BWA Executive Committee Resolution 1963-08.2
- RESOLUTION ON NUCLEAR TEST BAN. Mimeographed copies of a proposed resolution on Nuclear Tests were passed out. Tulles reported that a committee appointed by the Administrative Committee had drafted this statement for the approval of the Executive Committee. Te committee had consisted of Binns, Ivanov, Stassen, Payne, Tolbert, Tulles, Y. Zhidkov, and Nordenhaug. Discussion of the resolution followed. Tulles also read the section dealing with nuclear testing included in the resolution passed by the Tenth Baptist World Congress in Rio de Janeiro, on July 2, 1960. Stassen stressed that the present Nuclear Test Ban Treaty should be neither overestimated nor underestimated. It is a first step, but a very constructive step.
MOTION was made and approved that the Executive Committee adopt the following resolution and commend it to the Alliance constituency for study and consideration:
We the members of the Executive Committee of the Baptist World Alliance, meeting at Baylor University in Waco, Texas,
Do hereby express our commendation and our prayerful thanksgiving that the Governments of the United States of America, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, and the United Kingdom have signed treaty to stop nuclear tests in the atmosphere, in outer space, and under water.
We note with appreciation the thorough support for this treaty expressed by President Kennedy, Chairman Khrushchev, and Prime Minister Macmillan.
We welcome the reports that 61 governments thus far have signed the treaty, and we express the hope that all other governments may a their signatures in binding agreement.
We recall the resolution urging action of this general nature adopted at the Tenth World Congress of the Baptist World Alliance in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1960.
We also recall numerous similar resolutions adopted by constituent Baptist Conventions and Unions.
We consider this treaty to be a definite step in the interests of all humanity on this earth under God.
We trust an pray that this step will be followed by other steps of a safeguarded, careful, inspire nature to move further toward the cessation of the arms race and to maintain a just and lasting world peace.
MOTION was made and adopted that the General Secretary be requested to send a copy of the statement to President John F. Kennedy, Chairman Nikita S. Khruschchev, and Prime Minister Harold Macmillan, and that he arrange for its release in the Baptist World, in the Baptist press, and in the secular press.
Keywords
BWA; Nuclear Test Ban; United Kingdom; United States; U.S.S.R.
Citations
Original Source Bibliography: Nordenhaug, Josef, editor. Baptist World Alliance: Minutes of the Executive Committee Held at Baylor University, Waco, Texas, August 19-23, 1963. Washington, D.C.: Baptist World Alliance, 1963.
Original Source Footnote/Endnote: Josef Nordenhaug, ed., Baptist World Alliance: Minutes of the Executive Committee Held at Baylor University, Waco, Texas, August 19-23, 1963 (Washington, D.C.: Baptist World Alliance, 1963), pp. 25-26.
Online Document Full Citation: BWA Executive Committee Resolution 1963-08.2 Nuclear Test Ban; https://baptistworld.org/resolutions.
In-text Online Document Citation: (BWA Executive Committee Resolution 1963-08.2).