Last weekend, the leaders of the National Council of Churches regaled the Assembly of the World Council of Churches with an open letter so shrill and irrational that one doubts the sanity of whoever drafted it. One cannot doubt their hatred for their countrymen, which imbues such paragraphs as this one:
[W]e acknowledge as well that we are citizens of a nation that has done much in these years to endanger the human family and to abuse the creation. Following the terrorist attacks you sent “living letters” inviting us into a deeper solidarity with those who suffer daily from violence around the world. But our country responded by seeking to reclaim a privileged and secure place in the world, raining down terror on the truly vulnerable among our global neighbors. Our leaders turned a deaf ear to the voices of church leaders throughout our nation and the world, entering into imperial projects that seek to dominate and control for the sake of our own national interests. Nations have been demonized and God has been enlisted in national agendas that are nothing short of idolatrous. We lament with special anguish the war in Iraq, launched in deception and violating global norms of justice and human rights. We mourn all who have died or been injured in this war; we acknowledge with shame abuses carried out in our name; we confess that we have failed to raise a prophetic voice loud enough and persistent enough to deter our leaders from this path of preemptive war. Lord, have mercy.
Disgracefully, this declaration of solidarity with the 9/11 terrorists, the Taliban and Saddam Hussein was read to the delegates by an Orthodox priest, Fr. Leonid Kishkovsky, the “chief ecumenical officer” of the Orthodox Church in America.
Alan Wisdom, interim president of the Institute on Religion and Democracy, says all that needs saying:
This penitence is false. These church leaders are not confessing their own sins; they are trying to confess the sins of George W. Bush, who never asked them to perform that service for him. Nor did the members of their own churches ask them to make this kind of statement on their behalf. This letter is a blatant political abuse of the sacred Christian rite of confession.
Five days before its blasphemous mockery of the sacrament of penitence, the NCC took a nuanced view of the famous Danish cartoons:
We stand in solidarity with North American Islamic Organizations who have exercised disciplined restraint and advocated diplomacy and education. These organizations include the Islamic Society of North America, Council for American Islamic Relations, Muslim Public Affairs Council, Islamic Circle of North America and the ASMA Society.
We strongly affirm the freedom of the press, but are deeply disturbed by the inability of the press to understand and respect the sensitivities of religious people. In the context of a widespread and growing Islamophobia in both Europe and the United States, the offense is not only an affront to deeply held religious convictions, but an irresponsible case of cultural stereotyping. We applaud the Norwegian press for its courage to offer an apology to the world-wide Muslim community and lift up their example for others to follow.
The next paragraph did condemn violence while “strongly affirm[ing] the right of Muslim people to protest”, but there was no passion to the condemnation. The contrasting emotional levels send a clear message: Murder and arson may be bad things, but, so far as the soi-disant spokesmen for American Christianity are concerned, their own country is by far the greater evil.
Last August, the Antiochian Orthodox Archdiocese of North America withdrew from the NCC. The wisdom of that decision is now manifest. May the rest of the Orthodox hierarchy swiftly follow Antioch’s lead. Kyrie eleison.
Further reading: Fr. Johannes L. Jacobse, “NCC Exit Poll”
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