Gods of Metal Disarmed at Air Show

He was not in his pulpit. But his voice boomed out toward the assembled crowd, much larger than any church could hold.

"Sisters and brothers, let us disarm these gods of metal!" shouted Fr. Frank Cordaro. And together with four friends, began the job. This day's idol was a B-52 strategic bomber, parked on the runway at the open house of Andrews Air Force Base, near Washington, D.C., on May 17.

While hundreds looked on, the five proceeded to throw blood and then hammer on the inside and outside of the bomb bay doors of the plane. Thirty blows were struck on the bomber, and then Cordaro, Kathy Shields Boylan, Carol Gilbert, OP, Ardeth Platte, OP, and Rev. Larry Morlan set down their hammers. They unfurled their banner, prayed and then explained to those assembled the meaning of their action. Eventually, military and civilian police ordered the five to lie face down on the tarmac, handcuffed them and took them into custody.

Amy Goodman and another journalist from WBAI's Democracy Now, a public radio show, were also taken into custody. The journalists were released without charge after six hours, but their film and audiotape were confiscated.

Each hammer blow represented one year of the thirty since May 17, 1968, when the group now known as the Catonsville Nine had, for the first time, publicly burned draft files outside a Selective Service office in Maryland.

Calling themselves the Gods of Metal Plowshares, the group intentionally disarmed the dual nuclear- and conventional capable weapons of mass destruction in accordancewith the prophecies of Isaiah (2:4) and Micah (4:3): "...They shall hammer their swords into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks."

The five activists were arraigned the next day before U.S. Federal Magistrate Jillyn Schultz, who indicated they were each facing two federal charges of property damage. They were released on their own recognizance and have a preliminary hearing on June 5 in federal court in Greenbelt, Maryland.

Gilbert and Platte, members of Baltimore's Jonah House resistance community, wrote to friends:

"We again use the symbols of our own blood (which identifies the effects of war and also portrays the essential element for the lifestream) and household hammers (which reflects a tool used to destroy what is evil and build what will respond to basic human needs). Ours is an action of divine obedience or civil resistance as we directly and nonviolently disarm these carriers and weapons of mass destruction which we believe to be contrary to God's laws and illegal under our own national and international laws.... Please pray for us as we enter into the next steps of resistance to all idols embodied in thesesystems - not only the idols of security held in weapons systems but the idols of security held on the domestic level in courts, jails, and prisons that keep us all incarcerated in our false worship..."

The five are all long-time activists. Boylan, a mother of 5 and grandmother, is a member of the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker in Washington, D.C.

Cordaro and Morlan are both parish priests from the midwest, and participated in the action after consultations with, but without the support of, their local bishops. Both penned letters to their congregations, explaining their action in the terms of their faith, and asking parishioners for whatever spiritual, moral, and financial support they can provide.

Morlan wrote, "Jesus said what he had done was by way of example for us. So into the teeth of the systemic violence of our superpower's day we hurl this announcement: trust not these weapons, trust not in their power. To do so makes us captives of that power, and this captivity will undo the very gifts we seek to protect..."

"It has always been my belief that the best way to 'do time' is by bringing as many people as possible into the jail experience," wrote Cordaro. To thatend, supporters will be publishing a Gods of Metal Plowshares newsletter.

An "Invitation to Stand in Solidarity" with the Gods of Metal Plowshares states, "This is an urgent time to stand with these peacemakers for nuclear disarmament and call for an end to war-making on behalf of present and future generations of children and Mother Earth, herself." Requested support includes adding your name to a list of supporters, on-going prayer, attending trial and court proceedings, and donations for the newsletter and court and jail support.

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last updated July 10 1998