March 14, 2003	Friday	Muharram 10, 1424

WASHINGTON: He prays every day, reads the Bible and is considered to be one of the most pious of US presidents, but since the beginning of the Iraq crisis George W. Bush has been giving many churches the cold shoulder.

In recent weeks, religious leaders from the United States have taken their opposition to a war on Iraq to world capitals, meeting with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and Russian President Vladimir Putin, but they haven’t been admitted to the White House.

Even Jim Winkler, a high-ranking official with the United Methodist Church, to which both Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney belong, has not succeeded in winning an audience with the president.

“The only government that refuses to speak with church leaders is our own,” he said at a peace gathering of US and European church leaders late last month at the US Congress.

The single church representative so far able to make it into the White House has been Vatican’s Cardinal Pio Laghi, but news reports said he was not allowed to speak to the press at the White House, a standard practise after meeting the US president.

Instead, the papal emissary had to travel several hundred metres to the National Press Club to discuss Pope John Paul II’s opposition to an Iraq war.

According to The New York Times, Karl Rove, Bush’s chief political adviser, feared that an Oval Office meeting with anti-war leaders could lead to a circus-like press conference, also a reason for Bush aides to keep critical American church leaders out of the White House.

However, Bush is facing increasing pressure as more churches join the anti-war camp.

“There’s never been such unity among the churches in the country, even during Vietnam,” said the Reverend Jim Wallis, editor of an evangelical magazine and leader of the US church delegation that spoke with Blair.

In addition, a devout former president, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Jimmy Carter, who has written books about his faith and has worked as a peace mediator since he left the White House in 1981, openly criticized Bush in a New York Times opinion piece this week, saying his war plans violate 200 years of US principles.

Carter said that the invasion plans reversed “consistent bipartisan commitments that for more than two centuries have earned our nation greatness”.

“These commitments have been predicated on basic religious principles, respect for international law, and alliances that resulted in wise decisions and mutual restraint. Our apparent determination to launch a war against Iraq, without international support, is a violation of these premises.”

Carter said that a unilateral attack on Iraq would not meet the standards of waging a just war, and he also noted that US church leaders have “an almost universal conviction” against war, with the only notable exception being the conservative Southern Baptist Convention.

The Bush administration sees things differently.—dpa