Arrests in Prayer Protests
CNN reports that thousands of Christians in America kicked off a weekend of worldwide anti-war protests by praying for peace at a service in the Washington National Cathedral, ahead of Tuesday's fourth anniversary of the war in Iraq. 222 people were arrested after the service for demonstrating on the pavement outside the White House and for crossing a police line. The organisers called for "a surge in conscience and a surge in activism and a surge in truth-telling."
That religion plays a more significant role in American politics is evident from the comment of one first-time protester: "A lot of the rhetoric that we hear coming from Christians has been dominated by the religious right and has been strong advocacy for the war. That's just not the way I read my Gospel."
Saturday's demonstrations have begun with hundreds of supporters of the war verbally clashing with as many as 30,000 anti-war demonstrators as they formed a march from the Vietnam War Memorial to the Pentagon.
1 comments:
I'm guessing that Jim Wallis and his organisation Sojourners has something to do with these demonstrations. The first-timer's comments sounds exactly like Jim.
We have a lot to learn in the UK about using our faith in demonstrable action. However, ironically, our climate of established church being the opposite of the separation in the US, we seem incapable of mounting concerted, collaborative efforts like these. One off maybe, but not the consistent efforts produced in Washington.
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