Resolution to General Convention

This blog concerns the future of the Anglican Communion, a fellowship of Churches that provides for me a normally compelling basis for the hope that bonds of affection are sufficient for peoples of the Faith. I find the witness of Anglicans in our sister churches to be a source of encouragement as they engage the church and society from their vantage points.

The future of the Anglican Communion, and its several churches, is bound up with its willingness to speak out with as much truth telling as it can muster, on issues in society as well as about issues within it churches themselves. It must speak out even if its speech carries little power or influence, for we ought not be guided by potential success in saying what we do, but by the need to speak from the heart of truth. Not to do this is to make irrelevant all our internal mutterings about leadership in our churches, blessing of relationships, etc.

So, as a deputy to General Convention, convinced that our value as a sister Church in the Anglican Communion to our sister churches is bound up with our willingness to speak the truth to our own government as well as to one another, I have put forward a resolution for consideration at this General Convention regarding the use of tactical nuclear weapons in preemptive strike. I assume that if this resolution finds endorsement from others and goes forward it will be 'perfected' in the process and issue in a statement of value.

Here it is:

A Resolution Against Preemptive Use of Tactical Nuclear Weapons

Resolved, the House of _____________ concurring, that this 75th General Convention instruct its presiding officers to convey to the representatives of the government of the United States of America the moral opposition by this Convention to the use of nuclear weapons of any type in preemptive military strike or in other actions in support of the foreign policy of the United States of America while not in a declared state of war, and be it further

Resolved, that the written statement of this Resolution be urgently conveyed by letter to the President of the United States of America, to the Secretary of State and to all members of the Congress, and that this Convention asks that, if practicable, this letter be delivered personally by the presiding officers of the General Convention to the President of the United States of America.


Explanation: The current policy of the United States of America provides for preemptive military strike when such action is deemed necessary. This policy does not exclude the use of tactical nuclear weapons. Such weapons are almost impossible to use without widespread injury and death to the general population. The threat of the use of such weapons in preemptive military action is a deterrent only to the extent that the possibility of use is real and attack without immediate provocation is condoned. Tactical nuclear weapons are in this case no longer weapons of defense, but weapons of first strike, and their use, or the threat of their use, become acts of aggression.

This Resolution registers the opposition, on moral grounds, of this General Convention to the possible or contemplated use of nuclear weapons of any sort in any preemptive actions by the government of the United States of America.