Social Holiness Team comments on Syrian conflict

From our Annual Conference Social Holiness Team

9/3/2013

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. (Matthew 5:9, NRSV)

The Social Holiness Team is tasked by the annual conference with guiding churches and members as they seek to live out the Social Principles in their everyday lives.

We are greatly concerned with the escalating violence in Syria and urge our government, working alongside the international community, to redouble its diplomatic efforts to bring an end to this conflict. Peacemaking is hard work, requiring great effort and resolve. Obstacles intervene, persistence and compromise are needed. We hope and pray that this work will continue in earnest.

There are allegations of the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian government against their own citizens. We abhor the use of chemical weapons by any party, in any circumstance. In response to these attacks, the United States is considering military intervention as a possible next step, with or without support from the international community.

Our Social Principles, found in the Book of Discipline of the United Methodist Church, affirm our belief that “war is incompatible with the teachings and example of Christ.” They go on to state that “the first moral duty of all nations is to work together to resolve by peaceful means every dispute that arises between or among them.” (Book of Discipline, ¶165C)

We strongly urge our government to refrain from military action in Syria and redouble their diplomatic efforts, in partnership with our allies in the region and around the world. Once we have entered the fray – once lives have been lost as a result of direct American military action – we will be drawn inextricably further into the conflict and our menu of diplomatic options will narrow sharply. Most of all, our intervention may move the conflict even further away from peaceful resolution and towards greater violence, chaos, and loss of life.

We ask the churches and members of the Upper New York Annual conference to make their voices heard on this pressing issue. Contact the President (www.whitehouse.gov or (202) 456-1111) and your members of Congress (www.congress.org, Senator Gillibrand at (202) 224-4451, Senator Schumer at (202) 224-6542) and urge them to press ahead with diplomacy and not engage militarily in the conflict in Syria. Let us be peacemakers.