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God's Will and Nuclear Arms
Q: Reacting in part to recent missile tests by Iran and North Korea, President Obama and a unanimous UN Security Council last week endorsed a sweeping strategy to halt the spread of nuclear weapons and ultimately eliminate them. Is nuclear disarmament a religious issue? Is it a pro-life issue? Is support for nuclear disarmament a moral imperative? Should we pray for nuclear disarmament?
As I listened to President Obama talk to the United Nations Security Council last week, I prayed. The president has never changed his cadence: the strength of this world is in how it finds a way to bridge commonalities, not concentrate on differences. His is an altruistic vision of people working together, based on mutual respect and trust. The problem is, there is way too little of either.
The president endorsed a sweeping strategy to halt the spread of nuclear weapons; he wants ultimately to eliminate them. Weapons like that in the hands of the wrong people would mean the end of the world as we know it.
Yet, as much as some nations and some individuals may want such a strategy, which would include nations signing treaties to halt production of nuclear weapons, I doubt that it will be a reality, and I am afraid that the president is going to be labeled "weak" as he pushes for diplomacy and morally imperative behavior on this issue.
As soon as he gave his speech, Iran, under the direction of Ahmadinejad, fired a weapon. North Korea has no intention of halting or reducing their nuclear weapons production. Even if they said they were going to halt such production, nobody would believe them.
So, the problem and issue of distrust sits right in the middle of the change that Mr. Obama is trying to effect. If the truth be told, it's not only us and other nations which don't trust each other, other nations do not trust us, either. Just because someone signs on a dotted line declaring he or she is going to do or not do something does not mean that promise will be kept. History has shown us that. The tendency to break covenant is apparent on personal levels as well.
The issue is that having nuclear weapons gives nations a sense of power and everyone wants power. More specifically, there are nations that want to wrest power from the United States. Part of the posturing being done by North Korea and Iran is for that reason. They want the world to know that they are on their way up, and nobody, not even the big U.S. of A, will stop them.
This issue of nuclear weapons, though, is about so much more than power. It is, in fact, a pro-life and a religious issue. The detonation of a single nuclear weapon would devastate an entire populace. Surely, people who believe in God believe in the sanctity of life. Surely, God-loving and God-fearing people would think that to even think about decimating a populace would be morally wrong.
Religious people are fond of saying that they should not be involved in politics, but the fact of the matter is that in matters of power and greed, the only variable that might make people stop and think is God. The God of love that we learned about in Sunday School still exists, and that God would not condone or endorse mass destruction of people.
God has not condoned it up to this point. I cannot believe that God condoned dropping the bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I cannot believe that God condoned any genocide done by any nation. It is when the righteous are silent that mass destruction of God's created beings takes place, which tells me that the righteous, i.e., those in right relationship with God, ought to be a force, a tangible, audible force in these very dangerous times. I have said it over and over: to be "pro-life," one has to care about more than a fetus. One has to care about the people already alive, who are struggling to make a living or who run the risk of being totally destroyed by corrupt, greedy and power-seeking nations.
Religious people, the so-called righteous, are called to stand in the breach and demand justice and compassion.
I doubt very much that this dream of Mr. Obama's is going to blossom, not unless there is a groundswell of protest and participation by those of all denominations who say they love God. If we, the religious, cannot make our voices heard and impact policy so much as to change the course of dangerous policy at such a time as this, what good are we?
I don't think we are supposed to be clanging cymbals.
I think we are supposed to remind people that this is God's world, after all.
By
Susan K. Smith
|
September 29, 2009; 12:42 PM ET
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Posted by: paarsurrey | October 1, 2009 8:45 PM
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Dr.Smith, as usual, your commentary is profound. It sseems that this president not respected where ever he turns. Such difficult decisions knowing when to hold and when to fold.
I feel that he must stand strongly, boldly and aggressively for his beliefs and not back down which I feel people respect in th long run
Posted by: w4joy6203 | October 1, 2009 12:30 PM
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Hey Rev Sue:
You are right on my porch today! The altruistic aspirations of Mr. Obama are again met by entrenched sneers of naysayers and disingenuous seekers of power--especially the yet to be United States of America! The shell game goes on during the peace accord signings and the ink continues to disappear after it dries. It is the preferred window-dressing of a world fooled by its own teflon lies.
Power is and always has been the seductive seed of destruction. The moment it is seized another seeks to take it away. Power is not a word with which morality can co-exist. Perhaps one can seem to have the power to appear moral--politics holds all the Oscars for this. It (politics) is after all, the art of the possible. I believe those who believe the church should stay out of it have become what Dr. King called irrelevant social clubs, anesthetized by stained glass of sun-kissed sanctuaries. I'm glad Jesus worked outside of the sanctuary! Perhaps Mr. Obama's community organizer skills inform this altruism--there he had to bring polar opposites to the table. However, the world has yet to become the beloved community a few have sought. As a world we are dancing dangerously towards presiding at our own funeral. The coffin of nuclear disarmament is yet empty and the flowers and tributes thus far are artificial and not deliverable. There are far too many making tributes to a death that has not happened and a deceased we do not really know--it is a long and boring parade of meaningless condolences.
Ozzie Smith
Posted by: jr4111checkitout | September 30, 2009 9:20 AM
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Unfortunately as you stated, President Obama seems to be walking into an either/or trap with Iran: convince China and Russia to back tougher sanctions on Iran that are not likely to persuade the regime of Tehran to give up its nuclear program or engage in military action that would not put a permanent end to Iran's nuclear ambitions but could destabilize the region (especially Iraq).
What to do?
Galileo said, "I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use."
I am praying for our President and those in every nation that will be faced with the difficult decisions ahead.
I am praying that people of faith stand up in the face of opposition and participate in protest.
I an praying....we all us our God given sense, reason, and intellect.
Posted by: tyson41 | September 29, 2009 2:23 PM
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Hi friends
God did not create the nukes. It is the men who did it. God wants peace in the world. Men should reverse their wrongdoing.
I love Jesus and Mary as mentioned in Quran.
Thanks
I am an Ahmadi peaceful Muslim