By Jim Brown
October 22, 2002
(AgapePress) - A conservative protestant leader says United Methodist bishops have got it all wrong when it comes to their stance on Iraq -- and that he is disgusted with them for gathering in Washington to protest possible military action against the Middle Eastern nation.
The group of United Methodist bishops met recently in the nation's capital to protest possible military action to remove Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein from power. Bishop Sharon A. Brown Christopher, the president of the United Methodist Council of Bishops, has even gone so far as to say war against Iraq would be "going against the very grain of our understanding of the gospel" and that a pre-emptive strike "does not reflect restraint."
 Mark Tooley |
"People of good will can disagree or agree whether or not the U.S. should take military action to depose Saddam Hussein," Tooley says, "but I think that the vast majority of Methodists would think it's inappropriate that these bishops, purporting to speak for our church, were protesting to the president, then against his policies."
Tooley says for the past 40 years, Methodist bishops have been making far-left political statements that are completely out of step with true Christianity. The anti-war bishops, he says, could find better ways to spend their time.
"Perhaps these bishops, rather than critiquing President Bush's policies, ought to look to one of their own and make some attempt to enforce or uphold Christian doctrine within the Methodist Council of Bishops," he says.
Tooley says the bishops opposing military action against Iraq have little expertise on war and the Middle East, and therefore have no mandate to make such statements. Among the protesters was Joseph Sprague, a controversial bishop from Chicago who has openly rejected the virgin birth and physical resurrection of Jesus Christ.
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