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ARMS TRADE
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Theological Reflection In Psalm 46 it is written: Come and see the works of the LORD, The reader might expect that the psalmist would go on to describe desolation - maybe the sort of scene that has been witnessed over the years in Gaza or Dresden, in Uganda and in Hiroshima. But the sort of desolation described is this: God makes wars cease to the ends of the earth; What sort of desolation is that? The psalmist describes a new sort of desolation, the desolation of arms and the weapons of war. This resonates with the destruction of swords and spears and the construction of ploughshares and pruning hooks. These words appear in three separate books in the Hebrew Scriptures (Isaiah 2, Joel 3, Micah 4). God’s desolation is actually a consolation for those who are afraid of what weapons can do - a consolation that describes the end to weapons and an end of the Arms Trade. In the New Testament, Jesus appeals to people who are struck on one cheek to turn the other cheek (Matthew 5, Luke 6). He suggests not only a way of non-violence, but also that those who follow the way of violence must be shamed. By offering the other cheek the actions of those who strike others are revealed to be what they truly are – acts of violence and attempts at subjugation. Just as God’s desolation is consolation for those threatened by weapons of war, so Jesus’ response to being struck is not weakness and a willingness to be humiliated, rather it is a powerful statement of opposition to the ways of violence by revealing them to be what they are. The Arms Trade allows people to profit from the weapons of war and violence. The Bible texts quoted above suggest that the creation of arms is contrary to God’s will, how much more then must God oppose trading in weapons to profit from those who wish to use them?
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