On Good Friday, April 3, about 200 people gathered at Lockheed Martin in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania. Over two dozen people were arrested while praying in the road leading into the weapons manufacturer’s facility.
from Shane Claiborne:
Yesterday, a couple hundred of us gathered outside the world’s largest weapons contractor, Lockheed Martin. On Good Friday, when Christians around the world remember the suffering and death of Jesus, we also remembered the victims of violence today. We read the names of the children killed in Iran, in Gaza, in detention centers and on the border. It was a holy, powerful day. And over two dozen of us were arrested as we prayed and read the names of the victims. More details coming soon… thanks to all who participated. May we continue to stand on the side of love, no matter what the consequences.
from Samuel Kuttab:
200 STOOD AT THE GATES OF LOCKHEED MARTIN
King of Prussia, PA — Good Friday
On the day Christians remember the crucifixion of the Prince of Peace, 200 people of conscience — grandparents to grandchildren — gathered at Lockheed Martin’s headquarters in King of Prussia to bear witness to what we are becoming.
The Trump administration is proposing a 40% increase to an already unprecedented military budget — one that would exceed the next nine highest-spending nations combined. We are the mightiest military power on earth. And still, we do not feel safe.
That insecurity is costing us everything: healthcare. Infrastructure. Higher education. Deficit reduction. We keep building bombs — and the question that no one in power wants to answer is: for whom? Against what?
Some of those who gathered on Friday risked arrest. All risked being dismissed. They showed up anyway — because at the very moment Christians rehearse the story of a Jesus executed by empire for speaking truth to power, silence felt like betrayal.
He brought this world a message of peace — not war.
Let us not forget.
from Diana Oestreich
Good Friday Service: in front of the largest Bomb maker on the planet.
(Read the whole story on my Substack: this is where you get to read my work instead of the Algorithm deciding if you can see it )
https://dianaoestreichwagespeace.substack.com/
It was an honor to remember the the death of Christ, the Prince of Peace, with those suffering under systems of violence today.
alongside families, Palestinians, Iranians Jews, Christian’s and Muslims who are raising those voices and their faiths against murder. Especially kids.
We wrote the names of a
– 100 babies
– One year Olds
– killed in Gaza before they took their first steps.
We believe every human being is made in the image of God – no exceptions.
Every child in Iran and Lebanon and Palestine, Dilley Detention center is just as precious as every child in Philadelphia, MN and Jerusalem.
As we carry the names of the children killed by Israel and the US with weapons made by companies like Lockheed Martin, we stand with all the victims of violence – in the name of Jesus, the Prince of Peace.
It was Christ who blessed the peacemakers not the warmakers.
Christ who gave us the GREAT command to love our enemies Not the Great suggestion.
He refused to use violence:
– not to save his life, protect his religion or champion his country.
He used the power of love…to disarm the war makers, the soldiers and crowd who cheered the bombs.
Lockheed Martin is the world’s largest weapons contractor, and has blood on its hands.
Their Patriot missiles kill children in Iran, Gaza & Lebanon. Made right here in our neighborhoods.
Lockheed Martin supplies the Israeli Defense Forces with the Hellfire missiles, Apache helicopters, M-270 Multiple Launch Rocket System, and F-16 and F-35 fighter jets that have been used to decimate hospitals, elementary schools, maternity wards and refugee tent cities in Gaza, and have been used more recently in the war on Iran and Lebanon.
They are making a killing off of killing and we say NO.
Not another child stolen, not another mamas baby killed.
On Good Friday we are a public Witness to:
* God cares about the victims of violence, and so do we.
* We stand against all forms of hatred and violence, including anti-semitism.
* What we do to “the least of these” we do to Christ.
* Another world is possible… we want to build it together — a world with less war… and more ice cream.
As Ben, from Ben and Jerry’s said,
“Lockheed Martin, what would Jesus Do?
I’m a Jew, and even I know What Jesus Would Do”
