Pastoral Letter from the Rev. William G. Sinkford
President, Unitarian Universalist Association
Memorial Day, 2005
Dear Friends,
As the death toll in Iraq continues to climb, many of us, as people of faith,
are struggling to find a way to respond.
As a religious community, Unitarian Universalists do not say that war is never
justified: we are not a “peace church.” But most of us view war
as an absolute last resort, to be embarked upon only when all other avenues
have failed, or when we have been attacked. Most of us do not believe this war
met those tests. Many of us have written our legislators, some of us have stood
vigil for peace, a few of us have protested. Almost all of us fear that this
occupation will damage our credibility as a freedom-loving nation; almost all
of us fear that we are, with our own hands, helping to birth the next generation
of terrorists who will threaten our safety.
The questions involved here are not simple.
From my office at 25 Beacon Street, I look out on the memorial to the brave
Black soldiers of the Massachusetts 54th and their White Unitarian Colonel.
These men are buried in South Carolina, having given their lives to end slavery
in the American South during the Civil War.
This year, we commemorate the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi
death camps by American soldiers at the end of World War II.
As we approach Memorial Day, when we honor the memory of our young women and
men who gave their lives fighting for our nation, we remember these proud moments,
when American soldiers have freed captives and liberated hope.
But wars look different in the rearview mirror than they do through the windshield.
Historians would remind us that the Civil War was not begun to end slavery,
and that stopping genocide figured not one whit in the American decision to
enter World War II. We deal here, perhaps, with unintended consequences—consequences,
nonetheless, that righted grave wrongs and redeemed great losses.
Perhaps our invasion and occupation of Iraq will have the beneficial consequences
our national leadership claims they will. Perhaps democratic government will
flourish in Iraq and encourage the spread of democracy throughout that region.
Perhaps the lives of ordinary Iraqis will improve, after decades of suffering.
Perhaps these developments will, in time, redeem the many lost lives and the
heavy toll on our nation’s soul.
Like many of you, I find these outcomes unlikely. Before the invasion, we raised
questions: did Saddam Hussein truly have weapons of mass destruction that threatened
us? Would our troops be welcomed as liberators or reviled as occupiers? What
role did the presence of Iraq’s oil resources play in our decision to
invade, and who would control them once Saddam was gone? How could our nation
embrace a policy of unilateral pre-emptive war?
Our fears have proven well founded, our voices have gone unheard, and there
is no end in sight to the bloodshed. Frustration and sadness fill our hearts;
we feel powerless to alter the course of this war.
What can we do? At the very least, religious communities can bear witness to
the human cost of the war. In Fairfax, VA, 350 members of the UU Congregation
of Fairfax gathered on May 15 to construct and dedicate an Iraq
War Memorial Cairn  .
The cairn is based on a Scottish tradition: every soldier headed for battle
would add one stone to a pile near where they expected the fighting to take
place. Afterward, each surviving soldier would collect his stone on the way
home; the remaining pile served both to number and memorialize those who lost
their lives. The Fairfax cairn bears witness to the loss of both Americans and
Iraqis, soldiers and civilians.
The congregation has published a flyer that notes another meaning for the cairn:
“In sparse locations, stone cairns are used to mark a path—to point
people in the right direction.”
We are frustrated, we are sad; there seems so little we can do. But we can
bear witness. Congregation by congregation, we can pile stones, honoring those
who have sacrificed everything. Memorial by memorial, we can bear witness to
the unbearably high cost of war. Cairn by cairn, perhaps we can point our nation
toward a better path.
In faith,
The Rev. William G. Sinkford
President
Unitarian Universalist Association
Congregational Iraq Memorial Projects
Advocacy and Congregational Organizing
Correspondence
Media
For parents and youth
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(MA) built a memorial to those killed in the Iraq War in 2004
:
Help build momentum for a change in U.S. policy towards Iraq through the Friends
Committee on National Legislation.
