The Divisive Methodist Church

Dividers, not Uniters:

Why are the bishops of America's third-largest church condemning the United States for attempting to build democracy in Iraq? And why, at the same time, are they refusing to condemn the Sudanese regime's deliberate destruction of hundreds of thousands of lives in pursuit of an Islamic theocracy?

Fully answering those questions would involve a lengthy study of mainline Protestant theology in America over the last century. But in short: Mainline church elites moved towards pacifism after World War I. The 1960s crystallized their pacifism into anti-Americanism, and mainline church agencies have consistently denounced U.S. military actions for

nearly 40 years, from Vietnam to Iraq.

The Methodists, or at least their church elites, have historically been social activists. Abolitionism and prohibitionism, as the theology became more liberal, morphed into liberation theology and hostility to Western culture and the United States in particular. The church elites' hostility to capitalism has generally prevented them from criticizing Marxist regimes and their multiculturalism has prevented them from criticizing Islamic regimes. Which leaves the bishops to quite even-handedly "lament the continued warfare by the United States, coalition forces, and the insurgents" in Iraq.

The bishops' official statement faults the U.S. government for claiming that Saddam Hussein's regime had weapons of mass destruction and ties to al Qaeda. It also blames the United States for the "denigration of human dignity" and "gross violations of human rights of prisoners of war." They do not either mention Saddam Hussein's human rights record or speculate on the type of repressive regime that would likely result if the insurgents in Iraq prevailed. The official statement urges the withdrawal of all U.S. military troops from Iraq, while seeking a greater United Nations role.

The unofficial statement, signed by 96 bishops, was framed as an ostensible apology for their "complicity" in the Iraq war. "In the face of the United States Administration's rush toward military action based on misleading information, too many of us were silent," they write. Now they want to "repent."

But they do not give themselves enough credit: The bishops have hardly been "silent." They have now issued three official denunciations of the U.S. presence in Iraq in as many years. None of them bishops has publicly defended the war, and one was arrested in a demonstration against the war outside the White House. Another bishop joined Cindy Sheehan in her performance outside the Bush ranch in Texas this summer.

The bishops would be well advised to pay attention to their own inability to fill seats in their churches. The fashionably leftist drumbeat from the pulpit is driving parishioners out in droves.

Dick Cheney and George Bush may wish to reconsider their affiliation. WordGirl and I certainly are.