77-12 Position Paper on Nuclear Arms and the Person
Taken together, persons throughout the world make up the global human community. Within this community are many smaller families, families with names like American, Namibian, Chinese, Russian, Hebrew, Arab, etc. These families, in turn, are made up of smaller units still—individual members known as persons: persons who live, think, and feel just as we members of LSM-USA do; persons who have friends, lovers, parents, and children. In short, persons who face problems, celebrate joys and live as you and I do.
Jesus values persons—the young and old, rich and poor, of all races. He is concerned about them as individuals—not only as Samaritans or as Levites or as a family or a nation. We too, should follow his example, recognizing the person-hood of people throughout the world.
We live in a nation that is in possession of the most powerful destructive force in the world—nuclear weapons. The horrendous power of these weapons was demonstrated in World War II with the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan. These weapons were used against the Japanese, and resulted in the death of tens of thousands of persons. The people killed were considered as Japanese, rather than as persons. This is contrary to the example of Jesus, whose life affirmed the supreme value of us all as unique individuals.
The massive destructive power of nuclear weapons carries with it the inevitable consequences of using them only against a large number of people who are categorized as the Japanese or the Russians or the Jews or the Arabs, etc. The casual acceptance of the existence and use of nuclear weapons by members of LSM-USA forces us to consider those living in the world not as persons, but as a categorized, non-human entity known as the Russians or the Arabs or the Communists, etc. These weapons cause us as individuals and as a nation to deny those people their right to existence as persons, a concept vitally important in the ministry of Jesus.
In addition, the simple existence of nuclear weapons is justified by the rationalization that we need them so that others will not use them against us. This also implies that we are thinking in a “we” versus “they” or “one nuclear power” versus “another nuclear power” frame of reference rather than considering ourselves and members of other nations as unique and important individuals.
1) That LSM-USA recognize that the casual acceptance of the existence or use of nuclear weapons contributes to our denial of the essential person-hood of people throughout the world. The mere existence of these weapons promotes the concept of the existence of Communists or Capitalists, Russians or Americans; but not Persons.
2) That students hearing or reading this position paper consider the points included in the background section and use them to re-evaluate their own opinion about the existence of nuclear weapons.
+ A resource file has been started at the national office on this issue.
+ The United Nations held a special session on disarmament during May and June of 1978.