LDS grass-roots group wants to encourage church members to renounce war

Cody Clark

With the United States embroiled in a steadily worsening international conflict, the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, speaking in general conference, told church membership that God will hold blameless those who honorably serve in wars at the behest of governments, but affirmed that the church itself had a calling to reject war and stand up for peace.

It happened in 1942, a few months after President Franklin D. Roosevelt, spurred by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, deployed U.S. military forces to battlegrounds in Europe and the islands of the Pacific Ocean. Sixty-six years later, the Mormon Peace Project is invoking the spirit of the message, issued by then church president Heber J. Grant, with counselors J. Reuben Clark and David O. McKay, to condemn the ongoing U.S. military intervention in Iraq.

Clarifying that "the Lord is a Lord of peace," the 1942 First Presidency message, which can be read online at the LDS Church's official Web site, www.lds.org, goes on to state that, "He has said to us in this dispensation, 'Therefore, renounce war and proclaim peace[.]' Thus the Church is and must be against war. ... It cannot regard war as a righteous means of settling international disputes; these should and could be settled -- the nations agreeing -- by peaceful negotiation and adjustment."

The Mormon Peace Project is a tiny and fledgling activist group and might not even exist but for the recently suspended presidential campaign of Latter-day Saint and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney. Romney's strong stance in favor of maintaining a formidable military presence in Iraq, as well as his willingness to discuss preemptive bombing strikes against Iran, motivated Salt Lake City resident Bart Tippetts to finally begin something he'd previosly considered only in passing.

Tippets, 62, is a mortgage broker and Brigham Young University graduate, a Latter-day Saint and veteran of combat in Vietnam, where he served one tour of duty with the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War. He first considered becoming a peace advocate when Vice President Dick Cheney spoke at Brigham Young University's graduation in 2007.

With many vocally protesting Cheney's presence in the weeks leading up to his address, Tippetts thought about speaking out in favor of peace -- rather than against Cheney -- as a means to "put something else out there that's more of a positive thing."

Tippetts ended up staying silent, but finally decided to take action after Romney strongly endorsed the possibility of preemptive military action against Iran, believed by many to be actively engaged in acquiring nuclear weapons technology and amassing a nuclear arsenal. The Mormon Peace Project, guided by Tippetts and fellow BYU alum William Van Wagenen, began as an open letter to Romney posted online at www.mormonpeaceproject.org.

The letter refers to one of Romney's strongest statements about Iran, taken from an Associated Press article and also posted at the candidate's official Web site: "If for some reason they continue down their course of folly toward nuclear ambition, then I would take military action if that's available to us."

In responding to Romney, the letter reads, "We are concerned that your consistent statements regarding Iran do not seem to represent Latter-day Saint values and theology concerning matters of war and peace." The signers call on Romney to "consider carefully the Latter-day Saint theology of peace before making pronouncements about our nation going to war."

One person who signed the letter is Provo resident Jason Brown, a graduate of BYU who is also a local organizer for another grass-roots LDS activist group, Mormons for Equality and Social Justice. Brown, 27, said that he hopes the Mormon Peace Project will at least broaden the discussion of war among church members.

"These ideas should at least be on the table, and not viewed as marginal or radical in any way," he said, "because they are contained within our scripture."

Beyond presidential politics

With Romney dropping out of the presidential race as of Feb. 6, it might be suggested that the Mormon Peace Project no longer need pursue its aims, except that the group wasn't created to pick on one person. Van Wagenen, 30, said that they see the letter to Romney more as being a first step to encouraging church members to promote peace generally.

"There really is a broad message in the scriptures that war is evil," Van Wagenen said. As Latter-day Saints "we should be expending quite a lot of energy to prevent war and to bring about peace."

Van Wagenen, who lives in Provo, said his own feelings about the war in Iraq were largely influenced by time that he spent there working with the human-rights group Christian Peacemaker Teams, which documents instances of torture and helps Iraqis locate family members and other relatives who have been detained by Coalition soldiers.

Van Wagenen said that, in the course of spending "a total of about seven months" assisting CPT, he met and spoke with Iraqi citizens frequently and occasionally witnessed outbreaks of violence firsthand.

"There was a family that lived just around the corner from us. I used to go and visit with the dad and play with the kids," he said. "I remember being there one night when a division of commandos from the Iraqi police pulled up outside and a gun battle broke out. I was just sitting there with these kids."

The Mormon Peace Project is open to participation from Latter-day Saints around the world, but Van Wagenen said he personally thinks there may not be as much need to reach out to church members outside the United States.

Shortly after the U.S. invaded Iraq, Van Wagenen was visiting friends in Germany, where he served an LDS proselytizing mission. He'd been bothered by strong pro-war sentiment among church members in Utah and was at first reluctant to discuss the war with German Latter-day Saints.

"I just kind of figured it would be more of the same," he said. Instead he found that "the more I talked to members in Germany, I realized that none of them support the war. I think Germans maybe know the horrors of war better than Americans do."

Tippetts clarified that the Mormon Peace Project has no formal affiliation with the LDS Church itself. "We highly sustain the brethren," he said, referring to church leadership, "but we do not speak for the church."

Of course, to a large extent, the church and the Mormon Peace Project are on the same page. Speaking in general conference shortly after the invasion of Iraq, former church president Gordon B. Hinckley, who died last month, expressed support for Latter-day Saint servicemen and acknowledged that some wars are necessary as a response to tyranny, but also emphasized that Latter-day Saints are a peace-loving people.

"When all is said and done, we of this church are people of peace," Hinckley said, adding that Christ himself taught that part of his ministry was to bring "a sword." "This places us in the position of those who long for peace, who teach peace, who work for peace, but who also are citizens of nations and are subject to the laws of our governments."

LDS Church spokesman Rob Howell said that the church has taken no formal position either for or against the Iraq War. Howell also reiterated the position expressed by Hinckley in 2003, that the church renounces the "destruction, hatred, cruelty and devastating loss of life" caused by war, but acknowledges that wars are sometimes necessary as a protection against evil.

If nothing else, Van Wagenen said, he hopes that the Mormon Peace Project will cause church members to think about peace as a political issue. For example, he said, "As Latter-day Saints, to be politically active on the issue of abortion makes a lot of sense. Issues like war and torture are also moral issues, and we should be taking that into account and using that to judge candidates, just as we would if they were pro-choice or pro-life."

• Cody Clark can be reached at cclark@heraldextra.com or 344-2542.