Church leaders see good reasons not to go to war

To the editor:

There has been questioning about why top-ranking church officials strongly oppose a war in Iraq.

In order to understand their stance, Christians would first have to accept that their leader and mentor is Jesus Christ himself. Jesus never looked to approval ratings before speaking the truth. He stood for peace, plain and simple. Church officials are not going out of their way to be involved in politics. Rather, they are looking at the history of U.S. involvement in Iraq and understand, without political bias, the ramifications of another war.

Underneath the rhetoric, they see that our bombs have killed thousands of Iraqi civilians, that our economic sanctions have caused the starvation deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocent people and that the chemicals we used in the Gulf War caused a chemical fallout so great that thousands of people have died from cancer. That, specifically, is why church officials do not support this war.

Those who lead churches do so because of their heightened understanding of the Bible and God's teaching. They believe life is precious and sacred. They look to their Bibles and do not find their wallets there. They see that killing innocent people is too high of a price to pay for worldly possessions.

I applaud the church officials who have the courage to stand up for what is right. And I give an ovation to local citizens who are doing their part to support the peace movement. May their quest be fruitful.

SHELLY GOSS

Cape Girardeau