by Nicole Morgan

Drone warfare has been utilized by the United States for almost 10 years now as part of the ongoing “War on Terror.” Statistics and details of deaths caused by drone warfare are not officially released by the US Government, but media organizations and others have been tracking the drone strikes in an effort to determine who is being killed. Heartbreakingly, many of the victims are children.

The Bureau of Investigative Journalism released a report in 2013 that named over 100 children killed by drone strikes in Yemen and Pakistan alone. Their data was gathered by testimonies of those living in these countries and media accounts of the drone strikes.

One of Gene Sharp’s “198 Methods of Nonviolence” is the symbolic public act of “prayer and worship.” The Fall 2013 Theologies of Nonviolence and Social Change class at Palmer Theological Seminary (the seminary that houses ESA) planned a drone protest that took the form of a public worship service honoring the lives of children killed in drone strikes. The “Liturgy of Lament” for this public worship service focuses on mourning the loss of life and mourning our complicity in this violence.

Please watch and share this video, raise awareness about the violence of drone warfare, remember the names of these children and youth, and mourn our complicity in this violence.