Bishop asks U.S. religious leaders to call for Mideast peace
Out of concern for growing casualties and human suffering in the Middle East, the Rev. Mark S. Hanson, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), has asked other U.S. religious leaders to join him in calling for “the cessation of all violence, for an international peacekeeping force and a negotiated agreement for a just peace.”
Hanson asked the religious leaders to publicly:
* call for a global consultation of leaders of the three Abrahamic faiths to develop principles for a just peace in light of contemporary conflicts and warfare
* reject growing anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and the marginalization of Arab Christianity
* reject violence and call for an immediate end to all hostilities
* reject the perception that violence can be justified on the basis of the Abrahamic religions
* bear witness that all people are created by God and share a unity far deeper than their divisions
* testify that religious faith is not to be used as an instrument of war and violence, but as a living testimony to the God of peace
* pray for a just and lasting peace
“The world daily sees how religion is used to divide and destroy. It is time for us together to publicly, clearly and courageously give witness that the One in whom we believe unites us in our diversity rather than divides us in our hostilities,” Hanson concluded. Read the full text here.
Quickly bookmark "Bishop asks U.S. religious leaders to call for Mideast peace" via:
