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No war, religious leader says
By AMY WIMMER, Times Staff Writer
ST. PETERSBURG -- As the nation prepares for a seemingly inevitable war with Iraq, Bob Edgar, chairman of the National Council of Churches, is urging Americans to look beyond the pronouncements of President Bush. "If you think you can get terrorists by bombing nations," Edgar told a gathering in St. Petersburg on Saturday, "I think you're sadly mistaken.' Edgar was speaking to the South Pinellas chapter of Americans United for Separation of Church and State at the St. Petersburg Times auditorium in downtown St. Petersburg. The group, as its name suggests, advocates the constitutional separation between religion and government and opposes such Bush policies as vouchers for private schools and his faith-based initiatives. Edgar visited Iraq in December, leading a National Council of Churches delegation. He also met with European church leaders this month and met with German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder about the Iraqi crisis. Edgar compared the Europeans' role in questioning American policy on Iraq to that of a designated driver who doesn't let a friend drive drunk. The French and the Germans, Edgar said, are being good friends to the United States by urging diplomacy and patience. "What does it take to be a superpower in this kind of world?" Edgar said. "I think it takes super responsibility." A United Methodist minister who spent 12 years as a congressman representing Pennsylvania's 7th District, Edgar now leads the National Council of Churches, made up of 36 Protestant, Anglican and Orthodox denominations. It helped facilitate an interfaith statement titled, "Deny Them Their Victory," published Sept. 12, 2001. More than 4,000 religious leaders have signed the statement, which says it is important to assure that people who share "national origins, ethnicity or religion with whoever attacked us are, themselves, protected among us." Edgar told the St. Petersburg group that terrorist attacks have left Americans with a willingness to shed their rights in exchange for feeling protected, and he thinks the federal government is using that fear to manipulate people. Said Edgar: "The fear is empowering them to do things that take away civil liberties."
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From the Times South Pinellas desks |
