For all of my blustering about being anti-religion, I’m plenty happy to read the news and see something like this. A Christian gathering thousands strong protested the war right in front of the White House. The infuriating thing is that over 200 of them were arrested. Were they violent? Did they cause damage?

Afterward, participants marched with battery-operated faux candles through snow and wind toward the White House, where police began arresting protesters shortly before midnight. Protest guidelines require demonstrators to continue moving while on the White House sidewalk.

“We gave them three warnings, and they broke the guidelines,” said Lt. Scott Fear. “There’s an area on the White House sidewalk where you have to keep moving.”

Keep in mind all they did was protest. They didn’t even have actual candles. Maybe there is a section of the sidewalk that requires that they keep moving, but I can’t help but wonder how often that’s truly enforced. If they had been supporting the war and showing their solidarity behind the president, I can’t imagine so many of them would have been arrested and fined.

I could get into another religious debate concerning this, but that’s not my focus here. Rather, it’s that I see this as an instance where anti-war protesters were arrested when they didn’t need to be. I rarely agree with the arresting of protesters unless they are causing active harm (destroying property, interrupting a funeral, etc). For the most part, I don’t care what side you’re on, my stance on protesting doesn’t change.

In his speech, the Rev. Raphael G. Warnock, senior pastor at Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church, lashed out at Congress for being “too morally inept to intervene” to stop the war, but even more harshly against President Bush.

“Mr. Bush, my Christian brother, we do need a surge in troops. We need a surge in the nonviolent army of the Lord,” he said. “We need a surge in conscience and a surge in activism and a surge in truth-telling.”

Obviously I ain’t on board with his religion, but I’m right beside his sentiment. Congress has yet to take a stance and stop this nonsense, and I’m tired of our president just lying to our faces on a daily basis. They both need fixed, and soon.