Display of boots represents ‘human cost of war’

Sally Graham Ernst (left) of Bethel Park, Penn, and Marilyn J. Outslay of Portland, Oregon, walk among boots and shoes that symbolize service people killed in Iraq. The shoes were displayed near the 2008 United Methodist General Conference in Fort Worth, Texas, on April 29. A UMNS photo by Paul Jeffrey.

By Deborah White*

FORT WORTH, Texas (UMNS) — Four United Methodist bishops and a top agency executive spoke passionately about the human cost of war April 29, calling for an end to the war in Iraq during a prayer service for the Eyes Wide Open exhibit.

The temporary display, which remained in General Worth Park until 8 p.m., included a pair of combat boots for every service person from Texas who has died in Iraq and Afghanistan. About 200 pairs of civilian shoes were also on display, representing civilian casualties. General Worth Park is across from the Fort Worth Convention Center, the site of General Conference 2008.

“This bears witness to the cost of war,” said the Rev. Darryl Fairchild, a delegate from West Ohio, who helped organize the exhibit and service of prayer and witness. He is a board member of the American Friends Service Committee, which created the Eyes Wide Open Exhibit.

“These are sacred boots, which elevate this parcel to holy space,” said Bishop John Schol of the Washington, D.C., Area.

The Council of Bishops calls United Methodists to be peacemakers, Schol said. “We believe war is incompatible with Christian teaching and the war in Iraq is an unjust war. We continue to call on the President and Congress of the United States and the leaders of all the nations in the Coalition Forces to begin immediately a safe and full withdrawal of all military personnel from Iraq.”

Jim Winkler, top executive of the United Methodist Board of Church and Society, said, “Tomorrow I hope General Conference will join the bishops.” He was referring to the Peace in Iraq petition, which passed as a consent calendar item approved in the April 30 morning legislative session.

“The war in Iraq must end,” Winkler said. “Hundreds of billions of dollars have been wasted.”

Bishop Charlene Kammerer of Virginia brought the cost of war to a personal level. “Every time my son leaves my porch, I do not know if I will see him again,” she said. Her son, Christopher Hal Kammerer, is serving in the U.S. Navy on the USS LaBoon.

“When your child comes home, it is a mixed blessing, because I know some will never come home,” she said. Many soldiers have returned “maimed and with post-traumatic stress,” she said. “We cannot begin to name the unspeakable loss to mothers in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
In the Democratic Republic of Congo, “everything has been destroyed” because of war, said Bishop Nkulu Ntanda Ntambo of the North Katanga Area. “We lost 4 million people,” he said. He called for The United Methodist Church to “stand strong against the war. It’s evil.”

Poor people have been disproportionately affected by the war, said Bishop Warner H. Brown of the Denver Area. “We have spent billions. Schools are being decimated. … The poor are those you see unemployed because the economy is being destroyed.”

Schol urged the crowd gathered in the park, “Go and tell the story about these boots and the horrible things happening in Iraq. Pray for peace.”

* White is associate editor of Interpreter magazine.