Kudos to the Calvinists...some of them...

At the annual assembly of the Christian Reformed Church held June 10-16 at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan, the Synod released a statement calling for the Christian Reformed Church to "speak prophetically to the governments of the United States and Canada on moral issues related to preventive or preemptive military actions as well as weapons of mass destruction."

In a series of recommendations, synod set out steps by which Christians should approach the task. These include:

• * urging congregations and individual Christians to discuss and prayerfully reflect on their responsibility to be peacemakers;
  
• * making materials available to churches to assist them in ministering to members who are contemplating entering the military or who are veterans of military service;
  
• * encouraging congregations to urge members to inform themselves and to speak out on issues such as arms production and alternatives to war;
  
• * calling on agencies and members of the church “to promote and actively engage in international initiatives for building peace with justice.
  

It also called for the church to speak prophetically to the governments of the United States and Canada on moral issues related to preventive or preemptive military actions as well as weapons of mass destruction. And it instructed the executive director of the CRC to seek a means by which Christians serving in the U.S. military could lawfully be recognized as conscientious objectors to a particular conflict. Current U.S. laws on conscientious objection recognize only members of historically pacifist churches that object to participation in any conflict.

It's absolutely WONDERFUL to see this small denomination of Calvinists questioning the Bush Administration's policy on Pre-Emptive War. Hopefully more theological conservatives will begin to back-peddle from the Pro-War policies of George W. Bush and the Republican Party.

Kudos to the Calvinists of the Christian Reformed Church!