“Extraordinary witness”

The President of the United Church of Christ was arrested while trying to deliver a pastoral letter condemning the Iraq war to George W. Bush. John H. Thomas was arrested together with Linda Jaramillo, another senior UCC official for failing to leave the “no protest” zone.

Led away from the White House gates with hands cuffed in plastic binds, the Rev. John H. Thomas, president of the United Church of Christ, said a sense of urgency over “the mess in Iraq” brought him to the White House.

Anti-war efforts “require more than the old kind of lobbying, and need extraordinary witness,” he said.

This is the sort of thing that more churches need to do. It’s been reported that Bush has refused to meet with the United Methodist bishops as well. Wouldn’t it be great to see the UMC bishops do something like this was well? This is the sort of moral issue that demands the attention of the mainline (and other) churches. If they can’t stand up on the great moral issues of our time, how can they really argue for their relevance?

H/T Bruce Prescott.