In May, 1981, the Fourth Assembly of the Pacific Conference of Churches (PCC) met in Nuku'alofa, Tonga, and called upon the churches of the South Pacific to "continually review...and take appropriate actions in regard to nuclear issues and the interrelated issues of colonialism." The statement from Nuku'alofa was short and to the point:
We reaffirm our commitment to a nuclear-free Pacific. As Christian people committed to stewardship, justice, and peacemaking, we oppose and condemn the use of the Pacific for the testing, storage, and transportation of nuclear weapons and weapons delivery systems; the disposal of radioactive wastes; and the passage of nuclear-powered submarines and ships....
Further, as Christian people we are concerned about the colossal investment required for nuclear armaments and nuclear power, and urge the investment of our limited resources towards total human development, particularly for poor and rural communities, and for alternative safe and renewable sources of energy.
The people of the Pacific islands are aware of the nuclear powers' past, present, and proposed future use of their land, sea, and air, and they feel caught. One old woman in the village of Ngardmau, Palau, said, "In the second world war many of our people died. It was not our war. We do not wish to be at war with any people. And we do not wish to have anybody else's war fought on our land again."
Baiteke Nabetari, general secretary of the Pacific Conference of Churches, expressed similar feelings in a March, 1983 letter to French President Francois Mitterand referring to France's continued testing of nuclear warheads on Mururoa Atoll in Polynesia:
We are deeply concerned and hurt that, in spite of our requests and strong protests, including the one recently made by the Evangelical Church of French Polynesia, and those of other governments, including the South Pacific governments, as well as other anti-nuclear activist groups, you are still adamant and would not give heed to our cry!
In the name of the Almighty God, and for the safety of our people in the Pacific who so much depend on the God-given land, sea and air for their livelihood, and on behalf of the churches in the Pacific, we plead with you:
Please do everything possible to stop nuclear testing in French Polynesia and, for that matter, in any other part of the world.
Pacific church people have been directly affected by nuclear presence since 1946 when the people of Bikini were moved off their island for U.S. nuclear testing. This move was accomplished by the U.S. military governor's appeal to the religious motivation of the Bikini people. He compared the Bikinians to the children of Israel who had been saved from the enemy and led into the promised land. He told them that the testing was "for the good of mankind and to end all world wars."
The people, through their chief, responded: "If the United States government and the scientists of the world want to use our island and atoll for furthering development, which with God's blessing will result in kindness and benefit to all mankind, my people will be pleased to go elsewhere." The Bikini people are in exile from their land to this day.
The church began to raise its voice in 1967, when the YWCA and Student Christian Movement in Suva, Fiji, began Against Testing on Mururoa (ATOM). In 1969 the churches, trade unions, and the Pacific Theological College, as well as the students at the University of the South Pacific in Fiji, coordinated a mass rally at which church leaders spoke out against French nuclear testing in the atmosphere over Mururoa. In 1974, as the People's Treaty for a Nuclear-Free Pacific was being prepared for ratification at the first Nuclear-Free Pacific Conference, the PCC passed resolutions opposing atmospheric testing as well as the testing of missiles and delivery systems.
The churches of the South Pacific reached a turning point in 1978 when the Pacific Conference of Churches Secretariat submitted a strong declaration and program for action to the churches and the United Nations Special Session on Disarmament. At the same time, the PCC and the Pacific People's Action Front jointly sponsored a second Nuclear-Free Pacific Conference in Ponape.
Yet without political and economic independence from the nuclear powers, it has been difficult for indigenous churches to speak unambiguously on the nuclear issues. In Micronesia, still a U.S.-administered U.N. trust territory, the United Church of Christ (UCC) 1980 Consultation approved a resolution associating itself with the call for a nuclear-free Pacific. It opposed French nuclear testing and the Japanese-proposed nuclear waste-dumping schema, and urged the United States to deal justly and adequately with the victims of the U.S. post-World War II atomic testing program. However, nothing was said about the U.S. missile testing program at Kwajalein or the nuclear provisions in the proposed Compact of Free Association between the United States and the three Micronesian entities, of which Palau had voted strongly in favor of a nuclear-free constitution.
In the summer and fall of 1982, some Marshallese engaged in Operation Homecoming on Kwajalein, an attempt to pressure the U.S. government to return their land. The local UCC pastor spoke about the nuclear weapons testing taking place on Kwajalein: "I personally think it is not the will of God, for God is love."
