The Iowa
Annual Conference Leadership is encouraging Iowa United
Methodists to attend an "Ecumenical Service to lament
war and push for peace in Iraq, stating "they will raise
voices for peace . . . that we will repent . .
.strengthen our voice for peace . . .oppose going to war
in Iraq, and commit ourselves to the arduous work of
claiming peace." The meeting is to be held in Des
Moines on Sunday, March 28.
People who
want this kind of "peace at any price" are ignoring the
kind of evil and wickedness coming out of the militant
Moslem world. More than 600 Americans were killed by
Arab Terrorists in the 20 year period before September
11, 2001, and we did little to respond to the deaths of
those 600 soldiers and civilians. Now, more than 3000
people (hundreds of them being policemen and
fireman) were killed in the twin tower attack in New
York City on that fateful September 11th day. It is not
wise for our Iowa Conference leadership to encourage us
to again forget all those deaths, and seek "peace at any
price."
Saddam
Hussein was a least as wicked as Hitler and Stalin, and
those two notorious villains were the people that Saddam
admired. The French and English wanted "peace at any
price" and did nothing when Hitler moved his troops into
the Rhineland and added Austria and Czechoslovakia to
the "Vaterland." We did nothing when Stalin brought
almost a dozen East European nations under the yoke of
criminal and atheistic communism. The evil and hatred
of Hitler and Stalin quickly brought misery to the whole
world. We should thank our President and all the brave
soldiers who freed the people of Iraq and stopped the
threats of such an evil and wicked dictator.
The people
who are pursuing this kind of ecumenical activity
today would like to pretend that September 11 never
happened. They do not want pictures to be shown of
planes colliding with the twin towers, people jumping
from the highest stories, and bodies of dead policemen
and firemen being pulled from the rubble. They want it
to go away. Also among many of those people is a real
hatred for our President, George W. Bush. Is it
possible that hatred for our President will erupt at the
March 28th ecumenical meeting?
There are
some really big problems in our Iowa Conference. In
l968 there were more than 300,000 United Methodists in
the Iowa Conference, United Methodists Churches. That
number declined year-by-year until it is now reduced to
199,000, a drop of two-thirds. We should be sobered by
the declining membership. We should be asking what is
wrong. What is causing Christians to abandon Iowa
United Methodist Churches? Could it be the political
activity which has dominated the Iowa Annual Conference
for the past 35-40 years? Are we failing to put Jesus
and the Bible in first place in our Conference
Activities?
Iowa
Conference Leaders are not against all wars. Iowa
Conference leaders were not encouraging "peace at any
price" when we sent troops to Bosnia, Haiti, and
Somalia—or even when President Bill Clinton bombed
Iraq. We are not one of the traditional "peace
churches," as are the Quakers, Mennonites and Dunkers.
We ask the
Iowa Conference Leadership to direct their focus and
activities away from their hatred of President George W.
Bush—away from the idea of "peace at any price"—and
seriously look at problems relating to the severe loss
of membership in Iowa United Methodist Churches.
