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Mainline church leaders are expressing opposition to President Bush’s plan to escalate U.S. troop presence in Iraq. Some clergy drew parallels to Martin Luther King’s impassioned pleas decades ago against the ultimately fruitless American war in Vietnam.

The president told a nationwide television audience on January 10 that the only way to achieve victory in Iraq is to send some 21,500 more troops to help the Iraqi government, beset by sectarian killings, to achieve stability in and around Baghdad.

Bob Edgar said he was hired seven years ago as the top executive of the financially bleeding National Council of Churches to do three things: Raise money, raise money and raise money.

Edgar, a United Methodist minister and a former member of Congress and seminary president, trimmed staff and programs initially, then began seeking funds from foundations and other secular donors, rather than only from the traditional religious sources. Now, he has heard belated cries of “foul” from the Christian right.