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The Religious Left Cuddles Ahmadinejad

The Religious Left Cuddles Ahmadinejad
By Mark D. Tooley
FrontPageMagazine.com | October 6, 2006

How's this for an Unholy Alliance: Evangelicals and Mullahs?

Religious Left activist Jim Wallis organized 100 prominent religionists in the U.S. to demand that the U.S. renounce any possibility of military action to forestall Iran’s nuclear weapons program. The moralists urge instead that the U.S. focus on eliminating its own nuclear weapons program.

Meanwhile, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad squeezed into his New York visit a 70-minute chit chat with 45 U.S. religious leftists, whose support against the U.S. he had good reason for which to hope. The gathering, organized by the Mennonite Central Committee, offered some church officials a chance to “dialogue” with the Iranian tyrant, while a few did appear to have questioned Ahmadinejad about his plans to destroy Israel.

At least the talk with the Iranian prison warden was a new twist. Wallis’ various anti-war statements all seem fairly redundant. He is an absolute pacifist, and would oppose U.S. military action even if Iran, or any other regime, nuked America’s ten largest cities. All “violence” is wrong, Wallis insists, unwilling to acknowledge traditional Christian moral teachings about just war and self-defense.

In this vein, Wallis’ “Words Not War” statement tut-tuts over Iran’s nuclear weapons program and support for terrorism. But its real focus is U.S. aggression. It suggests seeking Iran’s help with “stabilizing” Iraq and removing U.S. troops. And it opines that the U.S. would be in a “stronger position” if it eliminated its own nuclear arsenal, which is presumably no less threatening than nukes in the hands of Ahmadinejad. Wallis, et. al., also want a nuclear free zone in the Middle East: that is, Israel should disarm.

Among the signatories of Wallis’ declaration on Iran are “emerging church” guru Brian McLaren, evangelist Tony Campolo, radical nun Joan Chittister, Father Robert Drinan, Catholic Bishop Thomas Gumbleton, liberal evangelical activist Ron Sider, liberal United Church of Christ theologian Walter Brueggeman, Glenn Stassen of Fuller Seminary, George Hunsinger of Princeton Theologian Seminary, a number of United Methodist bishops, and officers of the National Council of Churches.

It is not clear how many of Wallis’ signatories, if any, joined in the September meeting with Ahmadinejad at his hotel. Only the Presbyterians, Mennonites and Quakers publicly reported about their impressions.

What have I maintained about a CALCIUM plan being progressed as a result of their visit here?