Peace Messenger

The Two Futures Project

The Two Futures Project (2FP) is a movement of  American Christians for the abolition of all nuclear weapons. We believe that we face two futures and one choice: a world without nuclear weapons or a world ruined by them. We support the multilateral, global, irreversible, and verifiable elimination of nuclear weapons, as a biblically-grounded mandate and as a contemporary security imperative.

Our change strategy is based around the creation of a nonpartisan, conscience-driven, enduring majority of Americans who are committed to a nuclear weapons-free world. By joining together with one voice of Christian conscience, we seek to encourage and enable our national leaders to make the complete elimination of nuclear weapons the organizing principle of American nuclear weapons policy. We join in this work to the glory of God.

We are a movement made up of followers of Jesus Christ, from all denominations and traditions, united by the Holy Spirit in our intention to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, as a standard of witness and work in God’s world.

Going Vegetarian - The Revolutionary Potential

From: Kathy Freston, "The Startling Effects of Going Vegetarian for Just One Day," AlterNet, 2 April 2009

If everyone went vegetarian just for one day, the U.S. would save:

• 100 billion gallons of water, enough to supply all the homes in New England for almost 4 months;

• 1.5 billion pounds of crops otherwise fed to livestock, enough to feed the state of New Mexico for more than a year;

• 70 million gallons of gas -- enough to fuel all the cars of Canada and Mexico combined with plenty to spare;

Critical Questions About the Defense Budget

The Obama administration's proposed $664 billion defense funding for fiscal year 2010 represents a smaller increase (2.1%) than in previous years, but progressive members of Congress and some policy analysts are raising critical questions about the massive expenditures, according to a report by Maya Schwenwar at truthout.org ("The Push to Downsize Defense," February 27, 2009).

Craig Jennings of the nonprofit OMB watch, asks, for example:

[D]oes the F-22 make us so much safer from present-day threats like al-Qaeda that it's worth expending tens of billions of dollars on? Do we really need $4 billion stealth naval destroyers? What is more ultimately harmful to the health of the nation: 46 million people without health insurance or the threat of intercontinental ballistic missile launches from North Korea? These are questions that Congress - Democratic and Republican - have consistently failed to pose.

However, a small group in the House of Representatives is speaking out on such questions, calling for a 25% cut in military spending "by eliminating wasteful and obsolete programs, reducing active nuclear warheads and withdrawing from Iraq in an efficient and timely manner." Led by Rep. Barney Frank of Massachusetts (above, right), the group also includes Barbara Lee of California (left), Keith Ellison of Minnesota, Dennis Kucinich of Ohio, and Lynn Woolsey of California....

The Classic That Woke Up the Church

Christianity and the Social Crisis in the 21st Century: The Classic That Woke Up the Church
by Walter Rauschenbusch

HarperOne / 2008

"It is an essential doctrine of Christianity that the world is fundamentally good and practically bad, for it was made by God but is now controlled by sin.  If a man wants to be a Christian, he must stand over against thoe things as they are and condemn them in the name of that higher conception of life which Jesus revealed," wrote Walter Rauschenbusch a century ago in Christianity and the Social Crisis.

This 100th anniversary includes essays by Tony Campolo, Joan Chittister, James A. Forbes, Jr, Stanley Hauerwas, Richard Rorty, Phyllis Trible, Jim Wallis, and Cornel West to help the 21st-century gain a critical appreciation for the work of the social gospel's greatest exponent.  Whatever its limitations, this powerful voice from the past is needed to help re-awaken the church today to the revolutionary significance of the message of Jesus and the prophets for our world.

Making Peace an Campaign Issue

With elections just around the corner, the Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL) says now is the time to let candidates for Congress know that you oppose the budget priorities reflected in the current president's request for military spending in 2009 that would surpass the amount spent by all other nations combined, and instead want the United States to improve its capacity to prevent deadly conflict. What candidates hear from voters on the campaign trail can influence the policies they propose and support. See the FCNL web site for questions and facts that can be used in raising these issues with the candidates.

A Quaker lobby in the public interest, FCNL provides exceptionally well-informed, practical guidance for peacemaking in the arena of legislation and public policy.