PRESENTED BY REV. TAKA ISHII
PRESIDENT, METHODIST FEDERATION FOR SOCIAL ACTION
NEW YORK CHAPTER
PASTOR, METROPOLITAN-DUANE UNITED METHODIST CHURCH
NEW YORK CITY

I represent the Methodist Federation for Social Action (MFSA) New York Chapter. MFSA is an independent organization within the United Methodist Church. MFSA has been raising a prophetic voice since 1906. The United Methodist Church has 8.4 million members, two of whom are President Bush and vice President Cheney. Therefore I feel strongly, as a United Methodist, that I must voice my opposition to President Bush and vice President Cheney’s call for a pre-emptive attack against Iraq.

Our denomination is very clear about where we stand on war. The Social Principles of the United Methodist Church states: “We believe war is incompatible with the teachings and example of Christ. We therefore reject war as a usual instrument of national foreign policy and insist that the first moral duty of all nations is to resolve by peaceful means every dispute that arises between or among them.” Mr. President! I would like to remind you that your plan to attack Iraq pre-emptively is against the policy of the church where you keep your membership. Your church, our church also categorically opposes interventions by more powerful nations against weaker ones. Mr. President, U.S. citizens do not want to be the bully of the world! Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, died for us, and this sacrificial love exposed the failure of state-sponsored revenge. I cannot imagine, Mr. President, that the Prince of Peace approves of your plan to attack Iraq, which will certainly bring misery to millions of Iraqi people. Mr. President and Mr. Vice President, as a pastor of the United Methodist Church, I ask you to rise up on this occasion to bring peace, not war.

Secondly, I oppose on moral grounds the United States taking further military action against Iraq now. A first strike attach, especially absent any imminent threat, and you have NOT yet provided evidence that there is imminent threat, violates one of the fundamental principles of Augustine’s Just War Theory, a theory which has been instrumental in restraining civilized nations for centuries. I admit that Saddam Hussein is a brutal dictator, as he has demonstrated with his own people and his neighboring nations. But this does not justify you to do the same. A U.S. attack on Iraq is as barbaric as what Saddam Hussein has been doing to his own people.

I also oppose any plan for the U.S. to take unilateral military action when our international community clearly opposes U.S. military action against Iraq. The international community is very clear about supporting the new weapons inspections. We must give this inspection a chance. The Iraqi people have suffered enough. If you take military action, the people of Iraq will endure even harsher sufferings. I do not want to see another generation of children suffer.

Another concern of mine, Mr. President, is that our military action against Iraq will further destabilize the region, and will create the very situation in which Saddam Hussein is most likely to strike out using the very weapons that you deplore. We must continue to seek the support of international community. We do not live alone in this world. We are dependent on each other.

We must not repeat the same mistake, which got us into the Vietnam War. We do not want our sons and daughters coming home in body bags. Jesus said, “He who takes the sword will perish by the sword.”

I am an American citizen now, and proud to be such. But I was born and raised in Japan, so that while America holds first place in my heart, I still love the nation of my birth. While I was not born when Japan launched its pre-emptive strike against Pearl Harbor, I have learned the lessons of history. I hope this nation, our nation, the nation that is now my first love, now will not repeat the offenses of that other nation which I love. Japan once sought to bully the world by launching pre-emptive attacks against Korea, China, the U.S. That action brought suffering on millions, and ultimate shame and defeat to Japan. Please…let not the nation of my choice repeat the offenses of the nation of my birth.

Finally, Mr. President, we must give peace a chance, as Jesus said that peacemakers are blessed that “they will be called children of God.”