More than twenty-four clergy and lay leaders of religious communities in East Tennessee joined to issue The Urgency of Now: A Pastoral Letter on Nuclear Weapons Production in Our Community on Monday, August 3, 2015 on Market Square in downtown Knoxville.
The letter, released in the week of the 70th observance of the Hiroshima/Nagasaki bombings calls for people of faith to engage the morality of the ongoing production of nuclear weapons in Oak Ridge, Tennessee and plans for a new bomb plant”the $6.5 billion Uranium Processing Facility”at the Y12 Nuclear Weapons Complex there.
“As people of faith, dedicated to lives of gratitude, service and love, we ask ourselves: Is it right for us to support the production of weapons of mass destruction designed to be used against other human beings with our money, our votes, or our silence?” asks the letter.
The letter will be opened to additional signatures at a public release and ceremonial signing event on Market Square and will be available on-line soon for signatures to be added.
An annotated version of the letter has also been prepared. Religious leaders who created the Pastoral call plan to produce study resources and discussion guides for personal and congregational use.
The letter is available here:
An annotated version of the letter can be found here:
