Speech at MFSA Spring Event

Jim Winkler, chief executive, United Methodist Board of Church and Society

March 6, 2005 – First United Methodist Church, Portland

The war in Iraq remains a disaster despite the seemingly good news of the election. What interests me about the election is that despite the fact that Shiite-ayatollah dominated political parties connected to Iran have won, there has hardly been a word about it. Step back, oh, say five years, well before 9/11 and what might political commentators in this country have said would be the worst possible outcome for a post-Saddam Iraq? I think quite likely the response would have been a theocratic government friendly to Iran would be a nightmare scenario.

That’s what we now have in Iraq and, get this, it has come about because of an American invasion of that nation and through an election process presided over by the United States military occupation forces. Had this taken place under a President Gore or a President Kerry, Rush Limbaugh, Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, George W. Bush, Newt Gingrich, and the Christian Coalition would be going positively berserk. Interestingly, the Democrats have said nothing at all.

Meanwhile, in the Dec. 8 Washington Post, King Abdullah of Jordan and President Yawar of Iraq charged that Iran was coaching Iraqi Shiite political parties and candidates sympathetic to Iran and pouring huge amounts of money into the campaign. Further, the king said more than one million Iranians crossed the 910-mile border into Iraq to vote in Iraq—with the encouragement of the Iranian government. The king said, “It is in Iran’s vested interest to have an Islamic republic of Iraq….and therefore the involvement you’re getting by the Iranians is to achieve a government that is very pro-Iran….If Iraq goes Islamic republic then, yes, we’ve opened ourselves to a whole set of new problems that will not be limited to the borders of Iraq.”

So perhaps one could say that the outcome of these elections may guarantee future unrest leading to future American invasions or renditions or pre-emptive or preventive attacks and, well, the ball just keeps rolling, doesn’t it? The invasion and conquest of Iraq “has become a potent recruiting tool for al Qaeda and other terrorist groups,” top U.S. national security officials told Congress on Feb. 16. “Islamic extremists are exploiting the Iraqi conflict to recruit new anti-US jihadists,” CIA Director Porter J. Goss told the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. “These jihadists who survive will leave Iraq experienced and focused on acts of urban terrorist cells, groups and networks in Saudi Arabia, Jordan and other countries.”

Meanwhile, why exactly did we invade Iraq? Because, of course, they had weapons of mass destruction and planned to use them against us. To date, I cannot think of a single person who has been held accountable for this illegal war of aggression. Of course, more than 10,000 Americans are dead or wounded and at least 100,000 Iraqis are dead—on top of hundreds of thousands of others who died as a result of United Nations sanctions insisted on by the United States during the 1990s.

Further, there have been numerous atrocities perpetrated by our nation in Iraq. I do not accept the notion of “Well, the other side has been nasty, too.” That’s not the basis on which I want my country to act. I well remember speaking last year to a young Marine on his way home for a visit after his service in Iraq. He told me he drove a tank from Kuwait to Baghdad. Along the way as the Iraqis realized they were no match for our weapons they began to surrender in large numbers. At first, the young Marine told me, his crew stopped and guarded the Iraqi prisoners until the military policy arrived. However, they became impatient with the delay and resorted to killing surrendering Iraqi soldiers.

I had some slight doubt about his testimony until seeing the headline, “Former Marine Testifies to Atrocities in Iraq” last December. The article begins, “A former U.S. Marine staff sergeant testified at a hearing Tuesday that his unit killed at least 30 unarmed civilians in Iraq during the war in 2003 and that Marines routinely shot and killed wounded Iraqis.” (Dec. 8, Washington Post)

One of our greatest journalists today is Seymour Hersh. Hersh exposed the terrible My Lai massacre in 1969 during the Vietnam War as a young reporter. Today, he writes about the war in Iraq for The New Yorker magazine. Hersh recently spoke at the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue.

The newspaper reveals a lot, surprisingly, if you are willing, and have the time, to dig deep. The Feb. 20 New York Times carried an article by Hassan Fattah on the current situation in Kuwait, long dominated autocratically by our long-time allies, the al-Sabah family, for whom we waged a huge war in 1990-91. Over the past two months, Kuwaiti “security forces” and Islamic “militants” have been fighting intermittently, at one point in a 9-hour gun battle. One Kuwaiti official said, “We have never seen anything like this before.”

Then, this revealing paragraph: “Events here mirror those in neighboring Saudi Arabia over the past two years, where about 100 Westerners, Saudis and others have been killed. Much like Saudi Arabia, say Kuwaiti liberals, the Kuwaiti government nurtured Islamic movements and allowed a firebrand style of Islam to pervade the country’s schools and mosques.”

Later in the article an opposition Islamist politician attributes the growing violence in Kuwait to a fundamental inequity and injustice in society. He pointed out that people are largely voiceless and need greater freedom to express themselves and determine their leadership. The party’s platform is, get this, “freedom, justice, and balance.” Meanwhile, new laws are being rushed through Parliament to make it easier for the police to obtain a warrant to search private homes, block or close Web sites, etc.

Now, it occurs to me that extremist, shall we say “Christianist,” forces have been encouraged in this country as well. Certainly, politicians  work hard to curry favor with them and their increasing cries of persecution—they can’t get the 10 Commandments posted in public places or have crèche sets placed in the town square or have their floats entered in public parades and they have to put up with gay and lesbian people and so forth has created quite a stir. Meanwhile, they are building a virtual alternative society closing themselves off insofar as possible from the rest of us. In Pakistan, the United States is deeply concerned with the madrassahs, that is, the private fundamentalist Islamist schools. Here we have so-called Christian academies and home schooling, our own form of madrassahs.

