STATEMENT OF THE SILO PRUNING HOOKS

    War is one of the oldest facts of history. Since the beginning of time, human beings have slaughtered each other in a mindless orgy of greed, power and national pride. Today however, as never before in history, our vast arsenal of nuclear weapons threatens all life on earth, the very existence of God's creation. Surely today, the words of the Lord in Genesis echo in our ears: "Why do you do this terrible thing? The blood of your brother (and sister) cries out to me from the earth!"

In the fertile earth of Missouri, graphically depicted in the movie. The Day After, lies a demonic force of death. Each missile silo conceals the power to destroy millions of lives, and thus, our rich fields have became the final, bloody burial ground for all humanity.

Our Christian faith calls us to accept personal responsibility for ending the cycle of violence which threatens us all. In their Pastoral Letter on War and Peace, the bishops remind us: "Peacemaking is not an optional comitment. It is a requirement of our faith. We are called to be peacemakers.. .by our Lord Jesus. We are called to move from discussion to witness and action." We can no longer bury weapons of mass destruction in God's earth and, with them, bury our conscience and our faith in the nonviolent Christ who proclaimed love of enemy and God's Kingdom of justice and peace. Today, Christians must act as the sentry in Ezekiel to "sound the warning when the sword hangs over the land." Today, Christians must act as peacemakers, "beating swords into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks" (Isaiah), disarming our hearts, our lives and our nation.

Faithful to that mandate, we have cane today to begin the disarmament of one missile silo. In cutting the fence, we remove the barriers to peace symbolized there. In pouring our blood, we expose the murderous intent inherent in the weapon and in our government's war policies. In hammering the silo cover and instruments, we render temporarily useless a weapon of mass murder, and in damaging the warning system, we express our intent to place our trust in the Lord of Life rather than in "gods of metal" (Leviticus).

In so doing, we express our love for our brothers and sisters throughout the world and call upon them to act in conscience to achieve disarmament. We affirm the responsibility of each person to stand firmly in the way of the forces of death with life-giving witness and action. And we pray that, through the grace of God, our act may enflesh the total disarmament of body, mind and spirit to which we are each called.

SOW FOR YOURSELVES JUSTICE AND REAP THE BLESSINGS,

 PLANT NEW GROUND IN PEACE

 FOR IT IS TIME TO SEEK THE LORD.