A Seamless Garment

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?

Nuclear disarmament is a clear moral imperative and we should pray for it. I would argue that prayer is in fact more effective than UN Security Council resolutions which amount to little more than a moralizing patina created by the corrosive dynamics of international politics.
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In reading about the UN Security Council Resolution, my mind was drawn back to a discussion that I had in a Catholic rectory in rural Oklahoma over two decades ago. The parish priest, Father Francis Schenk from Glenmary Home Missioners, was known for his ascetic holiness and commitment to social justice. He had very few personal belongings and had served for extended periods in rural missions in South America. But Father Schenk was certainly no radical in a political sense. In fact, his homilies would rarely touch on political themes and would instead emphasize key elements of Catholic orthodoxy and their intersection with the challenges of living everyday life as a Christian. And so when Father Schenk gave a homily advocating nuclear disarmament, it came as a surprise to many parishioners who associated the position with the nuclear freeze movement and a panoply of other "liberal" causes that challenged policies of the Reagan administration.

Several weeks after Father Schenk's homily, I was sitting at the rectory's kitchen table with parishioners who were waiting while their children were attending Sunday school (CCD in Catholic parlance). The discussion turned to nuclear disarmament, which had become quite a hot topic. Some parishioners pointed to what they understood to be Jesus's rather tolerant attitude toward soldiers as evidence that extreme positions like nuclear disarmament overly simplified the issue of Christian participation in legitimate preparations for self-defense. Others reiterated standard notions of "just war" theory to combat what they understood to be the radical pacifism implied in unqualified opposition to weapons of mass destruction. Still others understood the call to nuclear disarmament as essentially a call to martyrdom since Soviet Union's designs for global dominance seemed both self-evident and unstoppable. I gave one of my self-righteous perorations about Christian radicalism but managed to stop myself after a few minutes when I noticed some honey-glazed donuts tempting me from the nearby kitchen counter.

In retrospect, Father Schenk, and others who called for nuclear disarmament, could not be characterized as "Christian radicals" as my Northeast liberal sensibilities understood matters at the time. Instead, they were simply Christians.

In Catholic circles, the term "seamless garment" is often used to characterize a consistent pro-life ethic that opposes abortion, capital punishment, and the maintenance of nuclear weapons. In their seminal Pastoral Letter on War and Peace (1983), the National Conference of Catholic Bishops argued that "peace is the fruit of order," an order that "must be shaped on the basis of respect for the transcendence of God and the unique dignity of the human person." Proceeding from this principle, nuclear deterrence can only be understood as a "transitional strategy" leading to disarmament. Disarmament is the fundamental goal precisely because peace is more than an absence of war, but a positive condition. The very existence of nuclear weapons reflects a lack of faith in the power of "freedom, justice, truth and love" as necessary prerequisites for enduring peace.

Although it can be argued the threat of global nuclear annihilation has receded since the 1980s, weapons of mass destruction obviously remain a threat to global order. While some maintain that controlled nuclear proliferation actually ensures peace, it is difficult to imagine that inherently fallible human beings will refrain from using the weapons which they themselves have created and believe to be so necessary. In spite of the moralizing language of the UN Resolution, the driving force behind the call to nuclear disarmament seems more pragmatic than ethical: the permanent members of the security council, who have claimed the right of nuclear deterrence for decades, cannot appear to be arbitrarily denying other nation states a similar capability. Inevitably, the cause of nuclear disarmament becomes enmeshed in the very worldly concerns provoked by competition between nation states.

For this reason, prayer is perhaps a more authentic response to nuclear disarmament since it directs human intention to a divine reality that provides the ultimate register of value. This what Father Schenk emphasized during his Sunday homily those many years ago and it is a position no more or less radical than the Christian belief in a crucified God.

By Mathew N. Schmalz  |  September 29, 2009; 3:22 PM ET
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