I am old enough to remember the terrible atrocities that occurred during World War II.

There were 80 million people who died in that war. My brother, Lester, was fighting in the South Pacific on the battleship U.S. Iowa. Like a hawk, I read the newspapers, praying for my brother and the war to end. There were those who felt the call to stop the madness of Adolph Hitler.

As a young man, I felt the call, by God, to make a difference. I read the book by Elton Trueblood, “The Alternative to Futility.” Trueblood was a great Christian leader. He truly believed that it was time that we all work together to provide a healthy civilization.

When World War II ended, I felt that all nations in our world must respect human rights of all people and to respect international law. So we were in need to have a United Nations. I helped to provide some leadership for that.

As there are those who are called to fight and kill in our world we need more and more people who feel called to work for peace and justice in our world. We must listen and try to understand people in other cultures and develop a feeling of empathy toward social injustice in our world.

Pope Francis, who spoke to our U.S. Congress a couple of years ago, said, “It laments me, the blood money that you make off of war products.”

When young men and women are called to die for our country and military contractors are making millions of dollars off of our wars, what is morally good about our capitalism in America?

As a Christian, we must all work together to change profit-making off of our wars. It is time we stop our racism and putting fear into the hearts of people.

Jesus said on one occasion, “Those who love God, they are my brother, my sister and my mother.” Matthew 12:50 RSV

Most religions in our world have a love toward God. We have much in common with one another. Today, our politicians must stop the Pentagon from making our foreign policy. Today, can we bring another alternative to our futility? Today can we bring about a healthy civilization in our world? That is our challenge today!