If not war, then what?

Watch CNN and you can't miss the footage: Protesters - sometimes without a stitch of clothing - using their bodies to spell out "NO WAR" or to create a peace sign on the lawn. You roll your eyes and prepare to dismiss these latest activists.

But then, in church the next day, your minister offers a carefully reasoned sermon about why a US attack on Iraq is morally wanting. No gimmicks, just a clergy member and a congregation searching for the high ground - and coming down on the side of nonviolence - at a time of confusion and fear.

It's easy to wonder if the antiwar movement is ridiculous or sublime. If it's peopled by the anti-Bush left, or thoughtful Americans of all political stripes. If it is strident or reasoned.

The reality is, it's all of the above - and every- thing in between. In adopting a "big tent" philosophy, organizers have welcomed all comers, all shows of support. And their efforts have resulted in the fastest-growing antiwar movement in US history, allowing them to draw crowds the size of which only showed up in the Vietnam era after years of conflict. Its factions include clergy and anarchists, college students and veteran '60s protesters, internationalists and Hollywood celebrities - all united, at least for now, under the No War With Iraq banner.

"A lot of folks are saying, 'You know, isn't it time to find other, perhaps more constructive or creative ways to deal with problems between people? Do we always have to rely on military, and therefore violent, solutions?' " says Leslie Cagan, a veteran organizer and cochair of United for Peace and Justice, a four-month-old coalition.

It's often easier for people to agree on what they don't want - in this case an invasion of Iraq - than it is to reach a consensus on a trickier issue: If not war, then what? Still, interviews with prominent antiwar thinkers and activists indicate a sincere wrestling within the movement over what the nonwar solutions to the Iraq conflict might be.

"How we respond to this threat will shape the kind of people we're going to be. And that's the moral question. How do you not become something terrible in your response to something terrible?" asks Jim Wallis, cofounder of Sojourners, a Christian ministry that focuses on justice and peace.

He and others in the religious community have looked beyond the current chorus of more inspections and containment to offer other alternatives.

Their six-point "Religious Initiative," made public last Friday, includes removing Saddam Hussein from power by establishing an international tribunal and indicting him, letting the world know he has no future. It also suggests enforcing coercive disarmament, including intensified, military-backed inspections and better monitoring of the arms embargo. And it makes demands on foreign policy, asking for a "road map to peace" in the Middle East, one that would make Palestine and Israel separate states, and send the message that a moral and political link exists between the troubles there, the war on terror campaign, and the Iraq situation. (The entire initiative is at sojo.net.)

Such ideas are the result of overwhelming opposition from churches around the US and the world. The religious community reached a consensus much faster on Iraq than it did during the Vietnam era, able to offer the current movement a moral conscience much sooner. With the exception of the Southern Baptists, who generally support President Bush, church leaders from Pope John Paul II to the National Council of Churches in the US have called a war with Iraq "unjust."

"That's never, in my experience or knowledge, happened before, that there's such unity in the churches against this war," Wallis says.

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