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'Sometimes,' a friend told me, 'heaven is just a new pair of glasses.'

What perfect wisdom. Change your view, gain new perspectives and the things that throw your life out of focus can take on a different meaning.

I thought about that as I sat on a bench in Lafayette Park outside the White House one recent glorious fall morning. Thirty women dressed in pink had spread out a picnic breakfast on the sidewalk so that two of their members could break an 80-day fast in protest of the war in Iraq.

A giant Ghandi puppet loomed above me, carrying a sign that read, 'You must be the change you wish to see in the world.'

I spotted Jim Winkler, the general secretary of the United Methodist Board of Church and Society, who had come to join the more than 100 other protesters in the Declaration of Peace event that kicked off Sept. 21.

More than 500 organizations, including the Methodist Federation for Social Action and many other faith organizations, are involved in the declaration of peace effort, designed to give people an opportunity to speak out against the United State?s involvement in Iraq.

I don?t know exactly what I feel about the war in Iraq. It pains me that the complexities of this issue seem to provide no entirely reasonable answers. I know clarity and certainty are prized traits in committed Christians. I tend to struggle a little more.

I asked Winkler about the church?s stance.

'The United Methodist stance is clear,' he asserted. 'We believe war is incompatible with the teachings and example of Christ.' The church also supports those who serve their country in the military and those, who for reasons of conscience, refuse to serve.

U.S. troops must leave Iraq now, said Winkler, who decries how America?s leaders led the country into war under false pretenses.

Bishop Susan Morrison, who once served as director of the Council of Ministries in the Baltimore Conference and is now on a leave of absence, served as host to the more than 100 people who gathered in the park.

'The church too often has been silent. It?s time for a moral imperative,' she said. 'It doesn?t do us any good to debate the past and what it means.'

Calling those present to prayer, she asked God to help those present to 'claim the moral authority to say no to this war. Make us bold in the face of too much silence,' she prayed.

For those United Methodists who feel too ambiguous about the war to claim anything with authority, Morrison?s advice was simple: 'trust your instincts.'

Winkler also encouraged all United Methodists to engage in prayer about this issue. He also urged them to ask their pastors and bishops to speak out for peace; to contact members of Congress and make the church?s opposition known, and to educate themselves.

I tried. I looked at the Senate Intelligence reports (http://intelligence.senate.gov/).

I read in the Washington Post that the general in charge of the U.S. Central Command said, 'the U.S. military is unlikely to reduce forces in Iraq before next spring because the current contingent of more than 140,000 troops is battling sectarian violence that could prove ?fatal? to the country if not arrested.'

In that same article, I read that, according to the Pentagon, 2,681 service men and women have died in the Iraq War. The cost of keeping a U.S. Army division in combat in Iraq is $1.2 billion a month.

I also looked up Winkler?s assertion that United Methodists believe war is incompatible with Christian teaching. He?s right. It says so on page 65 of the Book of Resolutions. But on the previous page, it also says, 'we acknowledge that many Christians believe that, when peaceful alternatives have failed, the force of arms may regretfully be preferable to unchecked aggression, tyranny and genocide.'

These numbers make me think about individual soldiers? stories and I remembered the Rev. Will Butler of the Churchville Charge. Butler returned from the war a year ago, although he still doesn?t always feel 'completely home.'

He still remembers, very clearly, looking into the eyes of young soldiers who never dreamt of finding themselves in a foreign land, watching their friends get hurt and fighting for their own survival.

He also recalls the guilt of those in command who sent their soldiers into harm?s way.

People, often people with deep faith, would ask him, 'Is God real?'

'They wanted to make sure that what they believed was true,' Butler said. He assured them it was; that God was.

He is proud that the United States brought healing and the opportunity for an education and a livelihood to people in Iraq who lived in tyranny. But, politics aside, Butler believes it is time for a plan to bring the soldiers home.

'I don?t have the specific answers,' he said. 'But if we?re going to talk about peace, the presence of so many troops may hinder the process.'

Butler also believes that peace ? real peace ? has very little to do with plans put down on paper.

'Peace comes in the heart of an individual,' he said. He prays that peace enters the hearts of men and women in authority.

'Peace begins when hearts are affected,' Butler said. It?s something he prays for ? 'that God will heal the land through the hearts of the people.'

It?s a prayer every American should say, even as we pray for increased understanding and our own pair of heaven-shaded glasses.