Religious Left Goes Anti-War on Iraq

Feb. 16 -- This fall, after major anti-war rallies in New York and Washington, it was movie stars like Susan Sarandon, Sean Penn and Martin Sheen who made headlines and got camera time for their speeches and participation.

But since then, the face of anti-war activism has taken on a humbler, older, and less glamorous look — that of United Methodist Bishop Melvin Talbert.

Talbert, a balding, bespectacled bishop who is past president of the National Council of Churches, the organization of mainline Protestant and Orthodox Christians, appears in a new anti-war television ad that began running late January on CNN and Fox stations in New York and Washington.

In the 30-second spot, sponsored by the NCC, and produced by Win Without War — an anti-war coalition of 32 national groups, from the NAACP to the National Organization of Women — Talbert says that invasion of Iraq "violates God's law and the teachings of Jesus Christ."

Talbert's presence in the ad campaign is symbolic of an anti-war movement that is becoming increasingly couched in religious terms.

"Religion is becoming the most important social base of opposition to the Bush race into war," said Rabbi Arthur Waskow, a prominent anti-war activist and head of The Shalom Center, a Jewish group based in Philadelphia.

In the past few months, liberal and mainstream religious groups have stepped up efforts to protest potential war with Iraq and have become an increasingly visible — and vital — part of the anti-war movement.

In addition to the television ad featuring Talbert, the National Council of Churches and its current leader, the Rev. Bob Edgar, have led a major campaign to sway public and international opinion against the Bush administration's Iraq policies through a trip to Iraq in January and a series of meetings with world leaders, including German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Meanwhile, many other Christian groups, several Jewish groups, and other religiously affiliated peace groups have been organizing against the war.

Presence at Weekend Rallies

This visibility is making opposition to the war the most successful mass movement for the religious left in years.

Religious groups were to play a major role in this weekend's anti-war activities. Special anti-war marches and rallies are being organized in close to 300 cities throughout the country, with especially large events slated for New York on Saturday and San Francisco today.

The events will have large religious contingents, from Jewish and Christian groups to the Buddhist Peace Fellowship.

Of the 32 members of the Win Without War coalition, 12 are religious groups, including several mainline Protestant denominations like the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, Catholic groups, the Unitarian Universalist Association, and the American Friends Service Committee.

The affiliation with religious groups "brings a sense of legitimacy to the anti-war activists. They can show people that they're not just Stalinists and Marxists," as they are sometimes perceived, said Rhys Williams, professor and department head in the Department of Sociology at the University of Cincinnati.

He said, with the involvement of religious groups, Americans can recognize anti-war activists as "a favorite aunt or Ned Flanders."

Religion is "one of the main driving forces in the [anti-war] movement," said Robert Benford, chairman of the Department of Sociology at Southern Illinois State University at Carbondale, who specializes in peace movements.

Disagreement

But religious participation in the anti-war movement is not welcome by all religious Americans.

"For many on the religious left, their theology has blinded them to the reality of evil like Saddam Hussein," said Richard Land, head of the Southern Baptist Convention's Religious Liberty and Ethics Convention and the denomination's official spokesman on Iraq.