Other direct challenges have come from the churches to the U.S. military. In a September, 1979 statement, the Roman Catholic bishop of the Caroline and Marshall Islands spoke of the U.S. obligation to Micronesia under its trusteeship agreement: "To discharge this obligation honestly and straightforwardly, the U.S. Government will always have to subordinate whatever military interest it has in the area to its concern for the well-being of the Micronesian people. This is the very least that can be expected of the U.S."
And in August, 1982, the Evangelical Church of French Polynesia went on record demanding: "There shall be no more nuclear tests on Mururoa, and no more nuclear waste dumped in the Pacific, and the armament race will be stopped all over the world."
The movement toward independence in the Pacific has brought with it independent and critical theological reflection within the churches. The PCC's advocacy of a nuclear-free Pacific is based on both biblical and traditional understandings of stewardship. This commitment also grows out of the common experience of being islanders. Land is a scarce and precious, indeed sacred, resource. Traditionally, the land is carefully managed in order to supply simple food, clothing, and shelter. For most people the sea is never out of sight, and its produce is essential for life.
A French Polynesian pastor stated, "The message that must come from the Pacific to the whole world is that we know how to manage creation." Lorine Tevi, former general secretary of the PCC, affirms that "life is a God-given right. We are stewards of our environment. Scientific pursuits should always be means, not ends, and they should be subject to people's priorities."
The biblical themes of creation affirm the Pacific peoples' traditional belief in the integral relationship between human beings and nature. Suliana Siwatibau, a Pacific Christian, has said: "Our ancestors and chiefs left us ecologically balanced island systems and a set of rules by which to manage them. Certain of these practices...have died out as we have lost the old reverence for nature. Our societies have adopted the
scientific-technological civilization which accompanied Christianity to our lands. This 'civilization' has also brought nuclear power and its dangers."
In a Bible study session on Psalm 8, a Polynesian elder was animated in his concern: "The Rahui [the king] would decide when there was to be a stop to killing of pigs or fishing or less planting in order to let nature recover. We are the ones who love our land and know how to manage it; expel [the colonial powers] and go back to our old rules of chief and king. It seems closer to God's word for us."
Since 1974 when he first appeared before the Trusteeship Council at the United Nations, Father Walter Lini, prime minister of the newly independent Vanuatu, has linked the concern for independence with the need for the removal of all colonial attitudes from the South Pacific islands. Time and again he has argued for Britain and France to heed the call of the church and people for decolonization: "To be granted a free and unfettered political determination is a principle we shall not abdicate. We shall advocate and strive with equal conviction to ensure that our Pacific Ocean be free from nuclear contamination through the practice of dumping nuclear waste or the testing of nuclear devices."
Today in the emerging independent Pacific, Fa'a Pacific (the Pacific Way) is being championed. Pacific islanders are acting on the common values learned from and nurtured by widely scattered, yet individually closely bonded, island Christian communities. Rev. Leslie Boseto of the Solomon Islands calls this "our regional context founded on communal solidarity." Boseto continues:
The Pacific Ocean is not merely sea. It is part of our human environment. It must not be taken by the powerful nations as an ocean without people....
It appears that those whose environments have been technologized...are no longer dependent on the power of human love, human sensitivity, human ability. Our communal solidarity can challenge any power which builds its security on temporary, insecure, and unstable, fearful hearts by using technology for its defender.
Our theology must be the expression of God's gift of our communal responsibility. The ultimate power which no one, no power in heaven and on earth, will be able to destroy, to defeat, is love (Romans). The Pacific island nations will never become super-powerful. However, we can become super-powers in terms of communal solidarity within our society of human relationships.
The Pacific churches are reflecting on their unique contribution to the world community. They are guiding their people to speak with their own governments and with the nuclear powers. And they are speaking to us, the church people whose countries are the nuclear powers. The PCC has called on the American churches to challenge our government's policies, its military buildup, and the nuclear madness which threatens not only the Pacific and its people, but the whole human community.
In a recent World Council of Churches (WCC) visit to the Marshall Islands, the local people asked the WCC team to "yell out" about the radiation victims' plight. The elderly woman in Ngardmau, Palau, well expressed the common hope: "Perhaps the American people will understand and tell their government leaders we do not want the bombs to be here. The American people can help us in our struggle for peace and self-determination."
Barbara Glendon, O.S.U., was a staff consultant for the Focus on Micronesia Coalition, a group of Catholic religious orders and Protestant denominations concerned about U.S. policy in Micronesia, when this article appeared. William Coop was a Presbyterian minister and associate executive for Christian education of the Presbytery of Hudson River when this article appeared, and had previously been director of in-service training for the Pacific Council of Churches and Christian education consultant to the churches of the South Pacific.
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