{"id":5729,"date":"2011-04-16T22:54:57","date_gmt":"2011-04-16T22:54:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/?p=5729"},"modified":"2011-04-16T22:54:57","modified_gmt":"2011-04-16T22:54:57","slug":"theocrats-at-play","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/theocrats-at-play\/","title":{"rendered":"Theocrats at Play"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/Berrigan.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/Berrigan-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"Berrigan\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-5734\" \/><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/www.religiondispatches.org\/archive\/politics\/4461\/blood_and_hammers%3A_elderly_anti-nuclear_activists_sentenced_to_jail\/\">Via <em>Religion Dispatches<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>On November 2, 2009, five Catholic activists \u2014 one nun, two priests, and two laypeople, all age sixty or above \u2014 cut through a series of chain link and barbed wire fences surrounding Naval Base Kitsap in Bangor, Washington, where roughly one-quarter of the United States\u2019 nuclear warheads are reportedly stored and a fleet of eleven submarines equipped to deploy Trident nuclear weapons is stationed.<\/p>\n<p>The five unfurled a banner reading \u201cTrident: Illegal + Immoral,\u201d poured their own blood over the site, and beat on the ground and the fences with household hammers before being apprehended and arrested. \u201cWe walk into the heart of darkness,\u201d they wrote in a statement distributed to supporters and media, \u201cas one step up the holy mountain where all nations can unite in peace\u201d (read the group\u2019s full statement <a href=\"http:\/\/disarmnowplowshares.wordpress.com\/2009\/12\/05\/disarm-now-plowshares-statement\/\">here<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p>The five, who call themselves the Disarm Now Plowshares, were found guilty in December on four felony counts: trespass, damage to federal property, injury to federal property, and conspiracy to damage federal property. A week and a half ago in Tacoma\u2019s federal court they received prison sentences of six to fifteen months, with an additional year of supervised release. The days surrounding their sentencing, during which supporters gathered in Tacoma for a \u201cFestival of Hope,\u201d highlighted the importance of legal consequences for this group of activists, and shed light on their aims.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I\u2019m not sure that much is gained by jailing this sad little group of fanatics, but the inclusion of the word \u201cillegal\u201d in their banner reminds us of the game they are playing. The Trident missiles are, of course, perfectly legal. That the Disarm Now Plowshares (oh <em>please<\/em>) choose to claim that these weapons are illegal (under a distinctly dodgy interpretation of an advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice) is telling. The law they are really talking about is their vision of God\u2019s law, a law that they may think is  already in force (read the account of their courtroom behavior) or should be. The rest of us will, of course, be expected to knuckle under.<\/p>\n<p>So much for Thomas Jefferson<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Via Religion Dispatches On November 2, 2009, five Catholic activists \u2014 one nun, two priests, and two laypeople, all age sixty or above \u2014 cut through a series of chain link and barbed wire fences surrounding Naval Base Kitsap in &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/theocrats-at-play\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[26],"tags":[744,363,403],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5729"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/64"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5729"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5729\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5737,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5729\/revisions\/5737"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}