U.S. Church Leaders Calling for Protection of Iraqi Christians

American church leaders have recently conveyed to U.S. government officials their concerns about violent attacks on minority groups in Iraq, including the Christian community.

The National Council of Churches (NCC) sent a letter April 26 to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Defense Secretary Robert Gates, asking that the officials raise these concerns with the government of Iraq, provincial authorities, and the leadership of the Coalition Forces. The letter urges them to “take all possible steps” to prevent further incidents.

“Christians in Iraq have suffered more than a dozen violent deaths so far this year, including a three-year old child in Mosul who died on March 27 after a bomb, placed next to his family’s home, exploded,” the NCC letter said.

The request, signed by NCC General Secretary Michael Kinnamon and President Peg Chemberlin, calls for the preservation of religious and ethnic diversity in Iraq. It also calls for the protection of minority groups and humanitarian aid for displaced families.

In the past, the ecumenical council has usually declined to specifically identify the persecutors of Christians in the Middle East, or name their motivations. The latest letter by the NCC does not significantly depart from the pattern of leaving Islam unmentioned, although it says the group fears a “growing climate of mistrust and animosity will further threaten the fragile Christian community.”

The NCC letter follows a March letter from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) to National Security Advisor General James L. Jones. The Roman Catholic letter, authored by Committee on International Justice and Peace Chairman Bishop Howard J. Hubbard, asks that the U.S. government convey to the Iraqi government “its strong concern for the need to provide security for all Iraqis and to protect the human dignity of all minorities, especially Christians.”

The Catholic letter cites hundreds of Christian families that have fled the Iraqi city of Mosul, as well as the kidnapping and killing of Christians.

“A disproportionate number of those affected have been Christians,” Hubbard says.

Twenty-one U.S. church officials co-signed the NCC letter, including Katharine Jefferts Schori, presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church and Gradye Parsons, Stated Clerk of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Two United Methodist officials, Bishop Sharon Zimmerman Rader, Ecumenical Officer of the Council of Bishops, and the Rev. Dr. Stephen J. Sidorak, Jr., General Secretary of the General Commission on Christian Unity and Interreligious Concerns, also signed.

According to Ecumenical News International, an estimated 800,000 Christians once lived in Iraq – about 3 percent of the country’s population. That number is believed to have dropped dramatically in recent years, as more than 2 million refugees are believed to have left Iraq.