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Religious voices raised over Syria bombing by US

(RNS) A roundup of responses from a variety of religious leaders, whose reactions also range widely.
Religious voices raised over Syria bombing by US
U.S. Navy guided-missile destroyer USS Ross (DDG 71) fires a tomahawk land attack missile from the Mediterranean Sea on April 7, 2017. The U.S. Defense Department said it was a part of cruise missile strikes against Syria. Photo courtesy of Robert S. Price/U.S. Navy handout via Reuters
David Gibson

(RNS) The missile strikes ordered against Syria by President Trump have prompted widespread responses from a variety of religious leaders, and their reactions also range widely.

Here is a roundup of some initial takes:

Jack Graham is the pastor of Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, Texas, and served as a member of the Trump campaign’s evangelical advisory board.

Rachel Held Evans is a progressive Christian author.

Marco Rubio is a Republican senator from Florida.

Via Catholic News Service:


WASHINGTON (CNS) — Two prominent Catholic leaders in Syria criticized the U.S. missile strikes against their nation, wondering why they occurred before investigations into the origins of chemical attacks reported April 4.

Anti-Defamation League

Shane Claiborne is an author and activist

The Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference:

“The world community cannot sit idly by while brutal dictators like Bashar al-Assad are allowed to terrorize their own people and defying every international law and convention in the process. Our continued inaction would be our complicity. Too many lines have been crossed and too many lives lost. Meanwhile terrorists have seized upon the region’s instability, using it to wage jihad and deploy terrorists around the world, including to Europe and the United States. Thankfully, it seems the days of allowing such atrocities to be left unchecked are over.”

Susan Thistlethwaite is a professor at Chicago Theological Seminary and senior fellow at the Center for American Progress.

American Jewish Committee

Simran Jeet Singh is a religion professor at Trinity University and senior religion fellow for the Sikh Coalition.

Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg is an author and rabbi-in-residence at the economic justice group Avodah.

Statement from the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization:

“This limited attack will not end the ongoing genocide that has resulted in the death, injury, rape, torture, and displacement of millions of innocent Syrians whose only ‘crime’ was seeking freedom and self-determination, but it is a welcome recognition of the genocidal actions carried out for six years by the murderous Assad regime and its allies.”

The Rev. Broderick Greer is curate at Grace-St. Luke’s Episcopal Church and School in Memphis, Tenn.

 

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