Over the years various religious leaders and organizations, at home and abroad, have denounced the possession, construction and threatened use of nuclear weapons. A statement just released by the National Council of Churches and Pax Christi is only the latest in a long line of such warnings The U.S. should take the lead by cutting back dramatically on its still vast nuclear arsenal. As the Rev. Dr. William Sloane Coffin. Jr. has written: "The United States doesn't have to lead the world -- it has first to join it. Then, with greater humility, it can play a wiser leadership role." The problem of nuclear weapons is still the overriding crisis of our time.
Nuclear Weapons 'Immoral,' Say Religious, Scientific Leaders
Published on Tuesday, March 9, 2004 by OneWorld.net
by Jim Lobe
WASHINGTON -- An international group of religious and scientific leaders Monday launched an appeal to the United States and all other nuclear states to pledge never to use nuclear weapons and re-affirm their commitments to achieving total nuclear disarmament.
The appeal, signed by the head of the U.S. National Council of Churches (NCC) and the president of the international Catholic peace group, Pax Christi, and 74 others--including four Nobel laureates--declared such weapons to be "inherently immoral" and expressed particular concern over U.S. plans to develop of a new generation of nuclear bombs. ...
"My prognosis is, if nothing changes and Bush is re-elected, within ten or 20 years, there will be no life on the planet, or little," [Helen Caldicott] said. "It's good to use the words 'sin' and 'evil' (in this context)," she added. "It is true that it is evil to have power to destroy life on Earth."
Marie Dennis, who serves on the executive committee of Pax Christi International, noted that U.S. Catholic Bishops' Conference recently endorsed a global ban on nuclear weapons as a policy goal and called on the U.S. to issue a no-first-use policy on their use. As recently as one year ago in the run-up to the Iraq War, the Bush administration refused to do so.