By H.E. Dr. Mustafa Cerić, The Grand Mufti of Bosnia and Herzegovina and a Co-President of the Religions for Peace World Council; Rev. Dr. Michael Kinnamon, General Secretary National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA; and Dr. William F. Vendley, Secretary General of Religions for Peace.
Our future is vested in the diplomats from 189 countries who will gather at the United Nations this month to review the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Enforcing this forty-year-old treaty is vitally important. Controlling nuclear weapons will not only make us all safer; it is also a key to addressing other modern crises such as climate change and extreme poverty. Why?
Religions provide answers.
It is no surprise that nuclear technology magnifies the impact of human flaws. The Islamic and Christian traditions acknowledge the human proclivity for evil. But their religious convictions about human sinfulness are paired with faith in the goodness of God's authority. In both traditions, God's authority is definitive. Muslims are practitioners of Islam -- literally, peaceful submission to God. Christians are disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ. Other world religions have their own ways to speak about such matters.
The ethical consequence is that to be human is to be responsible to God. Where humanity tends to be selfish and violent, proud and wasteful, the fact that we are under God's authority calls us to humility and stewardship, and to peace based on a wisdom greater than narrow individual or national self-interests.
Nuclear weapons are the rejection of humanity under God; they have placed a power previously imagined as God's alone in our collective grasp. Possessing them, we claim the globe as acceptable collateral for our interests. The atomic scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer -- witnessing the power of the atomic bomb he had helped to unleash and borrowing in his own way from the Bhagavad Gita, writings sacred to the Hindu tradition -- called out ruefully, "Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds." Religious leaders of all faiths must work together to reject this terrifying "theology" of nuclear weapons. If we are beings under the authority of God, we dare not arrogate to ourselves the authority to destroy all life.
Nearly a century ago, an assassin's bullet triggered the First World War; today, the same human impulse could ignite a chain reaction that ends life on earth. Observers of history note that the threat of global annihilation prevented nuclear conflict during the Cold War. But this reprieve is not a prescription for future planning. Participants in the Cuban Missile Crisis share that the world escaped catastrophe by luck, not planning.
Nuclear weapons cannot be managed in an impromptu fashion. Acknowledging God's authority demands a corollary passion for an "architecture" for controlling nuclear weapons. This architecture is the NPT, first negotiated in the late 1960s. Then, the nations of the world officially recognized that they have more to lose collectively from nuclear weapons than any nation has to gain individually. That conviction gave rise to the three-fold pledge at the core of the NPT: 1) the nuclear powers pledge to pursue disarmament in good faith; 2) the non-nuclear powers agree not to acquire their own arsenals; and 3) all parties are guaranteed the right to peaceful nuclear power. At its core is the vision of a world without nuclear weapons. All nations must honor and enforce these principles. And in today's world both nuclear and non-nuclear nations must focus on the increasing nuclear threats posed by non-state actors.
Other global crises -- such as environmental degradation and extreme poverty -- also share, despite their differences, some similar characteristics with the threat of nuclear proliferation. The problem with each of them is the problem with all of them: human power has outpaced morality and placed itself above responsibility to the Divine, the Ground of Life. But because there is no arena of human action that is not to be disciplined by God's sovereignty, our religious traditions teach us that our ever-growing technological capacity to affect the entire globe carries with it the imperative of a global moral response. While this moral response must arise from individual human hearts, it must also be translated into effective laws and international agreements.
It is time to balance power with morality. We must begin by committing to the goals of the NPT. By doing so, we will foster the kind of global responsibility that can help us -- God willing -- to address the other self-made crises of our time.
H.E. Dr. Cerić, Rev. Dr. Kinnamon, and Dr. William F. Vendley are leaders in Religions for Peace, a multi-religious coalition advancing common action among the world's religious communities for peace.
Tri Robinson: Why Evangelicals Should Join the Fight Against Nuclear Proliferation
Rev. Tyler Wigg-Stevenson: Hiroshima and the Transfiguration: A Meditation
Skye Jethani: Global Christianity and a Concern for the Poor
Rev. Donald Heckman: Honoring the Dead: A Military Son's Christian Proposal for Peace
Religion is an opinion on how that can be done in a collective fashion.
Opinions usually differ on the best ways to do this.
-J. Robert Oppenheimer at Los Almos while witnessing the explosion, quoting from the Hindu holy book, the Bhagavad Gita:
"... Again I tell you, it is easier for a rope to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man [made rich by usury] to enter the Kingdom of Yahweh."
Just because people call themselves Christian doesn't make them followers of Christ's teachings.
"That is a gross mistranslation.
'... Again I tell you, it is easier for a rope to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man [made rich by usury] to enter the Kingdom of Yahweh.'"
I thought the Talmud used the image of an elephant going through the eye of a needle, and that Jesus, in three of the Gospels, spoke of a camel going through the eye of a needle. Rope is a new one on me.
Perhaps the most Christian thing to do is become an environmentalist.
Just throwing that out there as a possibility to mull over.
"The stories told in the days of Christ were rich with symbolism and metaphor."
Theological interpretations of the Bible have always been rich with... something.
Having the power to destroy cities, and the whole world!,
Nuke operators have the power to distribute invisible deadly poisons into the environments, that will kill some people but 10-20 years from now: The Perfect Mass Murder.
Because of the danger, Nuke operators can have private military forces, authorized to use deadly force.
Nukes are an insane lust for god like power.
Solar wind and bio fuels are cheaper, clean, safe, and forever.
Solar wind and waste bio fuels can completely replace all fossil and nukes in 12 years at it';s current 50-100% growth rate.
Solar and wind are 3-6 cents per KWH
and waste Bio Fuels are cheaper than dumping.
I am a bigger fan of rooftop solar, since it is now so cheap it is profitable almost everywhere. 2$ per installed Wp.
In fact, studies show that the more secular a society, the higher it scores on a whole range of what are generally considered "moral" values. Consistently strong correlation. Studies on individuals comparing atheists to theistic religious believers also show that there is no evidence that atheists are more "immoral". There is little statistical difference on the individual level, and, where it exists, it favors the atheists.
Finally, historical evidence shows that every single one of the "moral principles" attributed to various religions has earlier appearances in non-religious, and certainly nontheistic contexts.
It is unfortunate that someone so clearly dedicated to a more peaceful world, feels the need to articulate it in such a prejudiced, exclusionary way.
We all share common human values. Religion more often gets in the way of finding common ground than helping promote it, particularly given the thousands of variants all shouting that they are the True One.
I would wager they would never agree.
Because my Bible tells me so...
"Never again will they hunger; never again will they thirst. The sun will not beat upon them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd; he will lead them to springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes."
Besides is a God who is busting up the place as some say He is in Revelation really saving us?
Huh! You are joking, right? This is a satire of religious thought...no?
There is no humility in any religious leader I have seen recently and rather than stewardship; most declare we have the right as God's supreme creation to exploit everything; and everyone for that matter! And Peace...onward Christian, Muslim, Jewish soldiers killing the "other" and of course their Abrahamic brothers who fail to realize their cult is wrong-headed about God and the proper way to worship him! To be sure, humanity would have a much greater contentment if Abraham had been smothered in his crib!
In terms of those who call themselves "Christians", quite a few aren't Christ Followers. They go to church for social reasons or familial expectations.
Of those who do believe in Jesus, few are focused on the two commands he gave us. If we followed those two commands - we would take better care of one another...and our planet. Too often we let human wants get in the way of how we are called to live. Even true believers are ultimately human beings who will continuously screw up...as human beings are known to do.