Retired Army Chaplain, Combat Veterans and
“Just War” Experts to Testify

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“The United States of America is founded on principals of political and religious freedom. When we punish the soldier who heeds his or her moral compass, our democracy is in grave danger.”

 

-Truth Commission Chair, Rev. Dr. Kaia Stern Charles Hamilton Houston Institute, Harvard Law School

The March 21st public hearing is free and open to the public. For details, visit www.conscienceinwar.org. and view the Truth Commission event flyer.

Join us on Sunday, March 21st in New York City to hear the voices of service members and veterans wrestling with profound questions about the morality of the wars they are called upon to fight. The Truth Commission on Conscience in War will bring people together to hear from recent veterans, military chaplains, religious leaders, and legal experts about the issues of moral and religious conscience facing our nation's service members.

The Commission is organized by five sponsoring organizations including Starr King School for the Ministry and Faith Voices for the Common Good, directed by Starr King core faculty member Rita Nakashima Brock.

Rev. Dr. Gabriella Lettini is the Convener of Commissioners. Lettini is Associate Professor of Theological Ethics and director of the Master of Religious Leadership for Social Change program at Starr King. She will be accompanied by President Rebecca Parker and students from the program involved in organizing the Commission.

The Commission will:

1. Honor and protect freedom of conscience for service members,
2. Bring together Just War, Just Peace, and pacifist traditions in conversation, and
3. Address the moral and spiritual injuries of war.

Over 70 Commissioners from pacifist, Just War, Just Peace, and other traditions will attend the Public Hearing to receive personal testimony from veterans and expert witnesses about:

1. Moral and religious questions facing soldiers both before and during combat,
2. Moral and religious criteria of just war,
3. International agreements governing the justification and conduct of war, and
4. Limits of current military regulations on Conscientious Objection.

Commissioners and testifiers will meet in Private Session on Monday, March 22, to discuss the Public Hearing testimony and identify strategies for pursuing the goals of the Commission.

On behalf of the Commission’s nearly 50 organizational sponsors and co-sponsors, we hope you willjoin us for the March 21 Public Hearing at The Riverside Church. Together we will launch a majornationwide conversation about just war, international law, and freedom of conscience for members ofour nation's armed forces. We owe this to our service members and their families, to our faithcommunities, and to our nation.

### PRESS RELEASE ###

[February 16, 2010, New York City] – A diverse coalition of forty religious, academic, advocacy and veterans groups today announced the first Truth Commission on Conscience in War, to be held at the same location The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his historic “Beyond Vietnam” speech, The Riverside Church on March 21 at 4:00 p.m. At the event, commissioners will receive testimony from recent veterans, religious leaders and legal experts about issues of conscience facing service members serving in war.

“Truth commissions lift up the often silenced and invisible voices of those directly affected by a conflict or issue,” explained Rev. Dr. Gabriella Lettini, Convener of Commissioners and Associate Professor of Theological Ethics at Starr King School for the Ministry. “Our goal in receiving testimony is to honor moral conscience in the military – and generate strategies for change that involve our broader communities.”

“In his Nobel acceptance speech, President Obama argued that nations will at times ‘find the use of force not only necessary but morally justified,’” said Rev. Dr. Rita Nakashima Brock, Project Director of the Truth Commission and Director of Faith Voices for the Common Good. “We are asking: ‘What happens when a service member is asked to fight in a war that he or she believes is not morally justified?” Current military regulations recognize Conscientious Objector status, but only for those who oppose “war in any form.” The Commission’s stated goal is to honor and protect freedom of conscience for our nation’s service members.

Joshua Casteel who served as an Army interrogator at Abu Ghraib will be among those who testify. Casteel grew up an Evangelical Christian and attended West Point. He was featured in the Emmy-nominated documentary, Soldiers of Conscience. Casteel will be joined by Rev. Herman Keizer, Jr., the Commission’s Honorary Host. Keizer is a retired Army Chaplain (COL) and former chair of the National Conference on Ministry to the Armed Forces.

The March 21^st public hearing is free and open to the public. For details, the public can visit www.conscienceinwar.org.

Testifiers and expert witnesses include: Tyler E. Boudreau, US Marine (Captain), veteran of Iraq, and author of Packing Inferno: The Unmaking of a Marine; Jacob C. Diliberto, US Marine veteran of Afghanistan and Iraq, Founder of Veterans for Rethinking Afghanistan, Fuller Theological Seminary; Logan Laituri, Army veteran with service in OIF II, Co-founder of Centurion's Guild; Camilo Mejia, Army veteran and conscientious objector, author of Road from Ar Ramadi; Chris Hedges, Pulitzer Prize winning former war correspondent for The New York Times and author of War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning; Dr. Camillo “Mac” Bica, Professor of Philosophy, School of Visual Arts, former Marine Corps Officer and Vietnam Veteran; Rev. Dr. Pamela Lightsey, Associate Vice President, Garrett Evangelical Theological Seminary, Army veteran; J. E. McNeil, Executive Director, Center on Conscience & War; Rabbi Douglas E. Krantz, Congregation B'nai Yisrael and Executive Board Member of the Jewish Peace Fellowship; Nurah-Rosalie P. Jeter Amat'ullah, Executive Director, Muslim Women's Institute for Research and Development, Graduate Certificate in Islamic Chaplaincy, Hartford Seminary; Celeste Zappala, Member of Gold Star Families Speak Out, Mother of Sgt Sherwood Baker, Pennsylvania National Guardsman, killed in Baghdad, April 26, 2004, while searching for weapons of mass destruction.

A list of commissioners and co-sponsors is available at www.conscienceinwar.org.

The Commission is being organized by Faith Voices for the Common Good, Luna Productions, The Mission and Social Justice Commission of The Riverside Church, Starr King School for the Ministry, and Union Theological Seminary.

About The Riverside Church

The Riverside Church (www.theriversidechurchny.org) is an interracial, interdenominational and international church built by John D. Rockefeller Jr. in 1927. The 2,400-member Riverside Church in Morningside Heights has a rich tradition of providing a forum for important civic and spiritual leaders. Past speakers include: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., President William J. Clinton, the Dalai Lama, Fidel Castro, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela.

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Directions: To get to The Riverside Church by subway take the #1 train to 116^th St. and walk to 91 Claremont Ave. (bet. 120^th & 122^nd St.) one block west of Broadway.