​The Echoes of Crisis: From Nuclear Brinkmanship 1962 to Climate Catastrophe 2024

 
In the crisp November air of 1962, as the nation observed Veterans Day, the Rev. Robert P. Starbuck, MDiv, PhD., the pastor of  Valley View United Methodist Church in Overland Park, Kansas, delivered a sermon that resonates profoundly with our contemporary struggle against climate change. His discourse, aptly titled “The Missiles of October 1962 – Humanity’s Need – More Than Survival,” not only confronted the immediacy of nuclear peril during the Cuban Missile Crisis but also presciently touched upon themes of human hubris and the fragile equilibrium of life—themes that parallel today’s climate crisis with unnerving similarity.
 
Rev. Starbuck’s sermon intricately wove the philosophical insights of ancient Greeks with Christian theological reflections, crafting a narrative that highlighted humanity’s precarious mastery over nature. He posited that just as slight cosmological adjustments could lead to catastrophic climatic shifts, human actions—driven by a relentless quest for dominion—threaten to disrupt the delicate balances sustaining our planet. Today, as we face the escalating impacts of climate change—rising seas, devastating storms, and an impending surge of climate refugees—the parallels to the nuclear fears of the 1960s are strikingly apparent. Both eras reflect crises born of human ingenuity misapplied, requiring a profound societal and ethical transformation.
 
The central thesis of Starbuck’s message, “survival is not enough,” challenges us to reconsider our relationship with the planet. It is a clarion call for a radical reevaluation of how we interact with our environment, emphasizing that resilience against climate change is not merely about adapting to new realities but thriving through a harmonious existence with nature. This philosophy demands a reconnection with the Earth, urging a departure from exploitation and urging towards stewardship, where justice and equity become cornerstones of environmental policy.
 
His invocation of philosophical and religious texts underscored that true understanding and progress require grappling with uncomfortable truths and asking challenging questions—imperative tenets as we navigate the climate crisis. He stressed the importance of balance and interconnectedness, ideas echoing modern environmental discourse. The ancient wisdom of seeking equilibrium and respecting natural limits holds valuable lessons in an age where technological and industrial advancements continue to push those boundaries.
 
As Rev. Starbuck eloquently concluded, humanity must embrace humility and stewardship, recognizing that we are not masters of this world but rather custodians of a legacy we must safeguard for future generations. The haunting lyrics of the hymn “Make Me a Captive, Lord,” which closed his sermon, remind us of the surrender required to achieve true liberation—from our destructive impulses and towards a sustainable future.
 
 
MAKE ME A CAPTIVE, LORD
 
My will is not my own

Till Thou has made it Thine
If it would reach a monarch’s throne
It must its crown resign.  
It only stands unbent

Amid the clashing strife,

When on thy bosom it has leant
And found in Thee its life.
 
Reflecting on Rev. Starbuck’s sermon from a Veterans Day long past through the lens of today’s environmental urgencies offers more than historical curiosity; it provides a framework for understanding and action. It reminds us that the crises we face, though separated by decades and dressed in different garbs—be it the specter of nuclear fallout or the insidious creep of climate change—are fundamentally battles over the values that will define our era. Will we choose the path of restraint and care or continue down a road marked by recklessness and domination?
 
Thus, as we ponder these words, let them reflect on a bygone crisis and guide us through today’s struggles, urging us toward a future that cherishes and nurtures all life forms. It’s a call to survive and live meaningfully, ethically, and in harmony with the cosmos, which sustains us all. 

—Ron Starbuck, Publisher
Saint Julian Press, Inc.
Houston, Texas

Original Sermon:

The Missiles of October 1962 – humanity’s Need – More Than Survival November 11, 1962 — Veterans Day

 
IN AN EDITORIAL written for the American Journal of Orthopsychiatry and appearing in the January 1962 issue of that periodical, Dr. Margaret Mead quoted a statement by the World Federation for Mental Health: “For the first time in human history, men have come face to face with the possibility that mankind might be wiped out.”
 
This fact has radically altered the whole position about peace and war. The choice lies no longer in the bands of groups of individuals who give their lives willingly so that liberty, justice, or freedom from hunger may prevail for themselves or others. The dilemma now facing the world is essentially a matter of precipitating, or preventing... a world conflict from which, even though some might conceivably survive, none would live to inherit any possible spiritual or material fruits of 'victory.'”
 
Having just passed another crisis in world affairs, which brought us to the brink of war, it seems fitting on this Veteran's Day 1962 to look more closely at our need, to take time and see that need in light of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This morning, I want you to look with me in three directions. First, I want to see the world and the survival of the human race. Second, to one of the most talked about emotional topics of our day — Radioactive Fallout and Fallout Shelters — and third to the working hypothesis, which I believe will not only solve our present dilemma but once again will set in motion the reconstruction of the human race into something more than mere survival.
 
First, let us look to the world and the survival of the human race, i.e., the existence of the world and the human race. What keeps the world going, keeping it revolving around the sun every 24 hours? What keeps our temperature at a livable degree? Surely, we know that a slight shift in the distance between the Earth and the sun could cause the Earth to freeze or burn up.
 
