| The immorality of aggression As a child I was taught in Sunday school that my faith stressed loving your neighbor as yourself and doing unto others as you would have them do unto you. I have not led a perfect life, but I have tried to follow those principles. In school and at home I was also taught to love my country and respect our values of freedom and democracy. Now I am an old man and deeply troubled. Our country is poised to invade Iraq and our government espouses the doctrine that it can justify preemptive action (or first strike) whenever it chooses. Iraq does not pose an imminent threat to the United States. Saddam Hussein is no worse than many others in todays world. Iraq knows if it used its weapons against us, it would be obliterated. The invasion will produce a backlash in the Middle East against us and invite more terrorism. The United States is seen by many as totally unbalanced in our Middle Eastern policies, and now we are viewed as a bully. As a person of faith, I am compelled to speak out against a preemptive strike. It is a moral outrage. Randy Hall
St. Johns UMC, Lutherville When is a creed not a creed? Merriam-Websters Collegiate Dictionary defines the word creed as: a brief authoritative formula of religious belief; a set of fundamental beliefs; also a gbwc_superusering principle. Sophistry is defined as subtly deceptive reasoning or argumentation. I recently read the United Methodist manual, Lay Speaking Ministries: Basic Course 2001-2004. Passages from that manual state: What do United Methodists believe? Confusing as it may sound, we believe that we have no absolute set of beliefs. ... United Methodism is not a creedal or confessional denomination; we do not have a single statement of beliefs or a creed to which every member must subscribe. ... Our denomination has always found creeds or confessions to be exclusive rather than inclusive. ... So if we are not a creedal church, then we can believe anything we want, right? Wrong! Why is it wrong? Because, the authors say, the United Methodist Church fences in a section of a field containing all possible beliefs and says, Believe what you discover in your own life about God, but those beliefs must be contained within this fenced-in area to be United Methodist. If you dont believe everything within the fenced area the authors say, Fine. That is your business. But you are outside the United Methodist fence, so we wish you Godspeed as you seek a church that supports you in your beliefs. Why does the church force itself to engage in the tortured reasoning shown above by claiming it does not have a creed? Donald V. Torr
Faith UMC, Rockville | 
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