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Saturday’s event
sparked a lot of discussion and challenged our ideas about war and
the current confrontation between the United States and Iraq .
One of the speakers, Doug Rokke, Ph. D., described the use of “depleted
uranium” (DU) weaponry. DU ammunition was used in Iraq in 1991
and also in the recent war in Afghanistan . Dr. Doug Rokke is
the Depleted Uranium Project Director who wrote the low level radiation
safety procedures and education guidelines for the U.S. Department
of Defense. He is currently working to inform people of the dangers
of the use of depleted uranium ammunition. You can hear an interview
with Dr. Doug Rokke via either RealAudio format or by downloading
an MP3 file. Go to the “Traprock
Peace Center” web site and follow the link to “Radio interview
w/Doug Rokke” for instructions for the audio.
Feb. 23, 2003 Frances R. Townsend Root River Church of the Brethren
Matthew 7: 12-23 (NRSV) In everything do to others as you would have them do to you; for this is the law and the prophets. Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road is easy that leads to destruction, and there are many who take it. For the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life, and there are few who find it. Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorns, or figs from thistles? In the same way, every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will know them by their fruits. Not everyone who says to me, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. On that day, many will say to me, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophecy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many deeds of power in your name? Then I will declare to them, “I never knew you; go away from me, you evildoers.” Last Sunday after worship I realized that I needed to say something about the expected war with Iraq. I realized that I would not be able to use the scripture I had planned for this week. This stretch of time right now may be a pivotal moment in history. And there is no way the church should ignore that.
What is God’s word for the millions of people who are anxious and afraid right now? What is God’s word for those thousands or millions who may be killed in the next 6 to 8 weeks? And what is God’s word for those who want to go to war? I went yesterday to an event in Rochester that was put on by the Southeast Minnesota Alliance of Peacemakers. It was a Teach-In, a seminar that lasted all afternoon with several very good speakers. There were overlapping sessions with different speakers, some of whom were faith-based. But the ones I listened to were a lawyer and a nuclear scientist who has done work for the military for over 30 years. Right now I want to tell you a little of what I heard and reflect on that information in the light of today’s scripture. What I learned from both the scripture and from the speakers is that war truly is sin. There’s no way around it. First, the scripture . It starts with the golden rule – treat others as you would like them to treat you. I don’t think there is a first-strike provision here, not in terms of destroying your enemy because they might decide to attack you someday. For Jesus, any first-strike would have to be reaching out in love. This passage also talks about how you know the false prophets from the real ones. “By their fruits ye shall know them.” You will know because of how things turn out. If that is true, then we will know who the real peacemakers are by the history they make. Some leaders are claiming that the only way to bring lasting peace to the world is to make war– and they say we will know they were right when the shooting is over. But what is the truth? The Brethren have always said that war is sin. For the Brethren, I guess that would make false prophets of anyone who ever advocates war. Well, what makes it sin? It is sinful to take the life of another person, because only God has the right to do that; anything else disrupts God’s plan. It is sinful to force anyone else to kill somebody, which is what happens when we get someone into the military so they can fight on our behalf. It is sinful to tear apart the world upon which others depend. We hear about farm fields around the world being seeded with land mines and we know that is a sin– taking away people’s ability to live on their own land and be nurtured by it. War is destructive and it causes infinite suffering. It thwarts God’s plans for people and for whole swaths of humanity. That is sin on a massive scale. The speakers yesterday got more specific. They didn’t say, “Now these are the ways in which war is sinful,” but they could have. The most compelling testimony was from Dr. Doug Rokke, former head of the Pentagon’s Depleted Uranium Project. He is a nuclear physicist specializing in health issues. And there are not many people who know more than he does about depleted uranium. Do you know what depleted uranium is? Uranium is a radioactive metal. It is what they use to make atomic bombs with. Depleted Uranium is what they have left over after they extract the particular isotope, or type of it they use in nuclear reactors or to make nuclear bombs with. I always wondered what “depleted” meant, as if it maybe was the non-radioactive part, but that is not true. All uranium is radioactive, and dangerous. This has a half-life of 4.5 billion years. In 4.5 billion years it will be half as dangerous as it is now. So how long until it is safe? I don’t know, maybe 50 billion years. Ten times as long as planet earth has been in existence. You cannot make an atom bomb out of depleted uranium, but it is real, real dangerous just lying around. It is also a heavy metal, like lead, and has effects on the body for that reason too. Although all uranium is radioactive, meaning (to me) that it emits radiation rays and the atoms eventually change to a more stable state, it varies. The "Hottest" isotopes put out more radiation. Also, there are different types of rays. Alpha, beta, gamma, I don't know all of them. The isotope present in depleted uranium doesn't emit the type of rays that Geiger counters measure. It takes special equipment to measure the kind of rays it does emit. So it sounds like some of the radiation effects caused by atomic bombs would not be present with depleted uranium. But it does cause cancer and a host of other physical damage. And it does persist forever, essentially. But uranium is a heavy metal, similar to lead, and so you can use it like lead to make great bullets for antitank rounds, and for rounds shot from attack helicopters. One of uranium’s characteristics is that when it leaves the gun barrel at high speed, it starts to burn. Like modern flaming arrows. And it is really hard, so it penetrates armored vehicles much better than other types of ammunition. And every time they hit, everybody in the tank or car