GODS OF METAL PLOWSHARES

Do not turn to idols and do not cast metal gods for yourself. I am Adonai your God.

(Leviticus 19:4)

You shall not have other gods besides Me. You shall not carve idols for yourselves in the shape of anything in the sky above or on the earth below or in the waters beneath the earth;

you shall not bow down before them or worship them.

(Exodus20:3-4)

...they will hammer their swords into plowshares,

their spears into pruning hooks.

Nation shall not lift sword against nation,

no longer will they learn how to make war.

(Isaiah 2:4)

Our apologies, good friends, for the fracture of good order . We could not, so help us God, do otherwise.

For we are sick at heart, our hearts give us no rest...

(Opening words of the Statement of The Catonsville Nine)

THE 20TH CENTURY IS THE BLOODIEST CENTURY THE WORLD HAS EVER KNOWN.

How to break the cycles of violence generally held up as the only possible alternatives?

We ordinary people - grandmother, parish priests, Catholic sisters - we, people of faith, have come to Andrews Air Force Base, MD to the annual Air Show and Open House '98:

to unmask the idolatry of these gods of metal, celebrated in this nuclear liturgy of the Air Show. We publicly and openly offer disarmament, in a sacred liturgy on behalf of life.

to nonviolently and lovingly disarm these weapons of mass murder by enfleshing the imperative of Isaiah, "to hammer swords into plowshares". We plead for the cause of peace with justice and the abolition of war.

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to celebrate God as True Security rather than accept weapons and violence as restorers or maintainers of peace. We pour out our own blood as a sign of our willingness to lay down our lives rather than take life from another.

to announce that weapons and their carriers in space, air, sea and land are in fact idols - gods of metal. Our trust in them amounts to worship. We must not applaud, celebrate, or worship them for they defile all of creation.

We are grateful to the Catonsville Nine, who thirty years ago today burned draft files to awaken us to the immorality of the Vietnam War. In this witness we continue the legacy and tradition of the Catonsville witness.

In doing so we hope to offer the next generation an example of love in action - the alternative to violence meeting violence, the alternative to the fate of "an eye for an eye making the whole world blind." (Gandhi).

We encourage all people of good will to explore similar opportunities to put love into action until justice is established and peace prevails in all the earth.