Likewise, altering the ratio inside the body of salt to water, oxygen to carbon dioxide, or red to white blood cells could end life. So what keeps our world, our race, from destroying itself physiologically? The answer, of course, is an equilibrium–balance, “Life is made possible by the most precarious balancing acts in the universe,” writes Norman Cousins, editor of Saturday Review. So, we can say that the universe is likely made by a balancing creative force, which in its original nature was perfect. Humanity, so new to the “how’” of such an ideal creation, does not know — this remains a mystery to the human race.
 
However, we know that the world is set up in polarity
, and the only thing that keeps it intact is a balancing process. Heraclitus, an ancient Greek philosopher, spoke wisely when he said, “Tension between opposites governed by a rational principle which holds them in balance is the key to understanding the world.”
 
Might I add that it is not only a key to understanding the world, but it is also the key to the survival of the world? In like nature, Plato's whole philosophical system is set up in polarity, and as one studies the Neo-platonic thought of form and matter, being and nonbeing — comparing this with Aristotle's two opposing factors: potentiality-actuality, humankind-God, humanity realizes the imminent danger of ourselves and our world, which is now threatened by unbalance and unrest.
 
Indeed, in the past two weeks, we have felt this danger threatened as never before with our destruction! That is the most startling thing in this entire episode. This possibility of final destruction lies in the fact that it does not come as a natural means. We begin to see that the unbalancing of the universe may not come from the earth passing too near or far away from the sun but from humanity's capacity to destroy life and the world at large.
 
God, who created the world in such an intrinsic way so that all things were in balance, now sees (as we see) his world threatened by those who think they can unbalance his nature and still live! No longer are we active in an age when we can give our lives in war for the survival of others, for even if they endured, they would have no spiritual or material fruits of victory. As Margaret Mead reiterated in her editorial, our choice is now one of precipitating or preventing a world conflict. Our choice is no longer between war and peace but war or peace- whether we learn to live together or die together. This is our balance –– this is our only hope!
 
Second, we must turn our attention to one of the most sensitive topics of our day: radiation fallout and shelters. On November 1, 1961, Alton Blakeslee, an Associated Press Science Writer, wrote “Emotional Factors Are Extremely High in the Radioactive Fallout Problem.” 
 
He began his article with these words: “The scariest word of the day is fallout... The odds are almost nothing that present amounts of fallout will hurt you as an individual. Still, it is equally true that some people somewhere will be damaged or will die too soon, possibly – ultimately thousands of people from fallouts already loosed by bomb tests… Bombs striking cities and missile bases would suck up millions of tons of dirt, making it highly radioactive, carrying it perhaps 20 miles up. It would start falling down in an hour, carpeting great areas with radioactivity…”
The next day, he followed this article by saying, “The greatest toll from Russia's monster 50-megaton H-bomb could be among tomorrow's children. Its radioactive fallout might doom hundreds or even thousands of the world's children, over several future generations, to early death or physical or mental defects from hereditary damage. Many geneticists assume that any increase in radiation could cause genetic damage to some people...A National Academy of Sciences committee has estimated that 2 billion children will be born worldwide during the next 30 years, and some 4 million will possess tangible genetic effects from natural or spontaneous causes. Different authorities estimate that 2 to 10 percent of such genetic defects might be due to natural background radiation. So, even a slight increase in radioactivity produced by bomb tests could increase this rate of genetic mutations.”
 
Of course, he ends his series of articles by saying, “A consensus of the experts; Bomb testing represents a definite but small hazard to human posterity.” Yet, might we ask, as Christians, if there is such a thing as a slight right or a small wrong to human posterity? 
 
It is a Christian truth (is it not?) that we are all family to one another — we are responsible to the whole human race, not just part of it. When one of us sins, we are a part of that sin. Therefore, we must accept the other person, without judgment, to the point of suffering with them in love and compassion because of their sin.
 
Then, too, there is more to nuclear explosions than most of us want to think about. Norman Cousins, who has already been mentioned as the editor of Saturday Review, wrote a book entitled “In Place of Folly.” It deals with the dangers of nuclear power in a world of international anarchy;  as the publisher claims, it is a message of hope so long as “we do not crave the destruction of being the last generation of humans on earth.”
 
According to the author, this is what happened in Hiroshima. The explosion produced a firestorm; the air swept in from all sides of the target area, whipping up the flames. As the heat rose, a vast canopy of smoke spread. The result was a swirl of air, drawing in fresh air to excite and feed the fire. Even at the edge of the firestorm, winds of 40 miles an hour carried the blaze. A large number of frame houses added to the intensity of the fire.  It is unnecessary to speculate (he continues) on the effects of a hundred-megaton bomb.
 
