "faith is greater than the weapons of war."
___Even though San Angelo is home to Goodfellow Air Force Base, the pastor offered his congregation a model for non-military solutions. At the same time, he honored those who have served in the military or currently serve and commended their sacrifice.
___"We have a lot of varied opinion in our church," he said. "We walk the fine line of supporting our troops while also, in my mind, praying and hoping for peace."
___Reese said he hoped to help people think more deeply about the implications of war and not just blindly support a president's military agenda because he is from Texas or because he is a fellow Christian.
___"I wish they would struggle a little more," he said.
___At Wilshire Baptist Church in Dallas, Pastor George Mason addressed the subject head-on in a March 16 sermon based on the Gospel of Mark's account of Jesus rebuking Peter for not understanding God's way in the world.
___Mason urged his congregation to take off their Republican or Democrat hats and consider the world from the perspective of the kingdom of God.
___"The issue for the church is whether we are following Jesus, not whether we are following the United Nations or the president of the United States," he declared. "All powers and authorities are subject to Christ."
___On one hand, Mason said, the DNA of a person who takes up a cross to follow Jesus ought to be "coded for peace, not for war." In a time of war, he insisted, Jesus more likely would be found "on the front lines with medics and chaplains helping soldiers and civilians who are hurt than in the war room directing the bombing campaign."
___Yet on the other hand, he added, the DNA of a cross-carrying Christian also ought to be "coded for justice."
___"Peace without justice is no peace at all," and "peace is not the absence of conflict," he explained.
___"I fear we cannot find peace in this matter with Iraq by avoiding it."
___In talking with other pastors, Mason said, one thing has been agreed upon for certain: "For peace-loving and justice-seeking Christians, this is a tough call."
___The ideal answer, he urged, is to follow the "example of Jesus' third way" that seeks "concerted alternative solutions to war" without losing focus on the demands for both peace and justice.
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