Blessing The Bombs

This article is taken from a speech by George Zabelka, a former Catholic chaplain with the U.S. Air Force. He served as a priest for the airmen who dropped the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945. He came to the realization that he was wrong in blessing the bombs and that war is wrong. Zabelka gives a powerful appeal for Jesus’ way of peace in a world that has glorified military power.

An excerpt: “I struggled. I argued. But yes, there it was in the Sermon on the Mount, very clear: “Love your enemies. Return good for evil.” I went through a crisis of faith. Either accept what Christ said, as unpassable and silly as it may seem, or deny him completely.

“For the last 1700 years the church has not only been making war respectable: it has been inducing people to believe it is an honorable profession, an honorable Christian profession. This is not true. We have been brainwashed. This is a lie.”

For the complete article, visit plough.com.