c. 2007 Religion News Service
Christians Worship, March in Protest of Iraq War
WASHINGTON (RNS) About 3,000 Christians gathered at the Washington National Cathedral Friday (March 16) before marching to the White House to protest the war in Iraq.
“This kind of a Christian witness was long overdue,” said the Rev. Jim Wallis, founder of Sojourners/Call to Renewal, one of three dozen groups represented in the Christian Peace Witness for Iraq.
“Just going to secular demonstrations wasn’t enough for them. They wanted to express their faith on the Iraq war.”
At the cathedral, attendees heard remarks from Wallis, the Rev. Bernice Powell Jackson, a U.S. representative of the World Council of Churches, and Celeste Zappala, a Philadelphia United Methodist whose son, a National Guardsman, was killed in Baghdad in 2004.
Most in attendance then took to the streets, as snow and wind subsided, and marched to the White House while holding electric candles.
March organizers said 222 people were arrested and fined $100 each, charged with leaving their planned protest site at Lafayette Park and stepping across Pennsylvania Avenue directly in front of the White House.
Wallis said an additional 600 people watched a simulcast of the cathedral worship service at a Presbyterian church near the White House and later joined the march.
Rick Ufford-Chase, executive director of Presbyterian Peace Fellowship, another partner in the march, said he felt the event marked a turning point in Christian opposition to the war.
“There was clear, strong resolve and consensus that Christians will not rest until this war comes to an end,” said Ufford-Chase, a former moderator of the Presbyterian Church (USA).
He said representatives of the various partner organizations involved in the march plan to meet to determine their next steps. “I expect that something more will grow out of this,” he said.
Close to 180 related Christian protests were planned across the country over the weekend, organizers said.
President Bush spoke from the White House Monday, on the fourth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, reiterating his commitment to the war.
“It can be tempting to look at the challenges in Iraq and conclude our best option is to pack up and go home,” Bush said, after several marches occurred in Washington over the weekend.
“That may be satisfying in the short run, but I believe the consequences for American security would be devastating. … Four years after this war began, the fight is difficult, but it can be won.”
Wallis and Ufford-Chase said Monday that religious leaders involved in the weekend’s events disagree.
“The war can’t be won,” Wallis said. “The war shouldn’t have been fought in the first place. In fighting this war, America is losing its soul.”
_ Adelle M. Banks
Jews Ask Why Neo-Nazis Were Assigned to Guard Jewish Leader
BERLIN (RNS) German politicians and religious leaders are trying to figure out how three bodyguards with alleged Nazi sympathies ended up as bodyguards for the former head of Germany’s Central Council of Jews.
Opposition parties in the German state of Hessen are demanding a parliamentary investigation into how the three men managed to become state policemen despite their neo-Nazi leanings.
The story first broke in the Bild newspaper, one of Germany’s major tabloids, and was soon picked up by other publications. According to a report in the Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper, the three state police officers assigned as bodyguards to Michel Friedman were initially investigated for suspicion of falsifying overtime statements.
During the course of that investigation, several incriminating items were discovered, including a photo of one of the men in a Nazi-era uniform, a home-made certificate in the name of the “Fuehrer” and right-wing songs stored on one of the men’s computer.
Since then, one of the men has been removed entirely from the police force. The other two have been relieved of active duty. According to the original Bild report, one of the three policemen stated that the state police force employs many people who are secretly right wing extremists.
Given the training and testing required to become a bodyguard, many people have questioned how the trio’s leanings weren’t discovered beforehand.
Charlotte Knobloch, the current head of the Jewish council, said the affair will make people question the professionalism of Germany’s security forces and whether such political leanings are overlooked as meaningless.
“If these incidents are treated cavalierly, then the politicians, police and the legal system are going to lose the trust of this country’s democratic citizens.”
Friedman said he never noticed any untoward behavior by the men.
_ Niels Sorrells
Update: Clevelanders Flock to Help Monk Find His Missing Identity
CLEVELAND (RNS) Monica Pitchure is a woman on a mission.
Ever since she read a Plain Dealer story about an elderly Orthodox monk trying to establish his identity so that he can get ongoing medical aid, the Fairlawn, Ohio, woman has been consumed by the search.
“Everybody is somebody and everybody belongs somewhere,” she said. “I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it. It’s torturing me.”
Pitchure is among dozens of readers who have offered clues and support to help the man now known as Father Ephraim George.
Some people suggested resources _ the Black History Museum & Cultural Center of Virginia or the Mormons’ collection of genealogy records, for example. Others passed on the names of people who might know something, offered to help with Father Ephraim’s medical expenses or called simply to offer moral support.
He says his given name is Earnest Thompson, but lacking a birth certificate and a Social Security number, Father Ephraim has been unable to prove his eligibility for Medicare and Medicaid.
Ephraim was fingerprinted to search for matches in a national database. But because his fingertips are so smooth, the prints weren’t detailed enough for comparison.
Probably more than 80 years old, Father Ephraim has helped the poor for more than 25 years at St. Herman of Alaska Monastery and House of Hospitality and has been a monk since 1999.
Pitchure hopes her sleuthing will help the monk, who believes he was born in Norwood, Va. He says his mother’s name was Essie and that his father, Charles, was a coal miner.
Pitchure said she found 1920 census records showing a coal miner, Charles E. Howard, with a 17-year-old spouse named Essie and a baby son, Henry E. Howard, living in West Virginia, although the baby was born in Virginia.
Ten years later, census records show a 27-year-old Essie Spar living in Cleveland as the wife of Frank Spar, whom Father Ephraim has mentioned as another one of his stepfathers. And in the household is a 10-year-old boy, Edward Howard.
Father Ephraim says he doesn’t know who Edward Howard is, but Pitchure vows to keep digging.
“It’s like a big puzzle,” she said. “My husband keeps asking me what I’m doing, but I can’t stop. I’m going to keep looking.”
_ Barb Galbincea
Quote of the Day: Washington Post Columnist E.J. Dionne Jr.
(RNS) “Many evangelicals are boarding a new train. It runs along tracks defined by the broad demands of their faith, not by some party’s political agenda.”
_ Washington Post Columnist E.J. Dionne Jr., writing about how some American evangelicals are in the midst of a “New Reformation” that separates them from partisan politics.
KRE END RNS
Editors: To obtain photos of the war protest to accompany the first item, go to the RNS Web site at https://religionnews.com. On the lower right, click on “photos,” then search by subject or slug.
