Evangelicals urge Bush to do more for Sudan
By Alan Cooperman, The Washington Post
August 3, 2004 — Thirty-five evangelical Christian leaders have signed a letter urging
President Bush to provide massive humanitarian aid and consider sending
U.S. troops to stop what they called the “genocide” taking place in the
Darfur region of Sudan.
The Aug. 1 letter marks a shift in focus for the evangelical movement,
which previously was interested primarily in halting violence against
Christians in southern Sudan. The victims in Darfur, a western province,
are mostly Muslim.
“We view this as an opportunity to reach out to Muslims in the name of
Jesus,” the Rev. Ted Haggard, president of the National Association of
Evangelicals, said yesterday. “Christian people are appalled by this
kind of genocide, and we don’t want it taking place in our generation.”
Evangelicals are part of Bush’s political base, and because his
reelection may depend on whether they turn out at the polls, the letter
adds a domestic political element to an international humanitarian crisis.
In the past, evangelical Christian activism has helped spur the Bush
White House into major efforts to combat HIV-AIDS, to fight the
international trafficking of women and to champion peace talks between
Christian rebels in southern Sudan and the Islamic government in
Khartoum, the capital.
After two years of diplomatic pressure, those talks appear to be close
to success. And if U.S. evangelicals mount a grass-roots campaign for
action in Darfur, it could be a turning point toward a comprehensive
peace agreement for the whole country, some experts said.
“The base is speaking up on the question of Sudan,” said Chester A.
Crocker, a professor of strategic studies at Georgetown University who
was assistant secretary of state for African affairs in the Reagan
administration. “This will add to existing pressures for the
administration to do what it can to, if necessary, use a two-by-four to
gain the attention of Khartoum’s authorities.”
Among the letter’s signers were the leaders of several denominations,
such as the Assemblies of God and the Church of the Nazarene. They also
included the heads of the National Association of Evangelicals, the
World Evangelical Alliance and several seminaries, relief groups and
evangelical publications.
“Now is . . . the time for the United States government to take a more
decisive role to prevent further slaughter and death,” the letter said.
In addition to sending “massive humanitarian aid,” the letter called for
“active exploration of all available intervention options — including
sending troops to Darfur as has been proposed by the United Kingdom and
Australia — in order to stop the killing.”