LOUISVILLE - Some Kentucky religious leaders are urging restraint as President Bush weighs a possible military strike on Iraq.

One prominent theologian, though, said Tuesday that forcibly removing Saddam Hussein's regime would be a just cause.

“I believe the president has given adequate justification for military action,” said the Rev. R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville.

“I think the question will come down to how large and extensive the military action should be to deal with this specific threat.”

Some other prominent church leaders in the state were more cautious about exerting military might to topple Saddam.

Roman Catholic Archbishop Thomas C. Kelly condemned Saddam in harsh words, but said he was “very concerned” about the United States waging unilateral military action against Iraq.

“It is clear that Saddam Hussein runs a repressive regime that presents a threat to peace and stability in the world,” Archbishop Kelly said. “But it is also clear that military action should be a last resort, and our country must address serious moral principles such as just cause, danger to civilians and the probability of success” before attacking Iraq.

The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) also has urged restraint. Its General Assembly Council last month urged Mr. Bush to “speak in ways that encourage peace, rather than war, and refrain from language that seems to label certain individuals and nations as evil' and others as good.”'

The council said U.N. weapons inspections should resume and be allowed to run their course without threats of pre-emptive strikes. It said the United States should avoid a go-it-alone approach toward Iraq that “perpetuates the perception that might makes right.”'

John Detterick, executive director of the General Assembly Council, said Tuesday that sentiment among Presbyterians contacting church headquarters in Louisville has strongly favored the council statement.

“We are called to be peacemakers and are called to go the extra mile,” he said. “That means that we continue to find ways to talk and build consensus throughout the world.”

The Trappist monks cloistered at the Abbey of Gethsemani near Bardstown have been reading newspaper accounts of the brewing confrontation with Iraq. The abbot, Father Damien Thompson, said a pre-emptive strike would cast the United States as an aggressor nation.

“There is no justification for war with Iraq since they haven't attacked us,” Father Thompson said in a telephone interview.

United Methodist Church Bishop James R. King Jr. said that as Christians “strive for a world filled with peace and harmony we must, however, protect ourselves and those who put themselves in harm's way for the preservation of our values.”

Aly A. Farag, the imam, or religious leader, at Faisal Mosque in Jefferson County, said Muslims dislike Saddam but are frustrated by what they perceive as inconsistencies in U.S. policy that condemns Iraq for its aggression but does nothing to stop Israel's treatment of Palestinians.

Imam Farag said Iraq poses no threat to the United States, and that military action is unnecessary to keep Saddam in check.

“A rigorous inspection process will bring its fruits without war,” he said. “And Saddam is going to go sooner or later.”

Imam Farag, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Louisville, said he worries that Muslims and their religion might become targets of unwarranted criticism as war talk escalates. He cited comments by the Rev. Jerry Falwell in which the conservative Baptist minister called Muhammad, the founder of Islam, a terrorist.

The Associated Press/BRIAN BOHANNON

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