Thousands of Christians hold anti-war service in D.C. POSTED: 10:43
a.m. EDT, March 17, 2007 CNN
var clickExpire = "04/16/2007"; Story Highlights Christian service
kicks off weekend of nationwide Iraq war protests
Marched toward White House to mark upcoming fourth anniversary of invasion
222 arrested, accused of crossing line, not moving on White House sidewalk
President Bush away for the weekend at Camp David in Maryland
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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."
222 people arrested; Bush away for weekend 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.
A change of heart over time toward Iraq war John Pattison, 29, said he and
his wife flew in from Portland, Oregon, to attend his first anti-war rally. He
said his opposition to the war had developed over time.
"Quite literally on the night that shock and awe commenced, my friend and I
toasted the military might of the United States," Pattison said. "We were quite
proud and thought we were doing the right thing."
He said the way the war had progressed and U.S. foreign policy since then had
forced him to question his beliefs.
"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," Pattison
said. "That's just not the way I read my Gospel."
'The war, from a Christian point of view, is morally wrong' 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, we need a surge in truth-telling' "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.
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