MOHAMMED Bedjaoui, the president of the highest ourt of Justice in the world, the International Court in The Hague, has affirmed that nuclear weapons are "the Ultimate Evil", that is, the worst thing in the world.
The great humanitarian Victor Gollantz wrote: "'to drop a nuclear bomb, in any circumstances whatever ...would be the final iniquity, final in the sense that no more abominable iniquity is possibly conceivable by the mind of man: sheer, unqualified evil'.
For George Quail (Letters, December 22) to airily dismiss this as my "usual opposition" indicates a lamentable failure to grasp the hellish reality of our situation. It is not a particular "religious dogma" to oppose mass murder - it is the recognition of our common humanity.
The World Health Organisatio) has calculated that it would take the detonation of 200 H Bombs to create a nuclear winter, and, in effect, to sterilizs the planet. End of. That is the number we have at Coulport.
The sexual proclivities or peccadillos of individuals are simply not a comparable issue. These do not affect the fate of humanity, or its very survival. We are, in a very deep sense, back to the beginning; In Deut. 30 we read" I call heaven and earth to witness this day, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. Choose therefore life, that both thou and thy seed may live." This is the stark choice we face today,
If his partner who is in the Green Party, were to claim "global warming is a myth. We must have ever greater burning of fossil fuel, and unrestricted economic growth", we would be entitled to ask "why on earth is she in the Green Party?"
Likewise, when the Catholic Jim Murphy supports Trident, he is not merely disagreeing with the Pope on some relatively minor matter, but denying the very basis of Catholicism. The document Gaudium et Spes, issued by the Second Vatican Council affirms: "Any act of war aimed indiscriminately at the destruction of entire cities or of extensive areas along with their population is a crime against God and Man himself. It merits unequivocal and unhesitating condemnation"
Placing loyalty to party above fidelity to the gospel is idolatry. "Render unto Caesar whatever he want, and render unto God sod all" is gross paganism. This is not a mere obsession of mine, but the unvarnished truth.
Brian Quail,
2 Hyndland Avenue, Glasgow.
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