Anti-War Clergy Walk Fine Line With Faithful
March 23, 2003
By Cathleen Falsani, Religion Reporter

For those pastors passionately opposed to the war in Iraq, figuring out how to, as St. Paul said, "speak the truth in love" can be a difficult task.

The Rev. Joanna Adams, co-pastor of Fourth Presbyterian Church on Chicago's Magnificent Mile, has wrestled with how to balance her own convictions about the injustice of the war and the pastoral needs of congregants who support the war.

"I baptized a young man who is in Kuwait right now," Adams said Friday afternoon, as the "shock and awe" attack rained over Baghdad. "He was baptized just before he left. He's a part of our congregation, and we have to be respectful of the role he's playing."

Before the war began, Adams, like many of her colleagues among Chicago's religious leaders, publicly pleaded for peace to prevail.

"I wished and prayed fervently that the war hadn't started. But it has. And here we are. I think we pray," she said. "Those who are led to protest the war ought to do what their consciences and convictions call them to do. As I offer pastoral leadership in this congregation, I'm intending to honor all people, and that's not an easy thing to do."

Earlier in the week, Bishop William Persell urged his flock, 50,000 Episcopalians in the Chicago area, to act in faith, but with respect.

"Be clear about your own position and the position taken by our presiding bishop and bishops," Persell said in a March 17 letter, "but stay connected to everyone, those who agree and especially those who disagree with you.

"No matter which is our position, we must continue to love one another and respect the dignity of every human being," the bishop said. A 24-hour vigil for peace began Friday at the Episcopal Church Center, 65 E. Huron, and is expected to continue for seven days.

A sign standing in front of St. Sabina Roman Catholic Church at 79th and Racine reads: "We condemn war."

It's not an unusually blunt statement for a congregation and pastor, the Rev. Michael Pfleger, who are no strangers to taking strong and often unpopular stands.

"I don't think the church can stay neutral, particularly in this preemptive war that we're in," Pfleger said. "I've been telling my parishioners, our job is to represent our faith and there is this tendency around now saying because we're in the war now we should just simply support it. I disagree with that."

For weeks, Pfleger has preached against the war, both from the pulpit and the sidewalks at various demonstrations. He's a veteran of Vietnam War protests and tells the story of being tear-gassed in Chicago while holding the hand of Mary Travers, of the folk group Peter, Paul and Mary.

Pfleger doesn't know where all of his parishioners stand on the war, but he's sure some disagree with his position. Nonetheless, during mass today, Pfleger will lead his congregation onto the streets in an anti-war demonstration.

"I'm not here to tell anyone what they should think. My job is to preach what the Gospel is saying," he said. "I do believe that the Gospel clearly stands on the side of peace."

Among his 17,000-plus members at Salem Baptist Church on Chicago's South Side, the Rev. James T. Meeks is certain he has military men and women, their family members and loved ones.

"I've got a guy on the front lines who actually graduated from my grade school," Meeks said last week. But that hasn't tempered the strident anti-war message he preaches from the pulpit.

"Do you think a pastor has to balance speaking out?" said Meeks, who does double duty these days as a newly elected state senator. "Eighty-five percent of all African Americans are opposed to the war. Which means if an African-American minister speaks out against the war, he will have 85 percent of the people in agreement, anyway."
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