The paper urges Presbyterians of differing opinions about the war to treat each other with respect, and adds: "We deplore those actions of those who regard persons with positions different from their own as being unpatriotic or unChristian."
The commissioners added language that condemns in "the strongest possible terms" torture and abuse of prisoners "held in any place in the world" in U.S. military or civilian custody; and supports the long-term rebuilding of Iraq "without any prejudice to any ethnic and religious group." It further urges the U.S. government to aid those efforts and to work for the relief of Iraq's foreign debt.
Other sections express regret over the Bush administration's "failure" to meet with U.S. religious leaders before resorting to military action, and its subsequent unwillingness to meet with them to discuss the role of churches in creating a "free and prosperous future for Iraq."
The committee also approved a sister-paper to the Iraq measure, "A Resolution on Violence, Religion and Terrorism," which had been recommended by the Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy (ACSWP). It was passed in its entirety, including a section that encourages monitoring of the USA Patriot Act, and another acknowledging "our complicity in contributing to the circumstances" that prompt some people to engage in terrorism.
Ed Long, the Presbyterian ethicist who is that document's primary author, told the committee that Iraq and terrorism are necessarily two separate subjects.
The committee will also recommend that the Assembly:
- Instruct the PC(USA) stated clerk to send a pastoral letter to PC(USA) congregations outlining the political ideology of Christian Zionism, and to advise U.S. government officials that that ideology is not that of a majority of American Christians;
- Ask the Worldwide Ministries Division to study the feasibility of beginning economic-development work in Palestine and to put a "concrete, measurable action plan" in place by 2005.
- Commend the 4,723 PC(USA) sessions and presbyteries that have adopted the "Commitment to Peacemaking," a pledge to work for peace.
The panel voted down a resolution demanding that Stated Clerk Clifton Kirkpatrick justify his support of a World Council of Churches (WCC) statement calling for a United Nations investigation and prosecution of the leaders of the war on Iraq, which it termed "immoral" and "illegal."
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