Christian students remember fallen
Vigils to take place at noon every Monday in April
Published on Tue., April 3rd, 2007
Noon was a solemn time Monday for members of the Christian Peace Witness for Iraq to reflect on the ongoing war.
Tim Stauffer, Iola senior, worked with the Student Leadership team and the Ecumenical Christian Ministries to reserve the Danforth Chapel every Monday at noon in April for quiet vigils.
“We’ve all been frustrated by the complicity shown by the Christian community regarding the war,” he said.
We’ve all been frustrated by the complicity shown by the Christian community regarding the war.
-Tim Stauffer
Though sponsored by a Christian organization, Stauffer said the vigil was open to people of all faiths or no faith to honor those who have died in the Iraq War.
Inside the chapel, a small stereo played worship music and a nylon net was strung up at the front of the chapel. Stauffer said people were invited to tie black cloth ribbons on the net as a tribute to the dead.
“It’s a tangible way of marking a memory of a person,” he said.
As people came and went from the chapel, they were also invited to sign a 16-foot banner in front of the chapel that read, “NO WAR IN IRAQ: NOT IN OUR NAMES.”
Stauffer said the banner was created four years ago at the start of the Iraq War. He said more than 40 people signed the banner Monday and it already contained a couple hundred signatures from past events.
Chris Cardwell, Lincoln, Kan., senior, signed his name to the banner yesterday on his way to French class.
“I’m so sick of the war and I was opposed to it when it first started,” he said. “People have become numb to it.”
He said seeing the numbers of those dead and injured in Iraq was a good way promote anti-war sentiments.
“People made passing jokes when this war first started about it being our generation’s Vietnam,” Cardwell said. “Four years from now the joke won’t be funny anymore.”
Elise Higgins, Topeka freshman and member of the Student Leadership team, helped organize the peace vigil and spent about five minutes in the chapel thinking about how her faith coincided with her need for political action.
“It was reflection on how important it is for us to be involved even in a small way,” she said. “I think this atmosphere isn’t coercive and it’s inviting.”
Beth Ruhl, Lawrence senior, also helped plan the vigil. She said she was motivated to help with the vigil after she protested in the Christian Peace Witness for Iraq in Washington, D.C., on March 16.
“Even if people disagree with us, we’d like to talk with them because dialogue is important to us,” she said.
Stauffer said the group didn’t have an agenda.
“We just ask people to reexamine what they believe and why,” he said.
Kansan staff writer Tyler Harbert can be contacted at tharbert@kansan.com.
— Edited by Joe Caponio
Discussion
The Kansan.com staff reviews comments regularly. Please be respectful of your peers. For our full user policy, click here.
Share your 2¢
Requires free registration.