One of Pax Christi USA’s long-standing priorities is the reduction of military spending and the advancement of funding for human needs such as housing, health care, food, education, promotion of racial, economic, and climate justice, and more.
Through our Bread Not Stones campaign and other programs, we continue to work with partners in the faith-based and secular world towards this goal.
In February 2023, we have endorsed two new sign-on letters to President Biden, one in particular from faith-based groups (see below) and and the other from a more broad coalition of peace, national security, climate justice, racial justice, faith, and anti-poverty groups, urging him to dramatically cut the military budget for 2024 and to invest the funds in nonviolent and humane programs that promote the well-being of all.
14 February 2023
Dear President Biden,
As faith-based organizations, we watch the United States’ rapidly growing military budget with great concern. The country is sprinting towards a trillion-dollar budget for weapons and war — propping up an expensive and harmful militarized foreign policy while people struggle to meet their basic needs. We cannot continue down this morally bankrupt path. We urge you to dramatically cut militarized spending in the Fiscal Year 2024 President’s Budget Request — both to facilitate reinvestment in the wellbeing of our communities, and to curtail the harms of our militarized foreign policy.
People and organizations on both sides of the political aisle have argued that cuts to bloated and unaccountable Pentagon spending are possible and desirable — to cut waste, to fight corruption, to reinvest in human wellbeing, and to challenge our militarized foreign policy. Your own National Security Strategy recognizes the importance of investment in our communities, saying that “the most impactful public investments are the ones we make in our people,” including affordable health and child care, job training, and education. As the chorus of people and organizations questioning the United States’ absurd military budget grows, our faith groups write once again to make the moral case for cutting spending on weapons and war.
Our faiths lay out the moral imperatives of caring for the common good, building sustainable peace, and being good stewards of our resources. The current U.S. budget does not address the urgent threats facing our communities. The budget’s emphasis on military strength is in direct opposition to these moral duties. The sky-high war budget siphons resources away from investments in healthcare, housing, and education. War spending crowds out investment in peacebuilding and diplomacy, resulting in the loss of critical opportunities for nonviolent conflict prevention and resolution. And the constant waste, fraud, and abuse at the Pentagon and by corporate war contractors siphons taxpayer dollars away from our communities and into the pockets of corporations.
As you prepare to release the President’s Budget Request for Fiscal Year 2024, our faith organizations urge you to cut spending on weapons and war, and to instead focus our national spending on human wellbeing.
Sincerely,
National and international faith-based organizations (See PDF here for list of signers)
Hallelujah and thanks Pax Christi for not being afraid to violate the code of silence that the media has tried to impose on us regarding anything that might question our immoral spending on weaponry, especially as regards Ukraine.
David-Ross Gerling,PhD.
Individuals, community organizations and local/state/ federal representatives should be contacted and encouraged to urge the Biden Administration to scale down military spending–particularly with regard to the war in Ukraine. Letters to the editor can an should be written. More funding should be devoted to domestic programs to help the poor, work on preventing gun violence, immigration, support for families who are financially/emotionally/socially challenged and are managing a pregnancy, etc. Discussion, dialogue and negotiations must not be ignored as the government and media seem to be doing–at least so it appears in our daily blitz of info. There are those willing to head dialogue–they must not be ignored. With the proper steps, we must always believe that discussion and negotiation can be the catalyst for a peaceful evolution of our planet. Let that peace begin with the individual steps that we each can take to exert influence where we can. Peace.