Bringing the Deaths out into the Open

For three and a half years a mostly small group of people have been standing on a street corner in Lewes with signs signaling the number of American military dead and wounded and the number of Iraqi civilians killed in the War in Iraq. When in town I stand with them. It is a silent vigil remembering the human costs of war.

I often stand with a sign numbering the Iraqi dead. Last week that number stood at 87,741. We have used those numbers because while very conservative they were confirmed and named casualties.

Today BBC News carries a detailed article on a new study that indicates a larger number, estimated between 104, 000 and 223,000, with the best reading being 151,000. These numbers are of the dead, not the wounded and dead. These deaths are a direct consequence of the war that the US has initiated and no matter whose hands unleashed the immediate violence, our hands are not clean.

No matter our little moral dilemmas concerning sexual matters. No matter the disaster that is Anglican Land. When the deaths are brought out into the open and we stare into the pit we have dug into which our honor and our moral vision as a people has fallen, along with the dead and wounded of Iraq, the question for Anglicans, and most especially the leadership of the Episcopal Church and every other entity that dares to speak for Anglicans in North America is this: Can there be a united Anglican voice in outrage against this corruption?

The engines of love are sometimes misguided, but they have their hope for wholeness. The engines of death are always destruction and their end is the grave. The Episcopal Church has spoken about the war before, it will, I am sure, speak again.

Titus One-Nine has been good in posting war related materials. I hope they post this article as well. There needs to be more voices raised, from across the spectrum of voices in Anglican Land.