Here’s front-page news from Feb. 20—“For a second day, suicide bombers targeted Shiite Muslims congregating for one of the holiest rituals, killing at least 30 people and wounding 40 in separate attacks Saturday….In one of the deadliest incidents, a man detonated explosives he carried onto a bus crowded with Shiite worshipers who were leaving a shrine in central Baghdad, killing at least six people”.…”It was horrible,” said Ali Rashee, 17, who was handing out juice to people visiting the shrine when a bus exploded in a ball of fire, shrapnel and flesh.”

This is a tiny snippet of the daily reports out of Iraq. Each month for at least the past six months, the number of attacks has increased. Imagine if the news read something like this: “For a second day, suicide bombers targeted mainline Christians congregating for one of their holiest rituals, Holy Week, killing at least 30 people and wounding 40 in separate attacks Saturday…In one of the deadliest incidents a man detonated explosives he carried onto a bus crowded with Christian worshipers who were leaving Central United Methodist Church in Waterford, Michigan.” Imagine if such attacks took place every single day across the United States while a foreign military invasion force occupied our major cities, arresting and torturing Americans.

The rest of this text was not shared at the MFSA event, but was originally part of Winkler’s prepared remarks.

Environment

Let’s turn back to the handy newspaper. The Dec. 8, 2004 Washington Post carried a story about the resignation of J. Steve Griles, the number two official in the Department of the Interior. Griles had been a lobbyist for the timber and energy industries and advocated drilling and logging on public lands. An 18-month-long investigation of him by the Interior Department’s inspector general “found that he had dealings with energy and mining industry clients of National Environmental Strategies, Inc. even as he continued to received payments from his former firm.” I suppose we should be pleased he was forced out, but his departure doesn’t solve the bigger problem of corporate lobbyists using their public positions to further industry at the expense of the public good.

Plans are afoot to rewrite and weaken the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the Endangered Species Act, and the National Environmental Policy Act, to relax pollution limits for ozone; to eliminate tailpipe inspections; to ease pollution standards for cars, SUVs, diesel trucks, and heavy equipment. The administration is seeking a new audit law permitting corporations to weaken consent decrees with coal companies and they want to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling.

The recent appropriations bill passed by Congress removed all endangered species protection from pesticides, prohibited judicial review for a forest here in Oregon, waived environmental review for grazing permits on public lands, weakened protection for crucial habitats in California.

Social Security

It is said one of the gifts John Wesley gave to the people of England was that of teaching them how to live in a rapidly changing industrial society. Through our Social Principles we encourage people not to drink, smoke or gamble, not to deny them pleasure but because we believe it is unhealthy and denies God’s will for us. Beyond the personal temptations and dangers booze, tobacco and gambling represent we recognize that entire industries based on death and addiction can take root and destroy the ethic of a good life.

We urge people to avoid falling prey to consumerism and materialism not because we do not wish people to have an abundant life with adequate shelter, food and clothing, but because we understand that for a new creation to be a reality through God’s work in Jesus Christ, God’s true people are those who obey God’s will, not merely boast about themselves and their own goodness.

We oppose the death penalty not because we believe murderers should run free, but because we believe in God’s redemptive power and that violence begets violence.

We express concern about the need for higher fuel economy standards and oppose drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge not because we believe Sport Utility Vehicles are inherently sinful or because we support any political party, but for the reason that we cannot focus solely on individual salvation when God’s very creation is in peril.

We have periodically supported boycotts of corporations not out of a desire to destroy them or a particular economic system or theory, but because we support migrant laborers, healthy working conditions, and freedom from tyranny.

We witness to powers and principalities in state capitals, Washington D.C., and at the United Nations not because we seek special favor or legislation for the UMC or believe that salvation is derived from lobbying, but because our faith in the risen Christ compels us to call institutions to accountability on behalf of the children, the widows, the weak and the impoverished.

Power, success, and happiness as the world defines them are ours if we have the will to fight for them hard enough. But joy, peace and love are gifts from God freely given by God. If we believe, then we respond to God’s calling without fear. This is what the Lord requires.

W.E.B. DuBois said, “Mighty causes are calling us—the freeing of women, the training of children, the putting down of hate and murder and poverty—all these things and more. But they call with voices that mean work and sacrifice and death. Mercifully grant us, O God, the spirit of Esther, that we may say: ‘I will go unto the King and if I perish, I perish.’”

One of the passages of scripture that means a great deal to me comes from the fourth chapter of Luke’s Gospel, the 16^th-19^th verses: “Then Jesus went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath he went as usual to the synagogue. He stood up to read the Scriptures and was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written, ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has chosen me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free the oppressed and announce that the time has come when the Lord will save his people.’”

Every day thousands of United Methodists feed the hungry, shelter the homeless, and clothe the naked. It’s freeing the oppressed that’s the hard part. Several years ago, the Rev. Ken Horne approached me. Ken is the executive director of the Society of St. Andrew, the “potato project.” This great ministry feeds vast numbers of hungry people in the U.S. Ken has a vision for creating a movement to end hunger in this country and he believes the church should start it. Last year, we co-sponsored a Hunger Summit with the Society of St. Andrew. It was a great success. Direct service providers and public policy advocates came together to join forces to help create the will that is needed to end hunger. The Baptist evangelist Tony Campolo addressed the Summit and told us that one of the things he likes about us Methodists is that we are willing to stand up for people who may never join or attend our churches and say and do things that aggravate those who do. He also reminded us that Good News for the poor almost always means bad news for the rich.