By Donald Gilpin

As the weather cools and Election Day approaches, the Coalition for Peace Action’s (CFPA) efforts are heating up.

The Princeton-based organization is culminating its 2024 Peace Voter Campaign in the coming weeks; co-sponsoring the Sunday, October 20 Supreme Injustice Rally at Hinds Plaza; and preparing for its Multifaith Service for Peace and Afternoon Conference for Peace on November 17.

Led by Executive Director the Rev. Robert Moore, the CFPA has recently completed its Peace Voter Guides, comparing the positions of major party candidates on key peace issues in three target races in the Central Jersey region.

The CFPA is aiming to keep peace issues on the radar of voters and to make sure those voters are as educated as possible before they go into the voting booths and decide how to cast their ballots, Moore explained. The CFPA was a pioneer in developing this sort of high-impact campaign 30 years ago, and it has been copied in campaigns across the country.

There are three target races highlighted in this year’s Peace Voter Guide: the District 7 congressional contest, expected to be the closest New Jersey congressional race, between incumbent Republican Thomas Kean Jr. and Democrat Sue Altman; the District 3 congressional race between Republican Rajesh Mohan and Democrat Herb Conaway; and the U.S. Senate election competition between Republican Curtis Bashaw and Democrat Andy Kim.

The CFPA invited candidates of both major parties to candidate briefing sessions in the spring on issues of nuclear weapons, war prevention, climate action, and gun safety. Candidates followed up by responding to a 10-item questionnaire stating their positions. None of the three Republicans responded to the invitation for a briefing or the questionnaire, but the three Democrats’ responses can be found in the Peace Voter Guide at peacecoalition.org.

The CFPA is also sponsoring signature ads, one of which will be run in the regional version of the Newark Star Ledger and will reach more than 100,000 voters before Election Day, with the goal of further educating the electorate on the positions of major candidates on peace-related issues.

Gun Violence Prevention

At the 2 p.m. October 20 rally in Hinds Plaza, which will protest several recent Supreme Court decisions and call for Supreme Court justices to “follow an enforceable code of ethics,” Moore will be one of several speakers, and his particular focus will be on decisions impacting gun safety laws.

He will discuss recent Supreme Court decisions that have weakened gun violence prevention laws. One example he noted was the recent Bruen decision that diluted concealed carry of guns laws and has allowed 30 times as many New Jersey residents to carry concealed guns, with permits in the state increasing from 1,500 to 45,000.

Moore reported that CFPA’s Ceasefire NJ Project, along with a delegation of gun violence prevention leaders from across the state, held a meeting on October 7 with New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin and five of his senior staff members.

“We discussed supporting General Platkin’s outstanding work challenging Supreme Court rulings that weaken New Jersey’s strong gun safety laws,” said Moore. “He agreed to work closely with us to implement those laws, as well as help us press for passing an urgently needed secure storage of guns bill.”

Platkin also agreed to meet regularly with the CFPA to enhance their collaboration, Moore noted.

Multifaith Service and Conference

The CFPA’s November 17 Multifaith Service for Peace will take place at 11 a.m. in the Princeton University Chapel, with the Rev. Adam Russell Taylor, president of Sojourners magazine, delivering the sermon, and a wide range of faith leaders each giving a short prayer or a reading from their faith traditions.

“This grounds us in the great spiritual traditions of the world,” said Moore. Taylor previously led the Faith Initiative at the World Bank Group and served as vice president in charge of advocacy at World Vision U.S. and the senior political director at Sojourners.

This 45th annual Multifaith Service will be followed by an Afternoon Conference for Peace at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Princeton at 50 Cherry Hill Road.

Featured speakers in the afternoon, in addition to Taylor who will be returning, will include William D. Hartung, a senior research fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft and an expert on the arms industry and the U.S. military budget; Heather Brandon-Smith, the legislative director for foreign policy at the Friends Committee on National Legislation; and Sebastien Philippe, a research scholar in Princeton University’s Program on Science and Global Security with a focus on nuclear non-proliferation, arms control, disarmament, and justice issues.

Moore suggested that Taylor, the author of A More Perfect Union: A New Vision for Building the Beloved Community, in his morning sermon and during the afternoon conference session, might be speaking about how we find our way forward as a nation “at a deeply polarized time.”

“Our democracy is at stake,” said Moore. “Where do we go from here? What does the faith community have to offer on that? It’s a big question. How do we continue to live with each other, work together, and maintain a civil discourse and mutual understanding?”

He continued, “We need to be grounded in the sense that we’re all in this struggle together. We’re not all going to think about it in the same way or have the same ideas, but we need to have the same grounding in mutual respect.”

For more information on the CFPA and required registration for the November 17 Afternoon Conference for Peace, visit peacecoalition.org or bit.ly/4gyPk71.