Thousands of Christians Protest Iraq War

[NNN0LHI]

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/W/WAR_PROTEST_CHRISTIANS?SITE=ILKAN&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

By SARAH KARUSH
Associated Press Writer

Christians Pray, March for Peace in Washington


WASHINGTON (AP) -- Thousands of Christians prayed for peace at an anti-war service Friday night at the Washington National Cathedral, kicking off a weekend of protests around the country to mark the fourth anniversary of the war in Iraq.

Afterward, participants marched with battery-operated faux candles through snow and wind toward the White House, where police began arresting protesters shortly before midnight. Protest guidelines require demonstrators to continue moving while on the White House sidewalk.

"We gave them three warnings, and they broke the guidelines," said Lt. Scott Fear. "There's an area on the White House sidewalk where you have to keep moving."

About 100 people crossed the street from Lafayette Park - where thousands of protesters were gathered - to demonstrate on the White House sidewalk late Friday. Police began cuffing them and putting them on busses to be taken for processing.

[H2O Man]

1. Nominated.

This is very important.

[Jacobin]

6. Yes it is

Reminds me of when the middle class began protesting viet nam and Walter Cronkite said the war was lost

[WiseButAngrySara]

2. The Prince of Peace. K&R! ....n/t

[durtee librul]

3. I think we have finally officially reached a police state

and that a HUGH number of people need to go to that 'restricted' area and just stand, sit or squat. Wonder how many police it would take to remove a couple thousand Americans from the front of the WH? AND more importantly, what message would that send to the rest of the world about *?

Takers anyone?

[Clark2008]

4. I need to bookmark this so when a DUer says that all

Christians who don't think like the fundies are guilty of not speaking out, I can prove to them otherwise.

Not all Christians are fundies. We do speak out (but the media just doesn't find us as interesting as the fundie nuts) and most of us think this war is WRONG.

[madrchsod]

5. wwjd?

[WillyT]

7. ‘An offense against God’ - K & R !!!

<snip>

The ecumenical coalition that organized the event, Christian Peace Witness for Iraq, distributed 3,200 tickets for the service in the cathedral, with two smaller churches hosting overflow crowds. The cathedral appeared to be packed, although sleet and snow prevented some from attending.

“This war, from a Christian point of view, is morally wrong — and was from the beginning,” the Rev. Jim Wallis, founder of Sojourners/Call to Renewal, one of the event’s sponsors, said toward the end of the service to cheers and applause. “This war is ... an offense against God.”

In his speech, the Rev. Raphael G. Warnock, senior pastor at Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church, lashed out at Congress for being “too morally inept to intervene” to stop the war, but even more harshly against President Bush.

“Mr. Bush, my Christian brother, we do need a surge in troops. We need a surge in the nonviolent army of the Lord,” he said. “We need a surge in conscience and a surge in activism and a surge in truth-telling.”

Celeste Zappala of Philadelphia recounted how she learned of the death of her son, Sgt. Sherwood Baker, who served in the National Guard. When a uniformed man came to her door asking if she was Baker’s mother, she said yes.

“‘Yes,’ and then I fell to the ground and somewhere outside of myself I heard someone screaming and screaming,” she said.

<snip>

Link: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17655224/

Props to the Christian Left!

:applause::bounce::applause: