Life & Leisure News Article | Reuters.com

Life & Leisure News Article | Reuters.com:

Some US church leaders step up anti-war moves

Wed Jan 25, 2006 9:33 AM ET

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Some U.S. religious leaders are stepping up pressure on Washington to end the nearly 3-year-old Iraq war. But the influence of those who oppose the conflict has been weak so far and the faith community, like U.S. public opinion, is divided.

A statement of conscience calling the war "an unjust and immoral invasion and occupation of Iraq" has been signed by 99 bishops and more than 5,000 members of the United Methodist Church, the second-largest Protestant denomination in the land.

President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney are both Methodists, but leaders of the 11-million-member church say they have had no response from the White House.

Meanwhile the largest single U.S. Protestant body, the 18-million-strong Southern Baptist Convention, says Bush has "shown courage and leadership in his valiant opposition to terrorism" and deserves the "deepest gratitude and respect."

Richard Land, president of the group's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, says that's hardly surprising since large numbers of the 62 million-plus people who voted for Bush in the last election identified themselves as Southern Baptists.

According to a CNN exit poll, voters in 2004 who identified themselves as "white evangelical or born again" voted for Bush by a three-to-one margin.

It is a religious divide that has persisted since before the war began in March 2003. Polls then showed conservative evangelical U.S. Christians favored moving against Iraq and removing Saddam Hussein. But leaders of the Methodists, Lutherans, Catholics and many other denominations were vocal and unsuccessful in their opposition to the conflict.

A recent CNN/USA Today/Gallup Poll found that 52 percent of Americans think the Iraq war wasn't worthwhile. Forty-six percent said it was, and the rest had no opinion."

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