NCC's Cynicism re: War in Iraq Consistent with Group's Past, Says Tooley

NCC's Cynicism re: War in Iraq Consistent with Group's Past, Says Tooley

(AgapePress) - A conservative Christian activist says the National Council of Churches' reaction to the recently released Iraqi Study Group report reflects "harsh" left-leaning political rhetoric that one should not expect from a Christian church organization.

At its general assembly in November, the NCC called for withdrawal of American troops from Iraq, "benchmarks" for rebuilding a secure Iraqi society, and "steps to meet the security concerns of all Iraqis." According to a statement from the NCC, the recommendations in the just released Baker-Hamilton report "generally resonate with [those] made by church leaders through the NCC."

"While the NCC would have liked to have seen more specificity with regard to a timetable for [troop] withdrawal," says the statement, "the fact that the report redefines the mission of U.S. troops in such a way that makes room for their withdrawal by early 2008 is a step in the right direction." And the fact that such a recommendation appears in the report, says the NCC, "is a realization that the occupation of Iraq is an ever-deteriorating situation and therefore must end."

Mark Tooley is director of UM Action at the Washington, DC-based Institute on Religion and Democracy (IRD). He says the NCC's statement "echoes secular political groups of the left."

"Ever in search of relevance," he says, "the NCC has latched onto the Iraq Study Group report as a validation of its own chronic anti-war stance."

Tooley claims the NCC has no concern about human rights -- which he says is consistent with the NCC's stance over the past few decades. "Just as Bob Edgar and the NCC of 30 years ago did not care about human rights [in Vietnam] ... they do not care today about human rights in Iraq, despite their much vaunted humanitarianism."

According to the IRD spokesman, church leaders in the NCC "were never interested in the atrocities of Saddam Hussein -- and they will not be interested in any murder or mayhem wreaked by Islamist forces in a future Iraq." He also points out that the NCC statement never mentions prayer as an avenue for change in the Middle Eastern nation, but shows a preference for "bold and public witness" against the war in "public settings." Such a reaction, says Tooley, demonstrates both "cynicism" and "spiteful contempt" for the United States.