TOM MORTON Star-Tribune staff writer | Posted: Monday, March 24, 2003 12:00 am
Religious leaders in Casper and elsewhere in Wyoming generally regret the failure of negotiations to disarm Saddam Hussein, but expressed support and offered prayers for the troops in the war with Iraq, they said last week.
"We have prayed that war might be avoided," said Bishop David Ricken of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Cheyenne, which covers the geographical area of Wyoming.
"We pray now that the war's deadly consequences will be limited, that civilian life will be protected, that weapons of mass destruction will be eliminated and the people of Iraq will soon have peace and freedom," Ricken said in a prepared statement.
Those consequences include solidarity for military personnel, their friends and family, chaplains in the armed services, the people of Iraq, and those who provide humanitarian aid, he said.
Discussions about the war extend beyond policy questions about the Middle East, because many congregations have members who are military personnel.
Ricken's and others' comments incorporate their personal and denominational convictions, and often reflect conversations they've had with members of their congregations.
Some ministers declined to comment on the war.
Steve Hopkins, stake president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, could not be reached for comment.
Singular views
A few leaders maintain positions of explicit opposition or avid support for the attack itself.
"We're just against war in general," said the Rev. David Miers, vice president of the Wyoming Church Coalition. The dozen-member coalition includes Catholic, Greek Orthodox, mainline Protestant and other churches.
"We're not too happy, and God's not too happy with it, either," said Miers, pastor of the Union Congregational Church in Buffalo.
Likewise, Jug Brandjord of the Unitarian Universalist Church in Casper believes the United States should have done more to listen to other countries and continued to work with the United Nations.
"The (UN) Security Council didn't fail," he said of U.S. leaders' comments before the conflict began. "We left it."
Unitarian Universalists believe in the "brotherhood of mankind," said Brandjord, a Korean War veteran. "We're all tied together."
That became more apparent with the intense interest about Islam since 9-11 and the months leading to the Iraq war, he said.
Dr. Mohamed Mashar of the Muslim community in Cheyenne said that incomplete or wrong information will lead to the wrong opinions and decisions.
The attack on Iraq is wrong, Mashar said. "It's an immoral war."
The war could lead to a backlash against Muslims, he said.
While relationships with the Cheyenne community have been supportive and cordial, Mashar hopes that people will not react against Muslims as the war continues, he said. "We are afraid of backlash, terrorist acts."
Mashar is a patriot, he said. "Patriotism is loving your country and watching your officials to make sure they are doing the right thing."
The debate about the war isn't a Muslim or non-Muslim issue, he said. "It's what's right and not right."
On the other hand, Howard Gallensky, president of the Mount Sinai Synagogue in Cheyenne, believes the war is necessary, he said. "We can't trust Saddam; we can't believe him."
Saddam has weapons of mass destruction, and Iraqi missiles can fly farther than were permitted under previous negotiations, he said.
Nobody wants war, said Gallensky, a World War II veteran.
But the United States and the U.N. gave him every opportunity to comply with disarmament requirements, he said.
Multiple views
The singular approval or condemnation of the war does not appear as frequent as the multiple views found among large religious bodies such as the Catholic Diocese of Cheyenne or the Casper-based Wyoming Southern Baptist Convention.
The convention has not taken a formal stance on the war, said its Interim Director the Rev. John Herrington.
"We probably represent a cross section of America," said Herrington, who has discussed the impending war for the past couple of months with pastors and some of the 16,000 Southern Baptists in Wyoming.
"Generally speaking, I think there's support for (U.S.) actions," he said.
But Herrington also perceives a sense of disappointment that negotiations failed, he said.
He knows of Southern Baptists from Wyoming who are deployed in the Middle East, he said.
"We have some boys over there," Herrington said. "They look like kids."
Members of Christ United Methodist Church in Casper hold different views of the war, like the public at large, said its pastor the Rev. Thomas Cross, who planned to discuss the war from the pulpit on Sunday.
"In weeks leading up (to the attack), we've prayed for peace and have been hopeful or longing that it wouldn't take place," said Cross, who also is a member of the Central Wyoming Evangelical Fellowship.
He personally believes that the attack signals a new series of events in history, but doesn't know how they will pan out, he said.
"All of us are held accountable for the decisions we make," he said. "I hope President Bush understands the consequences of the decisions he has made."