Religious Leaders and NASA’s Lead Climate Scientist to “Draw Line in the Sand” at White House on Monday
Largest Group of Arrests to Date Expected
WASHINGTON, DC (August 29, 2011) — More than 60 religious leaders and NASA’s lead climate scientist Dr. James Hansen will participate in what is expected to be the largest group of arrests to date in front of the White House on Monday as part of an ongoing protest to push President Obama to deny the permit for a proposed oil pipeline.
Monday morning, participants will lead an interfaith prayer service starting at 9 a.m. in Lafayette Park and proclaim from scripture on the sacredness of God’s creation. The faith community has launched a petition directed at President Obama asking him to say “no” to the Keystone XL pipeline and “yes” to climate justice, a central moral tenet of religious social justice.
Where: Lafayette Park, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
When: 9:00 AM – 11:30 AM
Voices:
Spokespeople at the protest on Monday will include leading climate scientist Dr. James Hansen, and leaders of faith communities’ climate justice, environmental racism, and social witness ministries.
Dr. James Hansen heads the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York City; Rose Berger, religious witness organizer for Sojourners;
Marie Dennis, director of Maryknoll Office of Global Concerns;
Rabbi Fred Scherlinder Dobb of Adat Shalom Reconstructionist Congregation;
Bill McKibben, Methodist environmentalist, and protest organizer;
Fr. Jacek Orzechowski, OFM, Franciscan priest and chair of the Justice, Peace, and Integrity of Creation Directorate for the Franciscans of the Holy Name Province;
Rev. Craig C. Roshaven, Witness Ministries Director, Unitarian Universalist Association;
Rev. Kathleen Stone, chaplain of the Church Center for the United Nations.
For statements from religious leaders, go here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1s7YD-u9w-kvYacLzm6RqhRxWqoc5P7C7wRhqo1zWLTg/edit?hl=en_US