There are moments when the prophets must interrupt the parade.

When bombs fall and are baptized as “security.” When threats are dressed in the garments of diplomacy. When leaders who command drones and sanctions speak the language of peace prizes. This is such a moment.

The United States, alongside Israel, has escalated military action involving Iran. Reuters has reported on Israeli strikes and regional tensions.

The Guardian has covered U.S.-Israel coordination and broader escalation risks.

These actions are described as preemptive and strategic. But when the most powerful military force on earth partners in bombing campaigns against a sovereign nation, the world does not tremble because righteousness has prevailed. It trembles because Empire has moved.

Scripture warns, “Woe to those who decree iniquitous decrees” (Isaiah 10:1). Woe to those who weaponize fear and call it prudence. Woe to those who fund destruction and call it deterrence.

The United States provides billions in military aid to Israel annually. The Council on Foreign Relations documents the scope and history of that assistance here.

Aid is not abstract. It becomes aircraft, missile systems, and munitions. It becomes smoke rising over cities whose names many Americans never learn to pronounce.

Black liberation theology teaches that neutrality in the face of state violence is itself violence. James Cone wrote that God is found among the crucified of history. The question is not whether crucifixion still happens. It is where.

Iranian civilians do not draft foreign policy. Iranian children do not authorize enrichment programs. Yet when bombs fall, they fall on bodies.

And still we are told this is about peace.

Peace that requires shattered neighborhoods is not peace. It is dominance by another name.

Washington has renewed harsh rhetoric and pressure for sanctions toward Cuba. The Associated Press has reported on rising tensions and enforcement actions

For more than six decades, Cuba has lived under a U.S. embargo repeatedly condemned by the United Nations. UN News summarizes annual General Assembly votes opposing the embargo.

The embargo has restricted access to medicine, food, and financial systems. It has constrained economic development. It has punished ordinary Cubans in the name of punishing a government.

Collective punishment is not justice. It is cruelty dressed as policy.

If other nations sanctioned the United States for the actions of private American citizens abroad, Washington would call it illegitimate interference. Empire, however, expects immunity.

U.S. involvement in Venezuelan political affairs has been documented for years. BBC News has reported on sanctions and recognition disputes.

Reuters has tracked sanctions policy and political maneuvering.

Facts require precision. Ethics require courage.

The United States has a documented history of intervention in Latin America — Guatemala in 1954, Chile in 1973, and beyond. That pattern is part of the historical record. Liberation theologians across the Global South have named it clearly: neocolonial control framed as democracy promotion.

If a foreign power attempted to destabilize a U.S. president, the language would be swift: violation of sovereignty. When the United States inserts itself into other nations’ governance, the language often shifts to stabilization.

Stabilization for whom?

The Gospel does not sanctify regime change engineered from afar. Jesus preached good news to the poor. He did not draft military doctrine for Caesar.

President Donald Trump has publicly suggested he deserves the Nobel Peace Prize. Politico has covered those statements

The Washington Post has also reported on reactions to such claims.

Military escalation abroad. Sanctions in the Caribbean. Interventionist rhetoric in South America. And talk of peace prizes.

The prophet Amos condemned those who “sell the righteous for silver.” Today, the temptation is to sell the narrative of peace for headlines while the poor absorb the cost.

Peace is not the absence of retaliation. Peace is the presence of justice.

Aircraft carriers do not create justice. Reparative policy, diplomacy, humility and mutual recognition of dignity do.

Reuters has also reported on discussions about reconstruction initiatives tied to Gaza, including infrastructure and sports proposals.

Rebuilding is not inherently wrong. Infrastructure can create jobs and restore hope. But if stadiums rise while families remain displaced and sovereignty remains unresolved, reconstruction risks becoming a distraction.

You cannot pave over trauma with turf.

If Gaza is rebuilt, Palestinian self-determination must stand at the center. The oppressed are not objects of charity. They are subjects of history.

Gaza does not need spectacle before it has safety and freedom.

This is not about partisan loyalty. It is about moral accounting.

When the United States aligns with military escalation against Iran, it risks widening the regional war. When it tightens sanctions on Cuba, it extends a Cold War policy that has harmed generations.

When it intervenes in Venezuela, it reopens wounds of imperial intrusion. When leaders speak of peace prizes while authorizing force, they stretch the meaning of peace until it frays.

The Black church has long known how to read Empire. Power rarely confesses its own violence. It must be named.

So we name it.

Militarism masquerading as security.Sanctions masquerading as accountability.Intervention masquerading as liberation.Spectacle masquerading as peace.

Prophetic witness is not cynicism.

We critique because we believe another world is possible. Isaiah envisioned swords beaten into plowshares — not sharper swords, not more precise drones.

Militarism abroad and injustice at home are intertwined. Budgets funding bombs neglect housing, health care, and climate resilience. The logic that justifies surveillance overseas rationalizes over-policing at home.

Empire is not only foreign policy. It is a spiritual condition.

The Gospel confronts it.

Demand congressional oversight of military action.Insist on diplomatic engagement over escalation.Advocate for lifting broad sanctions that punish civilians.Support humanitarian organizations working on the ground.Refuse to let peace become branding.

The prophets were not invited into palaces to be applauded. They stood outside the gates and cried out.

So we cry out.

For peace rooted in justice.For foreign policy that honors international law.For an end to the normalization of endless war.For leaders who understand that the Prince of Peace washed feet rather than command legions.

Do not confuse spectacle with salvation.

Stand with the crucified peoples of this world. Organize. Pray. Speak. Vote. Give. Persist.

Blessed are the peacemakers — not the peace-branded.

Peace without justice is no peace at all.