A lot has changed since the Cold War, but U.S. nuclear policy has not. In a world where two superpowers no longer wrestle for dominance, the United States has retained a Cold War-level nuclear arsenal, and continues to rely on Cold War-era excuses for doing so.
In their groundbreaking op-ed last January in The Wall Street Journal former secretaries of state George Shultz and Henry Kissinger, former Senator Sam Nunn, and former Defense Secretary William Perry called for the elimination of all nuclear arms. They pointed out that the non-proliferation regime is contingent on a bargain: non-nuclear states agreed not to obtain nuclear weapons, and nuclear states agreed to eventually eliminate theirs.
But the shelf life of the non-proliferation regime is rapidly approaching, because non-nuclear states are increasingly skeptical of the good faith of nuclear states toward fulfilling their disarmament obligations. When their patience finally wears out, we may see an explosion in the number of nuclear-armed states. It will be difficult, if not impossible, to secure or track the proliferation of nuclear material in such a chaotic environment, bringing the prospect of an undeterrable terrorist bomb ever closer.
This means we have two possible futures: widespread proliferation, or bold, unambiguous action toward elimination.
Now that elimination of nuclear weapons is being endorsed as necessary for security and possible scientifically and politically, will we rise to the moral challenge? Will our conviction that the world belongs to God, given to us for our stewardship, stimulate us to raise the vision of a nuclear weapon-free world as a moral imperative? Will our conviction that we are to love both our neighbors and enemies lead us to reject the very existence of nuclear weapons – both for what they could do to us, and for what they might do in our name?
Hope has begun to emerge in the form of a burgeoning consciousness about the moral theological imperative of a nuclear weapon-free world. At the forefront is an organization called Faithful Security, founded by my good friend, the late Rev. William Sloane Coffin. Faithful Security is a multi-faith coalition working to bring the collective moral willpower of America’s faith communities to bear on nuclear weapons elimination. By opposing the false security that relies on nuclear arsenals, supporting security-enhancing measures worldwide, and maintaining a consistent moral standard of a world without nuclear weapons, Faithful Security aims to mobilize religious Americans to “pray with their feet.”
People of faith can help by supporting Faithful Security in the Peace Primary. The online campaign brings together a dozen groups with strategies for making the U.S. and the world safer, including Faithful Security, the American Friends Service Committee and the National Religious Campaign against Torture. (The group receiving the most votes will receive an additional $100,000 from the Ploughshares Fund.)
As Bill Coffin used to say, “Only God has the right to destroy all life on the planet. All we have is the power.” Nuclear weapons are an affront to God. Let us make the world safer—and more faithful—by working toward their elimination.
Rev. Dr. Joan Brown Campbell is the former General Secretary for the National Council of Churches and former Executive Director of the U.S. office of the World Council of Churches. She is currently the Director of the Department of Religion at the Chautauqua Institution, a center for religion, the arts, education and recreation.
