Pro or Con?
Holston members weigh in on war
By Annette Bender
While many United Methodist leaders have gone on record opposing a war against Iraq, some Holston Conference members say that war may be necessary to protect freedom and stop suffering.
Informal invitations for clergy and lay members to express opinions about a possible war revealed that they hope for peace, but accept the realities of a dangerous world.
"My soldier husband and I agree that war is evil and always wrong," the Rev. Amy Rollins Probst recently wrote in an e-mail to The Call. "But sometimes it's just the very best we as a fallen people can do in the midst of overwhelming wrong and evil."
Probst, pastor at East Ridge UMC in Chattanooga District, is married to Tennessee National Guardsman Chris Probst. He is stationed at Fort Campbell in Kentucky and deemed "deployment ready," according to his spouse.
"I never really expected his National Guard service to put him in harm's way in a war-time situation," Probst said of her husband. However, the Chattanooga minister said that the world has "changed in so many ways" since Sept. 11, 2001, "we have both been willing to make this sacrifice. In the end, we both feel like it's worth it."
When the Rev. Ron Matthews wrote a commentary for Holston's website earlier this month, he seemed to strike a chord among clergy and lay members who do not completely agree with the opinions of some United Methodist leaders.
Bishop Sharon Brown Christopher, president of the United Methodist Council of Bishops, recently urged President George Bush to "listen to the voice of hundreds of thousands of Americans and citizens of other countries who demonstrate for peace and ask your utmost restraint."
Bishop Melvin Talbert, appearing in a 30-second commercial for cable television, asserted in late January that an attack on Iraq "violates God's law." Talbert is the ecumenical officer for the United Methodist Council of Bishops. The TV spot was sponsored by the National Council of Churches. A U.S. Army chaplain and Desert Storm veteran, Matthews expressed a contrasting opinion in his website commentary.
"While I pray for peace, I do not believe we can or should try to avoid a war at any cost," Matthews stated. "In every generation, there has been a time when the principles of freedom and human rights have to be defended from evil."
Matthews' commentary, which included his personal experiences with Iraqi soldiers in 1991, appeared online at www.holstonconference.com as a Feb. 5 "Wednesday on the Web" feature. The opinion piece was reprinted by The (Maryville) Daily Times on Feb. 8. Matthews is Holston Conference treasurer and director of finance.
When visitors to the conference website were invited to add their opinions on a website forum, Holston ministers responded.
"I understand the struggle that my brother Ron feels," replied the Rev. Buzz Trexler, pastor at Green Meadow UMC in Maryville District. "How do I bring about an understanding that we must pray for peace, and are called to be peacemakers? (And then explain) that being a peacemaker – protecting our own freedoms, as well as those suffering elsewhere in the world – can mean the need to engage in war?"
"Can Ron do a commercial?" asked the Rev. John Grimm, pastor at Morgan's/Rockford UMC in Wytheville District. "With the mud applied to the United Methodist Church by a particular United Methodist bishop via the National Council of Churches, we are due some good press. Ron's comments were right on."
Bill Skeen, immediate past Holston Conference lay leader, wrote that he trusts President Bush and prays daily for "Godly wisdom in his decisions."
"I don't know anyone personally who wants war and its consequences," the East Stone Gap UMC member stated in an e-mail. "However, I do recall vividly 9-11 and our country's firsthand tragic experiences with the evil that is in this world – something many seem to have forgotten — I am not opposed to war with Iraq, or any other country with weapons of mass destruction, as a means of preventing another 9-11."
The Rev. Rick Franco, pastor at Tazewell District's Pearisburg Circuit, e-mailed that he "tends to lean on our social principles as quoted from the 'Book of Discipline.' "However, when a nation seeks to use nuclear weapons and nerve gas to kill other human beings, then I believe we as Christians need to ask ourselves, 'Am I my brother's keeper?' If a nation doesn't completely disarm its weapons of mass destruction, then we as a people have the right to go to war to make it a better place, even though people will be killed on both sides."
"War: What Do You Think?" click HERE
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