At my church, Dayspring Church in Germantown (Maryland), a member faith community of Church of the Saviour, we have a Peace and Justice Candle brought to us by a member who was a Methodist pastor in South Africa and active in the struggle against apartheid. The Peace and Justice Candle is a candle surrounded by barbed wire. The barbed wire symbolizes something that is an obstacle to the Beloved Community, and the flame of the candle symbolizes the light of Christ shining in the darkness. Each Sunday, someone offers a reflection and lights the Peace and Justice Candle. This is my reflection offered on December 15, 2024. – Bill Samuel
Today, the barbed wire represents the threat of nuclear war with its potential to destroy civilization. The candle represents the light of Christ calling on us to live the ways of peace.
For some time now, arms control experts and peace advocates have been warning of the danger of the escalation of both major wars for which the U.S. is the major supplier of armaments into nuclear war. The greater potential seems to lie in the war between Russia and Ukraine, also known as the NATO proxy war against Russia. Russia and the United States together have about 90% of the nuclear warheads in the world today.
Earlier in the war between Russia and Ukraine, President Biden put up some guardrails to limit the dangers of escalation of the war. These guardrails were the U.S. refusal to provide some more advanced weapons to Ukraine and the prohibition of the use of U.S. weapons in attacks on Russian soil. Over time, the Biden Administration has lowered these guardrails, providing more and more advanced weapons to Ukraine and allowing them to be used to attack targets in Russia.
The U.S. now provides ATACMS missiles to Ukraine. These are powerful long-range guided missiles. On November 19, Biden authorized Ukraine to use these missiles against targets inside Russia. In response, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed off on a revised Russian nuclear war doctrine allowing the use of nuclear weapons in response to a conventional attack against Russia by a non-nuclear state backed by a nuclear power. Russia has repeatedly warned that it might use nuclear weapons against Ukraine under this new doctrine. The CIA has told the White House and Members of Congress in briefings that it believes the threat to be credible. On November 20, Rear Admiral Thomas Buchanan, the Director of Plans for the Strategic Command, told an audience that the Biden Administration was ready to engage in a nuclear conflict with Russia.
After being authorized to do so, Ukraine immediately began using ATACMS missiles against targets in Russia, using intelligence information provided by the U.S. In response, Russia began retaliating using the new Oreshnik intermediate-range missile. This missile is nuclear-capable, but to date, Russia’s attacks on Ukraine with it have used a new, novel conventional warhead. On November 27, the Russian Chief of Staff called the Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff to inform him that Russia was prepared to use the Oreshnik missile on locations outside Ukraine. Some experts believe that Russia has delayed using nuclear warheads on its Oreshnik missiles to see how the incoming Trump Administration would behave.
During the Presidential campaign, President-elect Donald Trump warned that Biden’s belligerent actions risked starting a nuclear war with the potential for worldwide destruction. He also promised that, if elected, he would begin to work for a cessation of hostilities between Russia and Ukraine even before he was inaugurated. In his phone calls since the election, he has warned President Putin against escalating the war and, while assuring President Zelensky that the U.S. would continue to support Ukraine’s territorial integrity, he urged him also not to escalate. In Time Magazine’s interview with President-Elect Trump as their Person of the Year, the President-elect stated, “I disagree very vehemently with sending missiles hundreds of miles into Russia. … We’re just escalating this war and making it worse.”
We pray that the President-elect will fulfill his promises to work diligently to end the hostilities between Russia and Ukraine. We pray that the leaders of the U.S., Russia, Ukraine, and the rest of the international community will work toward the cessation of armed conflict and begin moving toward a lasting and just peace. We pray that all of humanity will turn from the ways of war to the ways of peace. May it be so.