January 4, 2005
by Alexa Smith

LOUISVILLE – About a half-dozen members of Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPTs) will pray and fast outside the White House for three days to celebrate Epiphany (Jan. 6) and urge churches to demand an end to the U.S. occupation of Iraq.

The team has requested a meeting with President George W. Bush.

CPT, a pacifist human-rights organization, has documented prisoner abuse in Iraq and communicated its concerns to the media when the Abu Ghraib scandal broke. The group attracted more attention six weeks ago when four of its members were taken captive in Baghdad by a previously unknown group that calls itself the Swords of Righteousness Brigade.

The kidnappers threatened to execute their hostages, but let their deadline pass without incident. So far there has been no further information about the whereabouts or condition of the hostages.

"Up to this point, we've considered no news to be good news," Cliff Kindy, one of the organizers of the Epiphany event, told the Presbyterian News Service by telephone from his home in northern Indiana. "It is a very difficult time, but it is no more difficult than what Iraqis are living through."

Kindy said the fast will launch what CPT calls its "Shine the Light" campaign to expose torture, hostage-taking and abuse of detainees in Iraq and elsewhere.

The campaign will begin officially on Jan. 15, Martin Luther King Day, and run through Jan. 29, when CPT and its supporters will lead candle-lit processions in front of the Pentagon, the State Department, the U.S. Capitol, CIA headquarters and other government or private institutions that support the war.

The Epiphany fast will begin on run from 8 a.m. on Jan. 6 through noon on Jan. 8.

Anita David, a Chicago Presbyterian and a member of CPT's Baghdad team, said in a Dec. 30 letter that the wait for word about the four kidnapped men has been terrible. The CPT members have been focusing on how to secure the release of their colleagues.

David said the kidnapping raises difficult issues and forces team members to ponder whether we have the right to advocate peace if we are not prepared to pay the cost of non-violent peacemaking?

She said she wonders why others – including radio pundit Rush Limbaugh – accept the consequences of war. She said Limbaugh has been critical of CPT's work in Iraq and apparently is pleased that the kidnappings are testing a group of what he calls "leftist feel-good hand-wringers."

"We thank our Iraqi friends continuously for standing by us and continuing to work with us," David said. "Their presence with us puts them in real danger. We continue to shop in the market, and when we walk down our streets, our neighbors ask about our teammates – Have we heard? Has anyone called? What are we doing?"

Kindy said CPT members hope to be able to convey to the President the concerns of ordinary Iraqis.

Asked whether he thinks the group will get to speak to Bush, he recalled a visit a CPT group made to Fallujah in the company of Muslim peacemakers. The group was told that entry was impossible, but several carloads went ahead, and got into the city.

"We'll make ourselves available," Kindy said. "God will work the miracle."

Presbyterian News Service