Hundreds Arrested At White House Christian Anti-War Protest

[shance]

Hundreds Arrested At White House Christian Anti-War Protest

SARAH KARUSH
AP
Saturday, March 17, 2007

WASHINGTON — 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 buses to be taken for processing.


Fear said 222 people had been arrested by Saturday morning. The first 100 were charged with disobeying a lawful order, and the others with crossing a police line. All of them were fined $100.

The windows of the executive mansion were dark, as the president was away for the weekend at Camp David in Maryland.

John Pattison, 29, said he and his wife flew in from Portland, Ore., to attend his first anti-war rally. He said his opposition to the war had developed over time.

(snip)

"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.

The Friday night events mark the beginning of what is planned as a weekend of protests ahead of Tuesday's anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion, which began on March 20, 2003.

On Saturday morning, a coalition of protest groups has a permit for up to 30,000 people to march from the Vietnam Veterans Memorial across the Potomac River to the Pentagon. Smaller demonstrations are planned in cities across the country.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20070317/war-protest-christians

[ComerPerro]

1. LMAO, can't wait to hear mainstream Christianity's take on this

[shance]

2. I would say these are the 'mainstream' Christians.

n/t

[ContraBass Black]

3. For mainstream Christianity's take, re-read the article.

[ComerPerro]

4. cute, I see what you're going for, but lets be real here

these people, this group, they are relative nobodies in the mainstream Christian scene. Just like DU doesn't even represent the mainstream Democratic views, let alone mainstream America.

[w4rma]

6. You are very wrong and ill informed. Research more. (nt)

[ComerPerro]

7. and you're deep in denial. The worst kind of people in the world

are the ones who believe that every single view they hold is a mainstream view.

No matter how desperately you *want* it to be true, it doesn't mean it is.

Mainstream Christianity, the most popularly practiced version, is the "Left Behind", born again, 700 Club style.

Not because they are the largest group. But becasue they are the most vocal, the most active, and the most dominant in the media.

[dogday]

8. I believe money has a lot to do with it

They are also the richest with the most influence... Some wonder how 29% of the population can have control? If you have control of the purse, you have control of the agenda....

Although the far-right is not the norm for many Christians who just want to be good people, and live a good life.. There are many out there, they just don't flap their wings or their wallets....

[ComerPerro]

9. thing is, they have the money, they are mainstream. And there are more than you think

most people only claim a religion in order to acheieve some sense of self-importance. Very, very, extremely few people actually follow their religion expressly as they should. For most, its all for show.

[w4rma]

10. Ultra-wealthy right-wingers pump money into Churches that help keep people sedated and riled up

about things other than their own pillaging of this country. But they do not represent the mainstream. They are more like astro-turf as you should be able to see from the various clergy in leadership positions within many different denominations (including the former Pope) who have denounced this war.

[dogday]

16. For most it is personal and not for show

I don't think people turn to religion out of self-importance, more like to discover that there is more beyond one's self and one's possessions.. That spiritual connections are formed from within a person's being, and not formed on the outside to wear like a shirt.

As with any group, one bad apple spoils the whole bunch and these apples are rotten indeed....

[wryter2000]

11. We have a winner

The rw faux Christians bleed their parishioners dry to make themselves rich, and they use that money to get power. They don't represent the mainstream of American Chritianity. Bush's own church, the Methodist Church, told him before the war that it was not the Christian thing to do.

[JerseygirlCT]

14. And what does the media have to do with "mainstream"?

They are not the most numerous, by far.

They're smaller in number, but loud. That doesn't make for mainstream. That just makes for loud.

[JerseygirlCT]

13. No, you're really wrong

This IS mainstream Christianity.

The loud, ugly, fundamentalist stuff that gets all the press and attention? A newcomer with a big mouth and not too much else. A fringe of Christianity with little real history but deep pockets thanks to unethical fundraising and some pretty evil people with much money to spend making the world a little worse.

The people you just read about above are the real people practicing Christianity in this country. They're the ones running the soup kitchens and teaching people to read, collecting clothing and money for those with less. They quietly go about their business, and don't often get much recognition. And they don't really care about it. This sometimes leaves a void for a media eager for conflict and big mouths. And the likes of Falwell and Dobson and Robertson are only too happy to oblige.

But please don't be fooled into thinking they represent any sort of mainstream.

[NMMNG]

18. These are the mainstream Christians

Those extremists who are represented by Falwell, Robertson, Dobson, et. al. are not mainstream Christianity no matter how much they try to claim they are or portray themselves as such.

[w4rma]

5. Very good. (nt)

[wryter2000]

12. Good for them

Let Bushwa explain why he's had hundreds of Christians jailed for protesting his war that's very obviously about as non-Christian as you can get.

[shadowknows69]

15. There are number linites on protest limits?

Any more than 30,000 show up and the riot gear comes on then the tear gas flies?

[BlooInBloo]

17. gw's pre-emptive war against christianity! lolol!