"Ever in search of relevance, the National Council of Churches (NCC) has latched onto the Iraq Study Group report as a validation of its own chronic anti-war stance." -- Mark Tooley, IRD Methodist Director

Contact: Loralei Coyle, The Institute on Religion and Democracy, 202-682-4131, 202-905-6852 cell, lcoyle@ird-renew.org

WASHINGTON, Dec. 8 /Christian Newswire/ -- The National Council of Churches was quick to release a statement in response to the recently released "Iraqi Study Group Report." The NCC rushed to distribute harsh rhetoric that echoes secular political groups of the left, not what you would expect from a Christian church organization.

IRD Methodist Director, Mark Tooley commented:

"Ever in search of relevance, the National Council of Churches (NCC) has latched onto the Iraq Study Group report as a validation of its own chronic anti-war stance.

"Just as Bob Edgar and the NCC of 30 years ago did not care about human rights in a Communist Indochina 30 years ago, they do not care today about human rights in Iraq, despite their much vaunted humanitarianism. They were never interested in the atrocities of Saddam Hussein, and they will not be interested in any murder or mayhem wreaked by Islamist forces in a future Iraq.

"In the NCC statement, prayer was unmentioned. Instead, the NCC promised what it prefers over prayer: further 'bold and public witness' against the war in 'public settings.'

"The NCC offers nothing but cynicism and spiteful contempt for its own country."

The Institute on Religion and Democracy, founded in 1981, is an ecumenical alliance of U.S. Christians working to reform their churches' social witness, in accord with biblical and historic Christian teachings, thereby contributing to the renewal of democratic society at home and abroad.