Choosing hunger, not silence on the plight of Iraqi detainees

By Rev, Frederick Boyle
POSTED: January 29, 2004 - Trenton Times

Rev. Frederick Boyle, an ordained minister in the United Methodist Church of Titusville, began a hunger fast on Jan. 10 to protest the mistreatment of prisoners and their families in Iraq. Boyle was a member of a Christian Peacemaker team visiting Iraq last winter, before the Iraq war began. Christian Peacemakers have called world attention to the plight of more than 13,000 people being detained throughout Iraq. He plans to end his fast this weekend because "I feel I have fulfilled my purpose with it, and my ministry is about more than just this one thing." Below is a letter Boyle wrote to the Trenton Times explaining why he felt he had no choice other than to go on the hunger fast:

I am confounded by the gravity of the moment. I am confounded by the thinking of people who find the voice of their religious denomination irrelevant, the voice of the majority of nations irrelevant, the voice of the vast majority of people around the world irrelevant, and cooperation with any world governing body irrelevant.

I am confounded by the illogic of war, the brutality of war, the immorality of war, and the utter absurdity of unilateral preemptive war by any nation on Earth.

I am confounded by the fact that the military disparity between the United States and countries it chooses to invade actually becomes a massacre rather than a war. War implies a parity between adversaries that currently does not exist.

I am confounded by the memory of children I saw playing in the streets that have become avenues of death and destruction. I am confounded by the deep compassion I feel for our sons and daughters wounded and dying daily because of growing resentment and frustration among millions of innocent people in Iraq who suffered an aerial bombardment that made the Gulf War, according to one military analyst, seem like "a walk in the park." These same Iraqi people are now trying to find their innocent husbands and sons who were taken prisoner without record or recourse.

I am confounded by the lack of conviction to the principles of peace that lie at the center of every major world religion.

I am confounded by the fact that people who profess faith in God, Allah, Buddha, Jesus, Muhammad, and the Hindu deities refuse to believe in their heart that love is stronger than fear.

I am confounded by the fact that acts of violence continue to be the solution most Americans deem as more powerful than the patience of diplomacy and the eternal value of peace.

I am confounded by the eyes of Iraqi children who look at America and ask: "Why are people of faith not faithful to the faith in love and peace they profess?"