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KIM LAWTON: Leaders of 24 Christian denominations and religious organizations marched to the White House this week. They said the march and candlelight vigil were part of what they call their own "faith-based initiative" against war with Iraq.
Rev. ALVIN JACKSON (at microphone): Lord, help us to find a way out of the madness of war.
LAWTON: The religious antiwar effort has been well under way for months now. Mainline Protestants have joined with liberal Catholic and evangelical groups.
Reverend JIM WALLIS (Call to Renewal): Almost every church body that has spoken on this issue has concluded that a war with Iraq would not be just -- in the U.S. and around the world. Never before have the churches been so united for peace.
Unidentified ORGANIZER: Methodists, Quakers, Baptists, Catholics, agnostics, we got 'em all. Congregationalists? Yeah, even Congregationalists.
LAWTON: Religious groups from across the theological spectrum also joined with secular groups at this past weekend's massive rally in Washington. Participants said they wanted to make sure a religious dimension was part of the national discussion.
ELIZABETH PALMBERG (Antiwar Demonstrator): I mean, I am patriotic and I believe my citizenship is a gift from God, but for that very reason, I want to use my citizenship in a just and righteous manner.
LAWTON: Religious opposition to the war may be high-profile, but some question how widespread it is.
DIANE KNIPPERS (Institute on Religion and Democracy): They don't represent the people in the pews by any stretch of the imagination. My suspicion is that if the president and our national leaders make the judgment that this is a necessary and just war, that the majority of American churchgoers will support that.
LAWTON: Diane Knippers is President of the Institute on Religion and Democracy, a conservative advocacy group within mainline churches. She says religious views are being portrayed very unevenly.
Ms. KNIPPERS: The people who are opposed to the war are very sure, very convinced, and very loud in their opposition to the war. A lot of us who are not so sure about it or might even be inclined to be for it -- it's not the kind of thing you march for. Who wants to march for war?
Rev. ALVIN JACKSON (at microphone): Lord, help us to find a way out of the madness of war.
LAWTON: The religious antiwar effort has been well under way for months now. Mainline Protestants have joined with liberal Catholic and evangelical groups.
Reverend JIM WALLIS (Call to Renewal): Almost every church body that has spoken on this issue has concluded that a war with Iraq would not be just -- in the U.S. and around the world. Never before have the churches been so united for peace.Unidentified ORGANIZER: Methodists, Quakers, Baptists, Catholics, agnostics, we got 'em all. Congregationalists? Yeah, even Congregationalists.
LAWTON: Religious groups from across the theological spectrum also joined with secular groups at this past weekend's massive rally in Washington. Participants said they wanted to make sure a religious dimension was part of the national discussion.
ELIZABETH PALMBERG (Antiwar Demonstrator): I mean, I am patriotic and I believe my citizenship is a gift from God, but for that very reason, I want to use my citizenship in a just and righteous manner.LAWTON: Religious opposition to the war may be high-profile, but some question how widespread it is.
DIANE KNIPPERS (Institute on Religion and Democracy): They don't represent the people in the pews by any stretch of the imagination. My suspicion is that if the president and our national leaders make the judgment that this is a necessary and just war, that the majority of American churchgoers will support that.LAWTON: Diane Knippers is President of the Institute on Religion and Democracy, a conservative advocacy group within mainline churches. She says religious views are being portrayed very unevenly.
Ms. KNIPPERS: The people who are opposed to the war are very sure, very convinced, and very loud in their opposition to the war. A lot of us who are not so sure about it or might even be inclined to be for it -- it's not the kind of thing you march for. Who wants to march for war?
Professor JOHN GREEN (University of Akron): When priests and ministers stand up and speak from a particular voice and don't persuade their congregations and their churches to follow them, then there is a real danger that this will become an elite-level politics, spoken to elites and really not engaging ordinary people.
Prof. GREEN: We've been hearing from the administration, President Bush's allies, and now we have the other side of the story. We have people raising other issues, other concerns, and I suspect that in churches and across kitchen tables and all across America, people are arguing these issues now.
Ms. KNIPPERS: It is necessary to have access to intelligence data, to know about military strategy to judge whether force is proportionate or not. So church leaders, when they judge that a war wouldn't be proportionate or when they judge that there is a low probability of success, are simply speaking outside their area of competence.
Ms. KNIPPERS: That is a particular mantle that God Almighty places on people. It is arrogant to claim that one is being a prophet. And they use that to justify whatever their own opinions are.
Rev. WALLIS: I think there is a chance, there really is a chance that for the first time, we might really be able to stop a war before it starts. If that happens, it will be the churches who offered some moral authority, some moral pleadings. We are praying that in fact, we can disarm Iraq without a war.
