Campaign calls peacemakers to 'Shine the Light' in Washington.

By Todd Flory

In the basement of the Washington Peace Center, around a dozen Christian Peacemaker Team (CPT) members and supporters gathered to worship, eat, fellowship, and review the logistics of that afternoon's events. It was Wednesday, and the group was scheduled to protest outside of the weapons manufacturer Lockheed Martin's world headquarters in southern Maryland.

To help demonstrate its opposition to the war in Iraq, CPT held a 'Shine the Light' campaign in Washington, D.C., Jan. 19-29, in which a protest was held outside of a different war-compliance institution each day. Each session ended with a prayer vigil outside of the White House. Many supporters of the cause, including the Brethren Witness/Washington Office of the Church of the Brethren General Board, participated with CPT at various times throughout the week-and-a-half campaign.

"The Shine the Light campaign is both shining light on institutions of war and on the captives, those held captive by all aspects of war," said Church of the Brethren and CPT member Cliff Kindy. "It's a shine for release. As we work with issues of justice and peace, maybe what's underneath is an issue of power; who's in charge."

Outside of Lockheed Martin, a mix of honks, waves, cheers, and sneers from passengers driving along the road greeted the Shine the Light campaign as its members walked solemnly in front of the corporation in a single-file line holding candles and signs. Two people walking along the sidewalk even stopped for a few minutes to join the group in the protest. "Our presence at these institutions is an invitation to those in there to come out of it, and be changed by the light," Kindy explained.

Some of the other institutions that the campaign visited included the State Department, military recruiting offices, Internal Revenue Service, Central Intelligence Agency, and Pentagon. According to Kindy, the group was received with the least amount of receptiveness while visiting the Pentagon. When some members of the public stopped to talk with the CPT members, and when they all gathered together to pray, security quintupled from five guards to 25.

Kindy believes that the public's knowledge of and compassion toward other people and parts of the world, coupled with sociably responsible actions, could further help to bring peace to the world. "We stop paying money to the IRS, and the war stops," he said. "The recruiters stop getting recruits, and the war stops. Lockheed Martin stops making weapons, and the war stops. If any one of them stops, the war stops. Even pulling out one of the pillars stops the war."

--Todd Flory is a Brethren Volunteer Service worker and a legislative associate at the Brethren Witness/Washington Office.

Source: 2/15/2006 Newsline
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