.by Rev. Bob Johnson
When one takes a day off, usually there are all sorts of projects awaiting. There is this clean-up to do, the project to complete, and errands to be run. This "day off" was the day to clean and organize the basement. This may or may not ever be completed. Pastors, at least this pastor, are notorious for the number of books they have - many of which have been read, but never again referred to, but they remain in the library. To be sure, they do manage to collect dust and weigh a ton when you move them from one place to another. Every once in awhile, however, an old book catches one's eye, perhaps because sound truth is evident, even on the cover.
As I was "sorting" through numerous books I happen on a book titled, "Missile Envy - The Arms Race and Nuclear War," written by Dr. Helen Caldicott. No, she is not a nuclear scientist, but she is a pediatrician (baby doctor). She is also a mother and as she said in 1986, "...writhing with some urgency." She did so remember Neville Shute's book On the Beach which is, as you may recall, a book about what would happen should we have a nuclear war anywhere in the world. The book describes empty streets, a countryside bereft of life, and outdated newspapers blowing vacantly in the wind, all signaling the end of human existence. She says at one point, "Since that time (following the reading of On the Beach), I have never felt protected by the adults around me and have never understood why governments of the world build more nuclear weapons."
Sixteen years have passed and nuclear weapons and the threat of nuclear weapons helped by a "Mad Man" are once again on the agenda of the world. War is a real possibility, or should I say, another war is a possibility. As I read, I couldn't help but have the same uneasy feeling, the same 'dread" she.had. I had felt this "funny feeling" in the pit of my stomach for quite a while now, and I wondered what it was about. Personally, that is with the exception of the downward slump the stock market, all other things seemed to be going along fairly well. As I read, I couldn't help but think that somehow the Lord had led me to an answer, an answer I was not expecting.
Do you eel uneasy, uncertain, perhaps a bit fearful as you listen to the news of impending war? I know, I know, we have to confront such people as Saddam Hussein. Persons like him and others certainly cannot go unchallenged. Evil must be dealt with but what is the best pattern of action or behavior? I have to wonder what it is about war that seems to captivate one's entire thinking. Do we believe we can always win by simply carrying a bigger stick (more bombs, more nuclear weapons)?
Dr. Caldicott states that we are a planet that is terminally ill, infected by lethal macrobes (nuclear weapons) that are metastasizing rapidly, the way a cancer spreads in a body. Is such a judgment true? And if it is, where are the "people-of-good-will" hiding out and why aren't they speaking up? Perhaps we should all listen again to the words of another leader from another time in our own political arena - as well as the world political arena. He said: "Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children...this is not o a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron."
Are you wondering who wrote this? Well he was the supreme allied commander of the army in Europe during the WW II and the 34th president of the United States: The Honorable Dwight D. Eisenhower wrote these words.
Since January 2001 we have moved from a nation with a $100 billion surplus to a nation with a $300 billion deficit today. War seems to blind us to joblessness, need for better social security, corporate malfeasance, and of course, who could be unaware of the drop in the stock market. Perhaps we should listen again to Isaiah's plea to beat spears (weapons) into plow shares(creative instruments of peace).
What do you think?
Do you have a question or a statement? Send email to Pastor Bob Johnson at
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