Nearly 50 Christian leaders, who collectively represent 28 million Americans, called on the United States and other world leaders to take urgent action to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.

Signers of the Sept. 22 letter to Congress warned that a nuclear-armed Iran would “almost certain[ly]” spark an arms race in the Middle East. The volatile country, known to be the world’s leading state sponsors of terrorism, would also likely sell or give nuclear weapons to extremist groups that consider America an enemy, the Christian leaders warned.

“For the world’s most dangerous regime to obtain the world’s most dangerous weapons is something that neither the United States nor the community of civilized nations can allow,” the leaders assert. more >>

Hundreds of churches across the nation rang their bells Thursday in observance of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in World War II.

While almost all the churches rang their bells for peace amid a world still fraught with nuclear warheads, it is not likely that they did so with the same stance on the 1945 bombing.

According to a new poll by the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, Americans are still largely supportive of the decision 64 years ago to drop atomic bombs in Japan. more >>

Correction appended:

Christian advocates for a world free of nuclear weapons said Tuesday that they were encouraged by the commitment of Presidents Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev to slash nuclear stockpiles by about a third though some pointed out that the move is not enough.

“It is heartening that the leaders of the United States and Russia have now made a preliminary agreement and public commitment to achieve specific cuts in each country's stockpiles of strategic nuclear weapons,” expressed the Rev. Dr. Samuel Kobia, general secretary of the World Council of Churches. more >>

Correction appended:

Though seismologists are still unsure as to how large the blast was from last week’s nuclear test in North Korea, analysts and church leaders agree that there is more than legitimate reason for concern.

"An explosion like this in a downtown area would be a horrible event,” geologist Paul Richards of Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in Palisades, N.Y., told USA Today. more >>

The U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs was introduced a bill this week that seeks to impose economic sanctions and diplomatic isolation on North Korea until it abandons its nuclear weapon programs and fixes its human rights problems.

The North Korea Sanctions and Diplomatic Nonrecognition Act of 2009, authored and introduced by Rep. Illeana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), was drawn up mainly in response to Pyongyang’s defiant missile launch earlier this month and its growing partnership with Iran and reportedly Syria. But it also addresses the severe human rights abuses taking place in the reclusive country.

“North Korea must abandon its illegal and destabilizing weapons programs and uphold human rights before it can reap the benefits and recognition afforded to responsible nations. Pyongyang cannot have it both ways,” expressed Ros-Lehtinen in a statement. more >>