"If
we attempt to act and do things for others or for the world without
deepening our own self-understanding, our own freedom, integrity and
capacity to love, we will not have anything to give to others. We will
communicate nothing but the contagion of our own obsessions, our
aggressiveness, our own ego-centered ambitions."
-- Thomas Merton, Trappist monk and poet
We, in solidarity with Rowan Williams, the newly appointed
Archbishop of Canterbury, along with numerous other communities of faith,
including the Executive Committee of the World Council of Churches,
believe that unilateral action on the part of the United States against
Iraq would be immoral and unwise. Unilateralism undermines the fragile
structures of international relations. We pray that the United States will
see itself as a member of the family of nations and demonstrate its care
for and accountability to that family.
Intervention in Iraq may become necessary but not without
the United Nations, not without factoring in the possibility of unintended
consequences, and not without further conversations with Muslim countries,
lest the divide of hatred grows larger. Initiating war against a sovereign
country where no triggering event warrants such action establishes a
precedent that could invite chaos among nations in the future. A
preemptive strike that initiates a war is not in keeping with the history
of our country; nor is it even in conformity with a religious
understanding of a "just" war. To go to war now would require
nothing less than the consensus of the world's nations.
-- The Right Reverend William E. Swing, Bishop of
California
-- The Very Reverend Alan Jones, dean of Grace Cathedral, and the
Cathedral Chapter
