CHICAGO, Sept. 19 (UPI) -- An Episcopal committee has mailed copies of a church resolution opposing laws allegedly used against free speech to 40 Episcopalians in Congress.
At its general convention in July, delegates approved the resolution. It says that "use of the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act, the Patriot Act, and the Supreme Court decision in Holder vs. Humanitarian Law Project, have a chilling effect on God's call to peacemaking and unduly impact the Arab, Palestinian and Muslim communities in the United States."
In the mailing, members of Congress were reminded that the Rev. Martin Luther King was described as a security threat by the FBI after he publicly opposed the Vietnam War.
"As a member of the Episcopal Church's Standing Commission on Social Justice and Public Policy that submitted this resolution to the General Convention meeting in Indianapolis in early July, I am proud that my Church has taken a stand on the right to dissent from U. S. government policy," said Newland Smith, a delegate to the convention from Chicago.
The Chicago chapter of the Episcopal Peace Fellowship and other groups plan a news conference Thursday outside the federal building there to call for an end to a federal investigation of 23 anti-war activists.