

“As people of faith, we write to you out of profound concern over the rise in tensions between the United States and North Korea,” reads the first sentence of the National Council of Churches open letter to President Donald Trump.
Despite the fact North Korea has conducted multiple nuclear tests and has launched dozens of missiles, the NCC letter takes greatest issue with Trump’s language.
“While we do not defend Kim Jong Un or condone the dangerous rhetoric employed by his regime, equally reckless talk by you could lead to a miscalculation in which millions of lives could be lost. Nuclear war that can destroy millions of people puts the whole world at risk and is fundamentally immoral. For this reason, we urge you to take the higher road, and thereby project strength that comes through silence,” it reads.
The NCC posted the letter on its web site on Tuesday (9-26-17), and as of Thursday morning has 919 signatures.
The NCC letter:
Dear President Trump:
As people of faith, we write to you out of profound concern over the rise in tensions between the United States and North Korea. We recognize the unfortunate choice of language and careless posturing of Kim Jong Un. For the sake of peace, however, we urge you to cease utilizing bellicose language and name-calling in your public speeches and tweets and instead pursue diplomacy as befitting the leader of the free world.
Put simply, nuclear war must never take place. You are the leader of the world’s strongest nuclear superpower, and therefore you have a responsibility to act with probity, tact, and care. While we do not defend Kim Jong Un or condone the dangerous rhetoric employed by his regime, equally reckless talk by you could lead to a miscalculation in which millions of lives could be lost. Nuclear war that can destroy millions of people puts the whole world at risk and is fundamentally immoral. For this reason, we urge you to take the higher road, and thereby project strength that comes through silence.
Further, we urge you to launch a new, bold, and comprehensive diplomatic appeal to find a permanent solution to the problem of nuclear proliferation worldwide. Indeed, we are reminded of the words of President Reagan, who sought to abolish nuclear weapons while, at the same time, facing an existential threat from another nuclear power:
“I can’t believe that this world can go on beyond our generation and on down to succeeding generations with this kind of weapon on both sides poised at each other without someday some fool or some maniac or some accident triggering the kind of war that is the end of the line for all of us.”
-President Ronald Reagan, May 16, 1983
Mr. President, no threat of nuclear annihilation, nor even the limited use of nuclear weapons, can be justified by any form of moral thinking. We, as Americans of faith, urge you cease use of threatening speech, and redouble attempts to find peaceful and just solutions to the proliferation of nuclear weapons worldwide.
As he came near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, “If you, even you, had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes.”
-Luke 19:41-42 (NRSV)
Grace and peace,
The National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA
Washington, DC
According to its web site, since 1950 the NCC “has served as a leading voice of witness to the living Christ. NCC unifies a diverse covenant community of 38 member communions and over 40 million individuals –100,000 congregations from Protestant, Anglican, Orthodox, Evangelical, historic African-American, and Living Peace traditions – in a common commitment to advocate and represent God’s love and promise of unity in our public square. NCC partners with secular and interfaith partners to advance a shared agenda of peace, progress, and positive change.”
The Presbyterian Church (USA), a founding member of the NCC, and is promoting the letter on its web site.
The Episcopal Church (USA), the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the United Church of Christ and The United Methodist Church are a few of the other denominations that are members of the NCC.
5 Comments. Leave new
This is the same group think THAT gave us this situation starting with Clinton all the way to Obama, this little tin horn dictator only understands one thing, and one thing only and that’s tough talk, this is the same guy who had his uncle and brother killed. The ncc has way, way too much time on it’s hands. The ncc is nothing more than the liberal democratic party at prayer.
The NCC still exists? I honestly haven’t thought about them in years.
If the Administrative State PCUSA were an independent, sovereign nation, with it own foreign and domestic policies, it would be like a Cuba, Zimbabwe, or contemporary Venezuela. An ossified Kleptocracy that would exploit its own people, confiscate their assets in service of the State, chill dissent and free speech. In essence a hell on earth for those unfortunate enough not to escape or flee. They cannot even balance the books in their PMA, and run their committees as closed door insular clubs for the benefit of the sitting Kleptocracy. So just why did the former director resign out of the blue?
Whatever the PCUSA signs, cajoles, pleads, lectures others, need to take 2 ton grain of salt into consideration,
They even exist still?
Still exists? Yes. Is anyone listening to them outside their shrinking echo chamber? No.
Like the formerly “Mainline” Protestant denominations that still comprise its membership, the NCC is an example of what happens when an ecclesiastical organization pursues relevance as an idol: It has become profoundly irrelevant.