Religious Group Pays Attention to Bible

The Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) which represents about 75,000 Catholic women nationwide, has issued a public statement opposing the war in Iraq. The statement in part reads:

War dehumanizes and diminishes all of the human community and devastates Earth. The ongoing war in Iraq is taking an immense toll on human life, not only of young men and women in the military but also the lives of innocent civilians of all ages. This war has caused untold damage to the land and to the infrastructures of Iraq. We also have grave concerns about the alienation and diminishment of the moral and political leadership of the United States in the world community.

The group's statement also alluded to the 1983 Pastoral Letter of the United States Bishops entitled “The Challenge of Peace: God’s Promise and Our Response” which stated:

The whole world must summon the moral courage and technical means to say no to nuclear conflict; no to weapons of mass destruction; no to an arms race which robs the poor and the vulnerable; and no to the moral danger of a nuclear age which places before humankind indefensible choices of constant terror or surrender.

Easier said than done, no question. Will more Christian groups join the chorus for peace? What about Muslim groups? They, too must effect change from within.