Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Tables and Figures
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Religion and War Resistance in the Plowshares Movement
- INTRODUCTION: MOVEMENT CHALLENGES AND TRAJECTORIES
- Part I The U.S. Plowshares Movement
- Part II The International Plowshares Movements
- 8 CONCLUSION: FROM FAILED ATTEMPTS TO PERSISTENT RESISTANCE – UNDERSTANDING DIVERGENT MOVEMENT TRAJECTORIES
- Appendix A Survey Questionnaire
- Appendix B List of Interviews by Author
- Appendix C Chronological List of Plowshares Actions by Region
- Bibliography
- Index
INTRODUCTION: MOVEMENT CHALLENGES AND TRAJECTORIES
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 September 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Tables and Figures
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Religion and War Resistance in the Plowshares Movement
- INTRODUCTION: MOVEMENT CHALLENGES AND TRAJECTORIES
- Part I The U.S. Plowshares Movement
- Part II The International Plowshares Movements
- 8 CONCLUSION: FROM FAILED ATTEMPTS TO PERSISTENT RESISTANCE – UNDERSTANDING DIVERGENT MOVEMENT TRAJECTORIES
- Appendix A Survey Questionnaire
- Appendix B List of Interviews by Author
- Appendix C Chronological List of Plowshares Actions by Region
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
On a crisp Sunday morning in the fall of 2002, Dominican Sisters Ardeth Platte, Carol Gilbert, and Jackie Hudson prepared to celebrate liturgy and put their faith into action. The three nuns, ranging from fifty-four to sixty-seven years old, put on white mop-up suits – the type used by crews that handle toxic waste and hazardous materials. On the back of their suits they had written “Citizens Weapons Inspection Team” and they wore tags on the front identifying themselves as “Disarmament Specialists.” They armed themselves with wire cutters, household hammers, and bottles filled with their blood. At about 7:30 that morning – exactly one year after the start of the U.S. war in Afghanistan – the women cut through the gate at a missile silo field near Greeley, Colorado. They walked a bit further, cutting through a second gate that enabled them to reach silo site N-8. With their hammers they struck the tracks that pull the lid off the silo, bringing the missile into firing position. Then they hammered on the silo itself, enacting the prophet Isaiah's vision: “Nations shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; one nation shall not raise the sword against another, nor shall they train for war again” (Isaiah 2:4). Finally, they poured blood on the structure in the pattern of a cross, and concluded with prayer and song. It was nearly an hour before Air Force personnel arrived, surrounding the gray-haired nuns at gunpoint.
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- Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2008