Crossing the Nuclear Site Line to Pray for Peace

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Christians join Lent protests at US nuclear test site

13/04/06 -- {snips} "Fifty years ago, tourists travelled to Las Vegas to watch mushroom clouds rise in the distance. But for the last 25 years the site has been a draw not for tourists, but for anti-war and pro-environment demonstrators

On this day, a group of about 20 United Methodists walks down an otherwise empty stretch of paved road in the desert toward the test site. They carry a banner with the cross and flame logo and the words "May Peace Prevail on Earth." They are singing, "Walk With Me."

The United Methodists are met by uniformed federal guards who lead them to holding pens just inside the property line. It is here, in these wire cages large enough for hundreds of people, that the group holds a vigil. They are here to pray for peace and bring attention to what nuclear testing can do to the environment.

Corbin Harney is among the group. "I've been here since '85 trying my best to put a stop to this nonsense of testing a nuclear bomb," Harney says. He is a Native American, a member of the Shoshone tribe. He says his people lived with a communal spirit on this land for hundreds of years as caretakers of "Mother Earth."

"Everything on this Mother Earth enjoys the earth," he says. "We enjoy it but somehow we've been taught differently. When we start putting poison on our mother, everything is going to disappear from us."

full article: http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/content/news_syndication/article_060413umc.shtml

A UMTV video report about the protest is watchable here: http://umtv.org/newitems/desert_peace_protest.htm

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