Consider the power of a 10-megaton H-bomb...Brick and concrete buildings more than a few hundred feet from the center of the Hiroshima atomic explosions were not destroyed. However, all brick structures would collapse within more than 300 sq. miles in such an explosion. In addition, private underground shelters would experience “Fall-In,” that is, a building and all the objects inside it would fall into the shelter…scorching winds from a 10-megaton bomb would deliver serious injury to people even on the outer fringes of a 2,000 square-mile area.
 
In the early years after Hiroshima, before the advent of both the hydrogen bomb and ballistic missile, the defense of cities was tied to evacuation procedures. Today, any mass evacuation is ruled out. Evacuation depends on adequate warning time; this no longer exists. A nuclear-tipped missile can cross a large ocean in fifteen minutes or less. This, then, is why I mentioned shelters along with Radioactive Fallout. While I realize that fallout shelters may save some lives), I fear that they are much less defensive than we are led to believe.
 
All information flowing from the experts in the field of science points to the need for better and more protective fallout shelters. On television, I recently heard that the Defensive Dept. of Greater Kansas City was concerned because people were not building more shelters; therefore, they were cutting the requirement in half, i.e., to the type and thickness of the shelter.
As I heard this, I thought, what is their motive? Is it a concern for the survival of the human race?
 
Humanity's Need—More Than Survival! This I submit to you this morning as we explore our third point or direction together! It seems that the working hypothesis, which will solve our present dilemma and set the reconciliation of the human race in motion, must start within the individual.
 
It must start within your life and mine. In a recent article written by Dr. Paul Tillich, which I discovered in Tidings, a church paper of the Mt. Lebanon Methodist Church in Pittsburg, Pa., a note of relevancy. The article itself is entitled “What is the meaning of life?” 
 
It was based upon those fundamental questions: Where do we come from, and where do we go? What shall we do? What should we become in the short stretch between birth and death? In other words, humanity lives in an age where it is concerned with its existence, and it asks such questions about that existence! In fact, in Tillich's theology, he insists that humanity must ask before it can receive the answer.
 
Just as little children confront their parents with questions of their existence, we, as children of God, confront Him with questions of our existence. The difficulty, says Tillich, is that such questions are not answered or even asked if the “dimension of depth” is lost. And this is precisely what is wrong—human beings have lost the courage to ask with an infinite seriousness—as former generations did—and they have lost the courage to receive answers to these questions, wherever they may come from.
 
In our Scripture Lesson this morning, we learned that Israel's history was in the post-exile era. In her former days before her exile into Babylon, she, too, had failed to ask the questions. Now, under the rule of other people—with a loss of freedom—she has time to think.
 
Psalm 137 – Lament over the Destruction of Jerusalem 
 
By the waters of Babylon,
there we sat down and wept,
    when we remembered Zion.
2 On the willows there
    we hung up our lyres.
3 For there our captors
    required of us songs,
and our tormentors, mirth, saying,
    “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”
 
And she remembered Jerusalem—it was her highest joy! Truly, the words coming from the 14th chapter of Hosea depict the response of God to his chosen people in this period, following “the destruction of the nation Israel,
 
Hosea 14 – Assurance of Forgiveness
 
I will heal their faithlessness;
    I will love them freely,
    for my anger has turned from them.
5 I will be as the dew to Israel;
    he shall blossom as the lily,
    he shall strike root as the poplar;
6 his shoots shall spread out;
    his beauty shall be like the olive,
    and his fragrance like Lebanon.
7 They shall return and dwell beneath my shadow,
    they shall flourish as a garden;
they shall blossom as the vine,
    their fragrance shall be like the wine of Lebanon.
 
It is time that we realize that survival is not enough. Physically, we may live from day to day, even so, unless we take upon ourselves the courage to be and ask questions about our existence, purpose, and responsibility in the world. And then, unless we have the courage to receive the answer, even though it hurts ––unless we do this, we do not live. We do not have the kind of Life found in Christ Jesus our Lord. 
 
If we accept our Christian faith this morning, we will go forth asking the question, and through faith in Him whom we have come to worship, we will find the answer. We will know that we are nothing until this “something more,” this mystery we call God, becomes a part of our very being. As the author of our closing hymn wrote in the last verse:
 
MAKE ME A CAPTIVE, LORD
 
My will is not my own

Till Thou has made it Thine
If it would reach a monarch's throne
It must its crown resign.  
It only stands unbent

Amid the clashing strife,

When on thy bosom it has leant
And found in Thee its life.

Rev. Robert P. Starbuck, Mdiv., PhD,

This sermon was delivered at Valley View United Methodist Church in Overland Park, Kansas, on November 11, 1962.


Bob Starbuck received his Bachelor's in Philosophy from Baker University, Baldwin, Kansas; Masters of Divinity from St. Paul's School of Theology in Kansas City, Missouri; and PHD in Marriage and Family Counseling from Texas Women's University in Denton, Texas.

​He served as a Methodist Minister for 55 years and a Psychotherapist for 40 years. Bob was a World War II veteran and member of the Masonic Lodge. He enjoyed life to the fullest, always seeing the best in others. Bob enjoyed riding his bicycle, exercising, reading, writing and spending time with his wife and family.