Faith communities need to speak out on nuclear weapons

President Eisenhower said every missile fired represents in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed. Our religious leaders have called for nuclear weapons elimination. See: wagingpeacetoday.blogspot.com/p/nuclear-quotes.html. Still both major U.S. political parties have supported trillions of dollars to update and expand them and move the world closer to nuclear war. We urgently need people of conscience to say no! This needs to come from us “in the pews” as well as from our religious leaders.

Take for example words of Pope Francis that continue a consistent condemnation of nuclear weapons by popes since 1943 (before nuclear weapons were developed): “We must therefore commit ourselves to a world without nuclear weapons, by fully implementing the Non-Proliferation Treaty, both in letter and spirit…” Or, “…the ultimate goal of the total elimination of nuclear weapons becomes both a challenge and a moral and humanitarian imperative.”

Pope Francis points out nuclear deterrence is ineffective against threats in the 21st Century such as terrorism, asymmetrical conflicts, cybersecurity, environmental problems, and poverty. He adds the international community must consider “the catastrophic humanitarian and environmental consequences” that would follow from any use of nuclear weapons.

The U.N. is working on eliminating nuclear weapons in a Non-Proliferation Treaty recently signed by 122 nations but the U.S. opposes it and will continue to expand nuclear weaponry unless people of conscience and faith speak up and require their elimination.

This story was originally published July 26, 2017 at 5:58 PM with the headline "Faith communities need to speak out on nuclear weapons."