This August marks 80 years since the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In the latest issue of Sojourners magazine, Jonathan Frerichs, longtime peace advocate and Pax Christi International’s representative for disarmament at the United Nations in Geneva, reflects on how nuclear weapons, the first existential threat created entirely by humanity, continue to endanger life on Earth.
Frerichs explores how Christian communities have responded prophetically to this crisis for decades, from apologies by Indigenous communities in Canada, to bold treaty work in Africa, to the Vatican’s unwavering moral stance.
The twin existential threats of nuclear weapons and climate change interact dangerously. The production and upkeep of its nuclear arsenal helps make the U.S. military one of the largest institutional polluters in the world. Addressing the destructive entanglement of nuclear threats, environmental degradation, and climate instability invites prophetic imagination and practical commitments to increase our collective actions for peace.
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