February 25, 2003 -  News and Updates

1.  Excellent article on nonviolent response to Iraq crisis
2.  Article on the over-70 peace activist crowd
3.  Kucinch speech from Feb 15 NYC rally
4.  World Peace Prayer Day 3-3-03 - if you're not a prayer-type person, meditation or any other form of peaceful expression will do!
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1.  Why is our best option invisible? Alternatives to military action against Iraq by Glen Gersmehl:
Despite the dangers outlined by Colin Powell in his presentation to the U.N. Security Council, the majority of Americans still feel uncomfortable with a U.S. war against Iraq. As Christians, our difficulty with a violent response is rooted in the explicit and often repeated teachings of Jesus.

The tremendous risks of war - to our soldiers, to the Iraqi people, to our economy, to the war on terrorism, to U.S. relations with our allies and the Muslim world - have received serious if sporadic media attention. But it is striking that in all these months, only a tiny handful of articles or editorials have offered more than a few sentences exploring a realistic alternative to military action that goes beyond diplomacy.

As important as diplomacy is, it represents just one dimension of that alternative, just one type of power aside from military power. Consider this: In just the past 20 years, a third of the world has experienced change brought about by nonviolent movements, successful beyond anyone's wildest expectations. They succeeded against some of the most ruthless regimes of the 20th century: Marcos in the Philippines, apartheid in South Africa, Ceausescu in Romania. Most were completely nonviolent on the part of the participants.

If you stretch the time frame back 50 years to include the liberation of India, even the anti-Nazi resistance in Denmark and Norway, and the U.S. civil rights movement, the number of people affected rises to two- thirds of the world's population! "All this in the teeth of the assertion, endlessly repeated, that nonviolence doesn't work in the 'real' world," as Walter Wink emphasizes in his path-breaking book "The Powers That Be."

Think about it: The most successful route to "regime change" in our time has been absent from the public debate about Iraq!

To read Gersmehl's entire article, go to Download "Nonviolence and Iraq" at http://www.sojo.net/index.cfm?action=action.teachin

2.  Hopefully we won't have to be doing this when we're 70, but these folks are cool! http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0222-01.htm

3.  Here is the link to Dennis Kucinich's speech from the NYC rally - someone really knows how to write an inspirational speech!  Be sure to check out what the labor unions are doing while you're at the site - amazing stuff!  http://www.uslaboragainstwar.org/inthenews.php?singleItemFlag=1&news_id=117

4.  RE: URGENT CALL FOR 03-03-03 TO BE A "WORLDWIDE DAY OF PRAYER"
Dear World Prayer Team Member,
The World Prayer Center is calling all Christians worldwide to a Worldwide Day of Prayer on Monday, March 3, 2003.

Ted Haggard, President of The World Prayer Team, says his office has been flooded with messages from people all over the world saying that God is impressing upon them to prepare to pray on 03-03-03. "These believers do not know one another, nor are they connected to one another. They do not know that the others are saying the same thing. Clearly, the Holy Spirit is speaking to His church, and He is calling His people to pray," says Haggard.

"As these reports began to come in, we sensed in our hearts that God wants us to promote a huge outpouring of prayer on this special date. Many believe there is significance to this date because of its numerical sequence (03-03-03) which reminds many Christians of the Trinity. Moreover, the Holy Spirit has highlighted Jeremiah 33:3 (again, three 3's) as our call to action, 'Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know,'" says Haggard.

The magnitude of this date is not lost on the non-Christian world as well. The Global Consciousness movement (New Age) has for years been planning a worldwide "Largest ever experiment into global consciousness" to take place on 03-03-03. Their effort is slated to begin at 3:33am (Figi local time), on the 3rd day of the 3rd month of the 3rd millennium. It has gained widespread notoriety in New Age circles.

Should this not be enough to cause Christians to pray, the significance of 03-03-03 becomes even more pressing as America could launch a war with Iraq at about that very hour, against a leader, Saddam Hussein, who has only recently embraced Islam as a way of gaining support from the Islamic world. Such was not the case with the first Gulf War. According to the Islamic calendar, March 3, 2003 is the eve of the Islamic New Year (Islamic year 1424 begins March 4, 2003). It is also the last day of the Hajj, the annual pilgrimage to Mecca, when pilgrims are encouraged to make a sacrifice (The Festival of Sacrifice or Eid al-Adha). The key verse in the Qu' Ran about this festival to take place this year on March 3, 2003 is, "Truly, my prayer and my service of sacrifice, my life or my death, are all of Allah." This date therefore holds great significance to the Islamic world.

While all of this is beneath the radars of the secular news media, it is clear to many Christian leaders that the world is on the brink of a spiritual battle of monumental proportions. The epicenter of this struggle is the Middle East-a battle is going on for Jerusalem and Babylon (Iraq), biblical centers of spiritual light and darkness.

The World Prayer Team therefore calls on all Christian churches and individuals to set aside at least 3 minutes to pray at 3:33 PM in their time zone on 03/03/03.

PRAYER FOCUS: Pray that the armies of heaven will push back the powers of darkness in the Middle East. Pray that Saddam Hussein will leave the country before war is required to remove him from power. Pray that a spiritual shield will contain hostilities within the Iraqi borders (if war cannot be avoided), such that it doesn't spill over to the entire Islamic world. Pray that weapons of mass destruction, if they are deployed on any side of the battle, will be powerless. Pray that this date, rather than being a focal point of darkness, will be overwhelmed by the Light of God through the worldwide prayers of His people.

PLEASE FORWARD this message to every person you know as soon as possible. 03-03-03 is just a few days away.

THE WORLD PRAYER TEAM www.worldprayerteam.org