Of Nukes and Men

One of the biggest political news items of the day has to do with President Obama's push to limit the accessibility of our nation's stockpile of nuclear weapons for future use. More indirectly, this new course will have our nation's defense eliminate much of the stockpile, unquestionably cutting into US dominance in the arena of nuclear proliferation. And so we approach this issue with the same question that should pervade our examination of any political or cultural question: how should a Christian think about this issue? (Note: the question is not "WWJD?")

This is a tough one. On the one hand, world citizens - let alone Christians - should despise the very notion of nuclear weapons. By mastering the elemental forces of the universe - those elements upon which God chose to found everything in the cosmos! - scientists in the 1940s developed a weapon which could wipe away entire cities in literally half a second. The extensive presence of such weapons has long brought fear into the hearts of well-meaning humans, those who understood that a misunderstanding could eradicate huge chunks of world civilization in mere moments. Those of us living on the other side of Hiroshima, Nagasaki, the Cuban Missile Crisis, Dr. Strangelove, the international reaction to the Reagan build-up, and so on, are familiar with the dangers. Furthermore, those believers who realize that Nagasaki was actually brought to life by the great Catholic missionary Francis Xavier (and, therefore, had the largest population of Christians in all of Japan in 1945) know the long-term implications that the use of nuclear weapons has on the propagation of the gospel.

But I am still left hesitant after reading the story above. President Obama, who received his much-discussed Nobel Peace Prize primarily because of his talk about nuclear limitation in the 2008 campaign, clearly wants our nation to set an example to the world. The question is, does our example matter? When North Korea is spotlighted as a rogue state willing to exchange nuclear material for much-needed supplies? When a schizophrenic and bellicose Iranian government is on the verge of developing their own nuclear weapon? President Obama is correct in his assertion that we no longer need Cold War-style nuclear arsenals, but does his administration honestly believe that our "example" will deter the enemies of our generation: terrorists? People who blow themselves up in an attempt to kill a dozen or two civilians don't value or follow examples.

And so what are we left with? If responsible nations can't keep their leverage with the bomb, then what would prevent rogue nations from investing their technology in radical terrorist groups? (An important note: Iran and North Korea are both exempt from Obama's pledge due to their non-compliance with the nuclear non-proliferation agreement...both are still potential targets of US nuclear weapons.) And what about the Christian witness and example? As a believer, the very presence of nuclear weapons is abhorrent, let alone the use of such weapons; yet, in a nuclear age, if our federal government has been good at anything, it has been in showing reservation and prudence when given opportunities after August of 1945 to use an atomic bomb.

Ultimately, this is a sphere where two worldviews must collide and, I think, remain unsolved. I believe that there is honestly no way to think "Christianly" about the proliferation/use of atomic weapons (or any weapon for that matter!), yet if the government cannot protect its citizens, what is the point of government in the first place? And, perhaps ironically, for millions of American Christians, there is a place where nuclear proliferation means protection from global nuclear war, even in this post Cold War era.