Unitarian Universalists for
Peace and Nuclear Disarmament

Our Unitarian Universalists for Peace and Nuclear Disarmament network was formed in 2019 to bring together UU’s concerned about and motivated to end the existential threat posed by nuclear weapons. These genocidal weapons are an affront to all seven of our UU principles and defy our deepest UU yearnings for human dignity and social justice. Nuclear weapons undermine all other social justice causes by their untenable drain on resources to address other needs and their profound threat to humankind and our entire biosphere. Comparable only to climate change in their potential to end human existence, nuclear weapons can do in an afternoon what climate change will do in a century.

Nuclear weapons are a problem created by human beings, and human beings can solve this problem. But time is short, the threat unfathomable. Join us and millions around the world in our campaign to eliminate these horrible instruments of destruction and work toward a world of peace and justice for all — so eloquently defined by our 6th Principle.

There have been 13 past Statements of Conscience and Actions of immediate Witness, along with countless letters and sign-ons by the UUA opposing nuclear weapons over a span of many years. The grounding in our seven principles for this resistance to nuclear weapons is clear. Now it is your turn.

In the following pages we offer a number of resources for UU’s to learn about, get involved with and work toward the elimination of nuclear weapons.

Contact us at uufpnd@gmail.com

No Nukes demonstration

Nuclear Disarmament and our Sixth Principle
Concrete Strategies

A Workshop at the 2021 UUA Virtual General Assembly Presented by

Teresa Brooks, All Souls, NYC
Joanne Dufour, OUUC, Olympia, WA
John Liebmann, All Souls, NYC

Neil Osborn, All Soul, NYC
Guy Quinlan, All Souls, NYC
Jerald Ross, First Parish in Bedford, MA

Other works:

Video First Parish Summer Service on Hiroshima and Nagasaki Atom Bombing, organized by and homily presented by Jerry Ross
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEpQJzd0aaA

Dateline Nagasaki, August 9, 2018 – by Jerry Ross
https://www.uua.org/international/blog/disarmament/dateline-nagasaki-august-9-2018

Preventing nuclear terrorism – UU World Forum by Guy Quinlin
http://archive.uuworld.org/2005/01/forum.html

A New Year’s Resolution Proposal: Put Disarmament on the Agenda for Immediate Attention -taken from a talk by Guy Quinlin
https://www.uua.org/international/blog/disarmament/new-years-resolution-proposal-put-disarmament-agenda-immediate

Article from the All Soul’s Bulletin describing recent work of the Nuclear Disarmament Task Force
http://www.allsoulsbeacon.org/2019/02/13/three-lines-and-a-circle/

NUCLEAR WEAPONS NOW-A-DAYS – A live, on-line course:
https://onrealm.org/OUUC/PublicRegistrations/Event?linkString=ZTBhMGY1MzgtZDUxNS00ZWViLTg4ZmEtYWM5NjAxMjgyMTEz

In Praise of the Non Nuclear World by Joanne Dufour
https://www.uua.org/international/blog/disarmament/praise-non-nuclear-world

Resources on Nuclear Disarmament

There’s lots of information on nuclear weapons.
Where to begin? Here’s a short list :

Get Up to Speed Fast

Key Campaigns to Eliminate Nuclear Weapons (websites also have excellent background info)

Other Important Organizations

Political and Economic Resources

Websites for a Deeper Dive

Some Books

  • The Doomsday Machine by Daniel Ellsberg

  • The Button by William J. Perry and Tom Z. Collina

  • Hiroshima by John Hersey

How to Get Involved

(Recommended for nuclear disarmament, but works for any cause!)

First of all - educate yourself

Don’t presume you know quite all that you need to know. Follow the news. Check the internet. Listen to pod casts. Read a book. Attend an event. Maybe take an on-line course.

Find out who's doing what in your congregation.

Is there someone you can partner with, or at least join a committee or task group that could be “home” to your efforts?

Definitely engage your minister or lay leaders.

They can lend visibility and urgency to your cause, link you to others, facilitate access to resources. Others won’t see this as a UU issue unless they do.

Use what you're learning to interest and teach others.

Work up from personal contacts, to coffee hour, to showing a film, to bringing in a speaker.

Connect with individuals and groups in the external community

Who’s out there working on this already? Get on mailing lists. Join a group. Then start showing up. Attend meetings, workshops, conferences, participate in an action if you can.

Use Your Personal Power

You have influence with family, friends and neighbors. Tell them what you’re learning. Also think about how you can affect “your” organizations, like your work affiliation, school affiliation, civic group. For example, divestment is a powerful tool. You can divest your own funds from banks, funds or companies that make nuclear weapons, but you can also advocate for your college, town, faith or community group to do the same.

Build alliances with other social action groups.

Show up at other causes. Don’t expect them to come to you. Once they understand you support their cause, they can hear you when you tell them how the issues are linked.

Give money

Support local or national groups. Get on their mailing lists and contribute!

Write something ...

for your congregation’s newsletter, or a LTE or Op Ed to the local paper.

Influence legislation

Learn about legislation, email, write, call, meet with your local Rep. – let them know this is an issue for you, teach them what they need to know. If you’re a constituent, you’re an important person. They want to hear from you.

Contact Us

Send us a message at UUFPND@GMAIL.COM