Religion

For the past three years at their annual conference, members of the United Methodist Church have proposed a resolution objecting to the war in Iraq.

But each year, those resolutions were either defeated or "greatly modified," says Will Willimon, bishop of the North Alabama Conference of the United Methodist Church.

To convey the church and biblical view on war and how to best approach it from a Christian perspective, Willimon, during the most recent conference, suggested the congregational body host a series of "prayerful conversations" about this controversial issue.

One of those conversations will take place at 6 p.m. Wednesday at First United Methodist Church in Anniston.

But rather than the politically minded debates that have ranged on television and talk radio since the war's inception, Willimon hopes to engage in something that is "specifically Christian" and modeled after the John Wesley model of Christian conferencing.

"The challenge is to think about the war like Christians," says Willimon, who is currently in Cambridge, England, where he is speaking at the C.S. Lewis Conference at King's College. "It is a dilemma, being a Christian in war with Jesus as our role model, but part of the role of the church is to help our members think and act like Christians."

There's been no lack of conversation about the justification for the war in Iraq, but most of those debates have been political — discussions about strategy, defining victory, troop withdrawal, etc. — but rarely are faith or a biblical stance ever mentioned.

That is what Willimon is hoping to accomplish with Wednesday's discussion.

"I'm hoping we can keep it particularly theological and particularly Christian," Willimon says.

The United Methodist Church has been fairly outspoken about war in general. Its Book of Discipline, which is meant to serve as a theological guide to any number of social issues states very plainly, "We believe war is incompatible with the teachings and examples of Christ."

But Willimon wants to reach beyond social principals and drafting resolutions and simply talk about war — be it just or unjust — and how Christians are to balance patriotism with biblical teachings.

"We're not coming together to produce a statement or provide a platform for one group or another," he says. "Instead we want to discuss how Christians should think about war."