or whatever is dead. Very fast. The antitank rounds are solid rods of uranium about 3/4" by 18" long, weighing about 10 pounds each. When it hits, about 40% of that is turned into a shower of small fragments and dust. The rest is still a solid piece of metal. All deadly dangerous. The rule is that nobody should get within 50 yards of it without a full hazardous materials suit. Do you have any guess how much of this nasty stuff is lying around loose in Iraq and Kuwait now because of the first Gulf war? About 315 tons. And a thousand tons in Afghanistan. And it was also used in Kosovo and Serbia. Test rounds are being fired by the US Navy in the ocean off the state of Washington Thousands and thousands of people are continuing to die from exposure to this stuff. Thousands of gulf war soldiers have died of cancers and other diseases caused by getting this stuff in their systems. Because the uranium catches fire as it leaves the gun barrel, it is leaving a trail of dust, made of uranium oxide, all through the air. Then there is the dust where it hits. It gets in the food and the water as well as the air. It gets inside people. So may fragments of the shells if they are close by and lucky enough not to be killed outright when they hit. People who are exposed will continue to excrete uranium in their urine for years. It is in their bodies. And radiation is coming off it all the time, attacking the cells in the body. This weapon does its job very well during a battle. But it keeps killing the people on both sides of the war. And it never stops. How are they going to do a nuclear decontamination after tons of it has been dropped and turned to dust? And it doesn’t kill only the soldiers on both sides of the war. It kills civilians, and it kills anyone else who lives there for generations and generations. After all, it is not safe to be around for 10 or 20 billion years. And the US military counts on this as one of the cornerstones of the arsenal. And they will continue to do so. And even if they stopped using this one thing, there is always the rest of the environmental destruction that is unleashed. We are so careful with toxic wastes under normal conditions. But what happens when factories are bombed? Who is going to clean up the mess? War is deliberate destruction, and there are too many things that have very long-term consequences on life when they are blown up and spread around. War is not like the old combat
movies anymore. If it was ever heroic, it isn’t anymore. War is
not heroes and villains pitted against one another. I have read
about how awful the Civil War was, because of the way they fought.
When the weapons were arrows or even unreliable, inaccurate muskets,
battles were fought using rows of men standing on opposite sides
of a field and firing at one another. It worked in the 18th century.
But in the 19th century, during the Civil War, the guns were a
lot better. And so the old tactics just produced bloodbaths. You
could kill 10 or 15 thousand men on both sides in one day and still
have a stalemate afterward, no winners. Now the technology of
war has gone many steps further. We can kill, not just a whole generation
of soldiers, not just a whole generation of civilians, but we can
quickly put in place the stuff that will take lives for generations
and generations to come. Today’s war is sin against generations
to come. War is a sin against God and God’s plans for a peaceful,
healed, harmonious world. And war is insanity. Today’s scripture says you
will know the true prophet, the person who speaks for God and does
God’s will, by the results of their labors. If the result of the
labor is destruction and death for generations to come, how can
that be from God? War is raw use of power. It is impressive.
And it is a good thing to want to solve the world’s problems and
get rid of the evil that is in the world. But Jesus said that false
prophets would invoke his name. They would get rid of evil while
claiming his name. And they would do deeds of power claiming his
name. But “by their fruits you shall know them”. If the deeds
of power lead to bad fruit, then Jesus will say, “Depart from me,
you evildoers.” War was sin when it was one man taking the life of another. Now that one war can lead to suffering for countless generations of innocent lives, it is both sin and insanity. It is time for us to pray for peace and march for peace and do everything in our power to keep peace. The lives of people in the gulf depend on keeping peace. So do the lives of all of our service people, who could die because of the weapons they use, quite apart from anything the enemy does. And the lives of generations to come depend on keeping peace. As I said earlier, the times we live in may be pivotal for the world. As followers of Christ, it is time for us to act. War is the traditional, easy solution. The way to peace is trickier to find. Jesus said, “The gate is wide and the road is easy that leads to destruction, and there are many who take it. The gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life, and there are few who find it.” But find it we must. Amen Benediction : Our world is in crisis But in Christ there is hope
for peace, Amen For your reflection. Ezekiel 34: 17-26 (NRSV) As for you, my flock, thus
says the Lord God: I shall judge between sheep and sheep, between
rams and goats: Is it not enough for you to feed on the good pasture,
but you must tread down with your feet the rest of the pasture?
When you drink of clear water, must you foul the rest with your
feet? And must my sheep eat what you have trodden with your feet
and drink what you have fouled with your feet? Therefore, thus says the Lord God to them: I will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep. Because you pushed with flank and shoulder, and butted at all the weak animals with your horns until you scattered them far and wide, I will save my flock and they shall no longer be ravaged; and I will judge between sheep and sheep. I will set up over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he shall feed them; he shall feed them and be their shepherd. And I, the Lord, will be their God and my servant David shall be prince among them; I, the Lord, have spoken. I will make with them a covenant
of peace and banish wild animals from the land, so that they may
live in the wild and sleep in the woods securely. I will make them
and the region around my hill a blessing; and I will send showers
in their season; they shall be showers of blessing. The trees of
the field shall yield their fruit, and the earth shall yield its
increase. They shall be secure on their soil; and they shall know
that I am the Lord, when I break the bars of their yoke and save
them from the hands of those who enslaved them. They shall no more be plunder for the nations, nor shall the animals of the land devour them; they shall live in safety and no one shall make them afraid. |