Police Arrest Christians in Capital Protest

Radical Christians protesting against issues ranging from abortion to nuclear weapons fanned out across the nation’s capital today in demonstrations that defied the law and resulted in mass arrests.

About 800 people from the United States and Canada participated in the “Peace Pentecost 1985” weekend sponsored by the Sojourners, a communal religious organization, culminating in the acts of civil disobedience.

A total of 250 planned to be arrested for praying in “restricted areas” at the White House, State Department, Supreme Court, Department of Health and Human Services, and the embassies of South Africa and the Soviet Union.

“These are Americans who feel that in order to live out faith in the Gospel they have to take part in these actions for peace and justice,” said Steven Hall-Williams, assistant editor of Sojourners magazine.

‘Let Light Shine’

Sojourners founder Jim Wallis instructed the protesters to “let your light shine around this city.”

At the White House, 200 demonstrators, some wearing wooden crosses around their necks, paraded around the executive mansion carrying signs that said: “Choose Life.” They also sang hymns.

Then, 70 activists kneeled on the sidewalk along Pennsylvania Avenue in violation of a law prohibiting such demonstrations, and helmeted police started arresting them.

“We have not waited for this day as long as the poor have waited for justice,” said the Rev. Jim Antall. “In solidarity with the oppressed, with hope for freedom and blessed by the Holy Spirit, we seek courage and we seek strength.”

Afghanistan Protest

At the Soviet Embassy, police arrested 29 praying activists protesting the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. The activists carried a banner that quoted a Biblical passage: “By what right do you crush my people and grind the faces of the poor?”

Security was tight at the Supreme Court, where police sealed all but one entrance.

The Washington-based Sojourners, with about 50 members, consider themselves evangelicals. Even though they are theologically conservative, they espouse many beliefs such as disarmament, support of welfare an end to U.S. intervention in Central America.