A Baptist leader joined 27 other officials from Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Muslim and Sikh traditions in a June 6 letter to President Obama urging greater transparency about the role of unmanned drones in U.S. military policy.
Paula Dempsey, director for partnership relations at the Alliance of Baptists, signed on to the letter voicing concern about the number of intended and unintended deaths caused by U.S. drone warfare policy. Because they are often used as preemptive strikes, the letter said, drone attacks presume the guilt of a suspected threat and effectively impose a death sentence without the due process of law.
Paula Dempsey
“Beyond the immense loss of human life, we are also troubled by the secrecy surrounding the U.S. drones warfare program,” the faith leaders said. “As our nation seeks to model democracy for the world, the lack of transparency regarding drone strikes stifles the ability of citizens or legislators to fully judge and understand the impact of lethal drone technology.”
Observers say in the 15 years since a drone fired the first missiles in combat, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles have become a key cog in the American war machine as the Pentagon draws down the number of troops fighting overseas. According to Reuters, the Air Force aims to double the number of drone squadrons over the next five years.
Recently a U.S. Army chaplain who served in Afghanistan resigned in protest over the military’s use of drone warfare. Unitarian Universalist Church minister Christopher John Antal of New York wrote President Obama in April saying the White House “continues to claim the right to kill anyone, anywhere on earth, at any time, for secret reasons, based on secret evidence, in a secret process, undertaken by unidentified officials.”
“I refuse to support this policy of unaccountable killing,” the minister said.
In 2015 the Alliance of Baptists adopted a statement affirming policy recommendations from the Interfaith Conference on Drone Warfare, a gathering at Princeton University attended by 150 faith leaders across the country including a delegation from the Alliance.
The Interfaith Letter on Drone Warfare commended the administration’s recent plan to release a drones “playbook” and reports of combatant and noncombatant casualties caused by U.S. drone strikes. Beyond that faith leaders called for “an honest reflection on the efficacy of lethal drone strikes.”
“Lethal drone strikes place the U.S. in a perpetual state of covert war that reduces national and international security more than it helps,” the letter said. “The massive loss of innocent lives generates opposition to U.S. power, fuels recruitment for extremist groups and makes us less safe.”
The faith leaders urged the president to halt the drone warfare program during his final months in office.
“While a halt in drone warfare cannot reverse the loss of innocent lives, this step can honor their loss, lessen recruitment by terrorist groups, and increase the chance that future administrations will operate with greater accountability and transparency,” the letter said.