The intention of the URI Voices for a World Free of Nuclear Weapons Cooperation Circle is to create a global movement to eliminate nuclear weapons once and for all.
Far more important than putting a man on the Moon or on Mars is the importance of keeping humans from annihilating all forms of life on Earth through a nuclear attack. This ultimate dread can happen in a matter of days, not over ages. Nuclear weapons have been created, tested, used, stored, aimed and readied for action for the supposed benefit of a few even if they pose a threat of extinction for all. Thus the existence of nuclear weapons is much more than a political strategy. At its core it is a moral, spiritual and environmental issue which urgently begs the intense attention of all the people of the world’s religions, indigenous traditions and humanist spiritualities.
Therefore a global interfaith group of diplomats, scientists, scholars, clergy and grassroots activists have self organized into a Cooperation Circle with the intent of reaching people throughout the world who want their voices heard on these matters and who want to be part of a global movement to eliminate nuclear weapons once and for all. This is the purpose of the Voices for a World Free of Nuclear Weapons Cooperation Circle of the United Religions Initiative. Zero nuclear weapons is the only way to guarantee the abundance of this world’s natural treasures.
On August 6, 2011, the Voices for a World Free of Nuclear Weapons CC launched throughout the world for the public at large. One year is being devoted to designing the strategy, to put a worldwide structure in place, and to prepare people around the world to mobilize the energy of participants. The underlying assumption is that the abolition of nuclear weapons is much more than one nation’s or one religion’s problem. It is a life issue, a civilization issue that requires a worldwide response by all who are morally alert and spiritually compassionate. The governments which have the weapons or which want the weapons must hear the cries and demands of the living.
Therefore, we pledge to:
- Work together in our homes, communities, temples, mosques, churches, synagogues, and other houses of worship, transcending differences of race, religion, and nationality, to eliminate this unacceptable, universal threat.
- Include the moral imperative of the abolition of nuclear weapons in our studies and teachings, and encourage families, friends, and congregations and institutions to do likewise.
- Persuade governments of nuclear weapon states to pledge never to use a nuclear weapon first, remove them from rapid launch status, make cuts in arsenals irreversible, and commence negotiations as rapidly as possible on the universal, legally verifiable, and enforceable elimination of nuclear weapons.
- Align our religious institutions’ investment policies with their values, by prohibiting investments in companies producing weapons of indiscriminant effect – landmines, cluster munitions and nuclear weapons.
To learn more about the goals of this group read our important statement about Nuclear Disarmament, Call to Conscience: A Ban on Nuclear Weapons,
