Church report backs shoot-to-kill policy

-11/11/05

In a move that will disturb many Chr


Church report backs shoot-to-kill policy

-11/11/05

In a move that will disturb many Christians committed to peace-making and solutions to conflict which do not perpetuate spirals of violence, the Church of England appears to be giving its backing to a Metropolitan Police shoot-to-kill policy.

The Church of England newspaper reports that in a document to be discussed at its General Synod next week the Church of England appears to be backing the shoot-to-kill policy used against suspected suicide bombers.

Facing the Challenge of Terrorism, a report from a the Mission and Public Affairs Division of the Archbishop’s Council, is said to endorse the view that in certain circumstances ëlethal forceí should be used.

In the report it states: ìWhere many lives may be threatened by terrorist acts, the police need to be able to employ lethal force as a last resort ó particularly in the case of a suspected suicide bomber, where shooting to kill may be the only effective means of preventing a greater tragedyî.

The move however will disturb those Christians who have questioned any shoot-to-kill policy, and the messages that it sends, particularly when it goes wrong as in the case of the young Brazilian Jean Charles de Menezes who was killed by mistake at Stockwell underground station in July.

Talking after the London bombings, the Anglican Bishop of London, the Rt Rev Richard Chartres, said: ìThese criminal actions are a call to Christians, Muslims, Jews, Hindus and Sikhs, people of every kind of faith and none, to reject the idolatrous fantasies which set community against community and to walk in the way of the spirit, whose fruits are love and joy and peace.î

Others such as the Christian thinktank Ekklesia have proposed approaches that do not perpetuate the cycle of violence and do not create more terror than they prevent.

Members of the Mission and Public Affairs Council said this week they had been ësnapping at the heelsí of senior figures in the Church to take a position on pre-emptive strikes. One suggested this week the church was kow-towing to the government on the issue and said: ìIt seems all Tony talk, I would be very hesitant about this.î

However Philip Giddings, chairman of the council said that an absolute rule against lethal force could not be made.


Church report backs shoot-to-kill policy

-11/11/05

In a move that will disturb many Christians committed to peace-making and solutions to conflict which do not perpetuate spirals of violence, the Church of England appears to be giving its backing to a Metropolitan Police shoot-to-kill policy.

The Church of England newspaper reports that in a document to be discussed at its General Synod next week the Church of England appears to be backing the shoot-to-kill policy used against suspected suicide bombers.

Facing the Challenge of Terrorism, a report from a the Mission and Public Affairs Division of the Archbishop’s Council, is said to endorse the view that in certain circumstances ëlethal force’ should be used.

In the report it states: ‘Where many lives may be threatened by terrorist acts, the police need to be able to employ lethal force as a last resort ó particularly in the case of a suspected suicide bomber, where shooting to kill may be the only effective means of preventing a greater tragedy’.

The move however will disturb those Christians who have questioned any shoot-to-kill policy, and the messages that it sends, particularly when it goes wrong as in the case of the young Brazilian Jean Charles de Menezes who was killed by mistake at Stockwell underground station in July.

Talking after the London bombings, the Anglican Bishop of London, the Rt Rev Richard Chartres, said: ‘These criminal actions are a call to Christians, Muslims, Jews, Hindus and Sikhs, people of every kind of faith and none, to reject the idolatrous fantasies which set community against community and to walk in the way of the spirit, whose fruits are love and joy and peace.’

Others such as the Christian thinktank Ekklesia have proposed approaches that do not perpetuate the cycle of violence and do not create more terror than they prevent.

Members of the Mission and Public Affairs Council said this week they had been ësnapping at the heels’ of senior figures in the Church to take a position on pre-emptive strikes. One suggested this week the church was kow-towing to the government on the issue and said: ‘It seems all Tony talk, I would be very hesitant about this.’

However Philip Giddings, chairman of the council said that an absolute rule against lethal force could not be made.