By Jim Brown and Bill Fancher
March 26, 2003

(AgapePress) - A well-known reformed minister finds himself at odds with many of his colleagues in mainline Protestant churches over the war in Iraq.

Leaders from United Methodist, Episcopal, Presbyterian, and other mainline denominations have been outspoken critics of the war in Iraq, and have been active in anti-war demonstrations organized by communist groups. But Dr. D. James Kennedy, the pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, is not one of those anti-war Protestants.

Kennedy backs the Bush Administration and the U.S. military, and says many mainline leaders are essentially propping up Saddam Hussein's regime.

"Why any churchman would choose to support that rather than to support our own president, I don't know," Kennedy says. "I think that some of them are doing it for purely political reasons, and [because] they have a very strong liberal bias -- and George W. Bush is their favorite target. Anything he does, I think, in their eyes would be wrong."

Kennedy says such anti-war religious leaders are essentially aiding the cause of Saddam Hussein and his brutal regime. "As far as these church leaders are concerned, it seems that they always take the position of blaming America first for everything -- and everybody else is right."

The Florida pastor says he cannot figure out why any church leader could choose to support a tyrant like Saddam, who has killed two million of his own people and sent six million others into exile -- and could justify leaving in power a man who has dropped numerous people feet first into a large plastic shredding machine and gleefully watched them be torn into pieces.

The Buck Stops Here
Rob Schenck of the National Clergy Council thinks he knows why many religious leaders are opposing the Iraqi liberation effort.

"The president is a true leader," Schenck says. "He is decisive -- and once having made his decision, he accepts the responsibilities and the obligations that come with that decision."

Schenck says it is great to finally have a biblically-based leader in the White House. "For a long time in this country, we have seen non-leaders in leadership positions," he says. "In other words, [we've had] men and women who are not willing to make the hard decisions."

Schenck says that is why the Bush Administration is such a "breath of fresh air" for the nation.

Off the Air
Meanwhile, allied bombs have finally managed to take the Iraqi state television signal off the air on the international level -- although the local signal remains. The medium has been a very effective propaganda tool during the first week of the war.

Lt. Col. (Ret.) Bob Maginnis, along with many war strategists, has been wondering why the Iraqi television facility was not a target earlier in the war.

"I would have cut off his television and radio stations from the first night," Maginnis says. "That's a strategic decision that was made, and we'll have to see if it plays out the right way. I've been very vocal about that [during earlier interviews] -- we'll just have to see."

There are reports that Saddam Hussein moved a daycare center into the television complex during the day, and forced large numbers of civilians to sleep in the facility at night. The final removal of the TV signal may fall to a Special Ops force.

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