ELCA Bishop Joins Appeal for U.S. to Reconsider Land Mine Treaty

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Rev. H. George Anderson, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), joined with leaders in U.S. churches and related organizations Dec. 4 in calling on President Clinton to reconsider U.S. land mine policy.
The leaders also appealed for the United States to join 136 countries that have signed the international Mine Ban Treaty.
The leaders made the statements in an advertisement, sponsored by the Landmine Survivors Network, Washington, D.C., that appeared in The New York Times on its opinion page.
The ELCA, at its 1997 Churchwide Assembly, called for the elimination of land mines and for the U.S. government to sign the treaty.
The United States has not signed the mine ban treaty, which went into effect March 1. Those countries that did sign the treaty agreed to ban the manufacture, stockpiling and use of land mines. The treaty calls for governments to destroy all caches of stockpiled land mines within four years and to remove mines already in the ground within 10 years.
Others signing the Times' ad included the leaders of two of the ELCA's full communion partners, including the Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick, stated clerk of the general assembly, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), and the Rev. John H. Thomas, president, United Church of Christ. Also signing was the Rev. Frank T. Griswold, presiding bishop, Episcopal Church, and the Rev. Joan Brown Campbell and the Rev. Andrew Young, representatives of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. (NCC). The ELCA is among 35 member churches of the NCC.
"Someone steps on a land mine every 22 minutes," the leaders said in the Times' ad. "One light step and a land mine explodes, whether it is the boot of a soldier or the sandal of a child."
There are some 80-million land mines "lurking" in more than 65 countries, the religious leaders said in the ad. "Former U.S. military commanders assert that, like poison gas, antipersonnel land mines are not essential to the effectiveness or safety of our forces," they said.
The leaders appealed to President Clinton to "ensure that all may walk in safety into the next century."
"Lead our country to stand among those who choose life," the leaders concluded.
The ELCA, through its Lutheran Office for Governmental Affairs (LOGA), continues to urge U.S. government officials to work actively for the elimination of land mines.
"The President, as Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces, has to stand up and say antipersonnel mines have got to go now," said the Rev. Mark B. Brown, LOGA assistant director for international public policy advocacy ministry, Washington, D.C. LOGA is a member of the United States Campaign to Ban Land Mines. "We know he (President Clinton) cares deeply about this issue, but words without action are meaningless to the people of the United States and the world who want to see the United States join this treaty now," Brown said in a story issued Dec. 2 by PRNewswire. "2006 is too late for the thousands of innocent civilians who lose their limbs or lives to this indiscriminate weapon each year," he added. In 1997 the ELCA Churchwide Assembly voted overwhelmingly to adopt a resolution that called for "an international ban on the use, production, stockpile, and sale, transfer or export of anti-personnel land mines." The 1997 resolution called for the U.S. government to sign as soon as possible an international treaty that bans anti-personnel land mines. The assembly also asked the government to increase support for international and bilateral programs for humanitarian mine clearance and mine victim assistance.

For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or NEWS@ELCA.ORG
http://listserv.elca.org/archives/elcanews.html