Two summers ago, a meeting was called in Washington, D.C., for those interested in organizing a protest of the Air Force Association's annual weapons exposition to be held at the Sheraton Washington Hotel that September. Two of us showed up. It was a small beginning.
This September, hundreds of people from the Washington area will come to the Sheraton Washington for a week to show their opposition to what has become known as the arms bazaar. It will be the third straight year that local people have gathered to say that the Air Force Association's arrogant display of nuclear weapons will not go on in this town without a voice being raised. The effort to shut down the arms bazaar has become a foundation of a grassroots movement for peace in the Washington, D.C. area. This movement, centered in the churches and actively supported by many local pastors, brought out almost 1,000 people last year. Next month we expect even more for a week of prayer, leafletting, and civil disobedience.
Our experience here in Washington is occurring also in many other places. Though still in the early stages, a discernible public movement against nuclear weapons can now be seen. Certainly it is no longer possible to deny that the dangerous escalation of the nuclear arms race has begun to catalyze the faith of many Christians and has the potential to spark a historic outpouring of Christian conscience.
For several years, each August issue of Sojourners has commemorated the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by publishing the testimony of someone who has turned against the nuclear arms race because of Christian faith. Two years ago we interviewed Billy Graham on his change of heart on nuclear weapons. Last year, George Zabelka, the chaplain to the crew that dropped the Hiroshima bomb, told why he has devoted his life to peace.
This month we are grateful to have an interview with Martin Niemoeller, a major figure in the Christian resistance to Adolf Hitler and Nazism. In recent years, Niemoeller has been very involved in protest against the nuclear arms race and has compared contemporary public acceptance of nuclear weapons to the apathetic atmosphere that surrounded the rise of the Third Reich. His words today are as wise as they were in the 1930s and 1940s.
Also featured this month is an article by Mernie King telling how and why Christians are establishing a prayerful presence for peace at nuclear installations all across the country.
Finally, in this issue we introduce the New Abolitionist Covenant. It has grown out of months of prayer and deliberations among a number of Christian groups devoted to peacemaking. The hope of Christians joining together in a relationship of "covenant" for the sake of peace is, we think, full of promise. The covenant and the story behind it begin on page 17.
With an administration committed to a policy of unrestrained military buildup at the expense of the poor, the followers of the Prince of Peace must become more and more visible. The peace of Christ is a gift. It is ours to receive and share in a world so desperately in need of it. The next few months will see many of us again acting for peace. May we find the courage, strength, and support for our many witnesses and, above all, may the peace of Christ rule in our hearts.
Jim Wallis was editor-in-chief of Sojourners when this article appeared.
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