Is it moral to go to war?
Religious viewpoints are diverse

The Rev. Joseph Keblesh is an Air Force veteran who fought in Vietnam and knows too well the horrors of war.

 While he prays for peace every day, he said he believes the U.S. must attack Iraq because "there are times when a nation must fight to stop the advancement of evil."

Dr. James Satterwhite, a Quaker and a professor at Bluffton College, has personally witnessed man’s brutality to man during humanitarian missions to Chechnya, Kosovo, and Hebron. He said he hopes the United States will not let its geopolitical interests lead to a war with Iraq.

As the threat of military conflict looms larger every day, the moral and spiritual implications of a U.S. attack on Iraq are being closely examined and debated in the pulpits and pews of Toledo’s religious community.

"There are no easy answers," said the Rev. Aristotle Damaskos, dean of Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Cathedral. "Obviously the church is not for war. As a church and as Christians we are called to be peacemakers. But we also realize that sometimes war is the only solution to a situation."

If an enemy is intent on aggression and if all other efforts to resolve a crisis have failed, then war is "the last solution," Father Ari said.

He is not sure that the U.S. has reached that point with Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

"Unfortunately our country has tried to use diplomatic tactics for years and it’s not working," he said. "How much farther can we go? It’s like a parent warning a child that if they don’t behave, they will have to face the consequences. Eventually you have to follow through, if there is any validity to your threat."

The Rev. Patrick Rohen, a Toledo Catholic priest currently serving in Montana, was an infantry officer in the military and is a graduate of the U.S. Army Chaplain School.

He said President Bush’s assertion that Saddam is responsible for state-sponsored terrorism is enough to justify a strike against Iraq.

"What happened on 9-11 was an act of war," Father Rohen said, adding that the perpetrators made it clear by including the Pentagon in their targets.

"They knew what they were doing. They were making a statement," he said. "No one wants war. I detest war. I pray for peace and work on behalf of peace. But there comes a time when a nation simply has to defend itself."

Many local Catholic leaders feel otherwise.

The Toledo diocese’s priest council issued a statement "challenging the moral legitimacy of a pre-emptive military strike against Iraq."

The Rev. Martin Donnelly, chairperson of the diocese’s peace action committee, said the priest council agrees with Pope John Paul II and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops that the situation does not call for military action against Iraq.

"Virtually all mainstream religious leadership bodies have come out either straightforwardly opposed [to war] or raising strong concerns," Father Donnelly said.

For one thing, he said, the White House has failed to rally enough support from its allies. In addition, he said, an attack on Baghdad would raise the risk of more confrontations with Islamic nations.

"The big factor, though, is the pre-emptive strike," Father Donnelly said. "That seems to be a dramatic extension of self-defense - beyond reason."

The Rev. Dr. Gary Blaine, pastor of First Unitarian Universalist Church of Toledo, also opposes a pre-emptive attack on Iraq and believes President Bush must exhaust all other possibilities for peace before going to war.

"I’m pretty much convinced that peace is the way to solve these problems," Dr. Blaine said. "What bothers me about the Bush administration’s policies is that they don’t get to the root causes of warfare."

He said the U.S. would make better use of its resources by promoting economic development in Iraq and other global flashpoints.

"If people are fed and clothed and housed and their children can have a future, the possibilities of war diminish considerably," Dr. Blaine said.

The prospect of launching a first-strike attack on Iraq is troubling, Father Keblesh said, but the consequences should be carefully weighed.

"When I think of Iraq, I have to think of the late 1930s and the Second World War and how many lives would have been saved if somebody had taken action against Hitler. He wrote Mein Kampf and basically told everyone what he was going to do, but everybody just kept acquiescing to him."

Saddam invaded neighboring Kuwait in 1991, has used poison gas on his own people, and reportedly has stockpiled weapons of mass destruction, Father Keblesh said.

"It’s popular and nice to say, ‘Well let’s don’t go to war,’ and every day of my life I pray for peace," he said. "But there’s a part of me that wonders if this is the piper that we’ll have to pay later if we don’t take action now."

Rabbi Edward Garsek of Congregation Etz Chayim said the Torah decrees that "when there is somebody who is evil, you have to fight against him. There’s a moral stand that has to be taken against evil."

He called Saddam "a tyrannical dictator and a hoodlum, the biggest bully on the block."

"There’s a moral obligation to defend those who are weak," Rabbi Garsek said. "There’s a moral obligation to defend our nation against those who want to destroy us."

Military action is necessary at times to prevent further bloodshed, he said.

"We live in a day when we’re all Monday-morning quarterbacks, but what if President Truman had not used the atomic bomb? The nation of Japan at that time refused to stop and every day our people and their people were being killed. So the president made a very tough decision" that brought World War II to an end, the rabbi said.

The Rev. Dr. William James, Jr., pastor of St. James Holiness Church of God in Christ, said America has a right to defend itself.

"Am I looking forward to war? No. I have to speak about peace and the love of God. But I also have to speak about whatever it takes to uphold the dignity of humanity and the security of America."

Dr. James said Christians must "undergird President Bush with prayer so that he and his administration will have the wisdom and insight they need."

A former professor of ethics at Oral Roberts University, Dr. James cautioned that if the United States engages in war, "no matter what we do, we will have to deal with guilt. We’ll have to pray that God gives us the wisdom to handle it."

Some religious leaders question whether Saddam has done anything deserving of U.S. military action.

"There is no urgent matter to resort to force," said Imam Farooq Abo-Elzahab of the Islamic Center of Greater Toledo. "Why are you looking for trouble? We cannot get oil with the blood of the people. I believe a war against Iraq is very immoral and will set a bad example."

According to the Qur’an, Imam Farooq said, war is justified only in self-defense.

"If your country is attacked, then you have to defend yourself. But to go to war on suspicion? Anyone can be called a threat. I am very disappointed in people who rush to war thinking the sword will bring peace. It never does. It brings misery and hatred."

Dr. Satterwhite, who teaches history and political science at Bluffton, said there are numerous dictators in the world and the United States is singling out Saddam solely for political reasons.

"We supported lots of dictators in our time and we supported Saddam Hussein up until 1990. As long as he was fighting Iran, who was our big enemy in the region, we were quite happy to help him," he said.

Dr. Satterwhite belongs to the Religious Society of Friends, better known as Quakers, a pacifist denomination. He also is a member of Christian Peacemaker Teams, which send delegations to global hot spots in efforts to prevent violence.

"While we have a heritage that stresses peace, we believe that peace is not just the absence of conflict," Dr. Satterwhite said. "Peace involves creating conditions whereby conflict is either not necessary or can be transformed."

Jim Bradley, an elder in the local Jehovah’s Witnesses, explained that while his denomination believes in respecting authority, its members will not participate in politics or wars of any nation.

"We take the Bible’s stand literally, that we should ‘beat our swords into plowshares,’" Mr. Bradley said.

The Rev. Doug Clay, pastor of Calvary Assembly of God, said the Bible provides guidance when facing the prospect of war.

"From a biblical perspective, yes, war happens, and God has used wars in time past to accomplish his purposes - whether to stop evil or to bring people to salvation," he said.

In wartime, he said, many people confront their own mortality and experience a hunger for spiritual truth.

"As a pastor, my goal is to pastor people through these times of crisis by reassuring their faith and trust in God," Mr. Clay said.

Romans 13:1-4 states that governments are established by God, and scriptures command Christians to pray for those in authority over them, he said.

He also said the Bible commands believers to pray for their enemies.

"There is a greater evil power than Saddam Hussein that is trying to bring this attack, so we should pray for our enemy and for those who would try to bring harm against us," Mr. Clay said.