A RELIGIOUS leader has warned against quitting the EU after claiming the institution has "successfully replaced bombs with bureaucrats".

The Rev Dr Richard Frazer, convener of the Church and Society Council of the Church of Scotland, said the union was "not perfect" but that walking away would be a "denial" of Britain’s global humanitarian and moral values.

He added that it was "simply wrong and a denial of our history" to believe that the challenge of immigration and the refugee catastrophe was someone else’s problem and a Leave vote on June 23 would not address it.

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He said: "The European project is far from perfect, but in as much as it has successfully replaced bombs with bureaucrats it has enabled European citizens to enjoy unprecedented peace, stability and opportunity since the Second World War.

"The issues we face are ones that, we have in part made for ourselves and, remaining within the EU, we have the influence to be part of the solution rather than simply standing in the wings and laying the blame with the “other."

"To walk away would be a denial of the very humanitarian and moral values for which we stand as an active participant in global civil society. In this global world, there is no ‘them’ and us, only ‘us’."

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The minister at Greyfriars Kirk in Edinburgh, said one of the most common human characteristics is to blame other people for misfortune – drawing parallels with the story of Adam and Eve.

"In their case, they blamed the snake for tempting them to eat forbidden fruit," he added. "In the case of those advocating an exit from the EU, it is common to hear people blame faceless bureaucrats in Brussels or a mighty onslaught of foreigners waiting at our borders to overrun our way of life."

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Last month the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland reaffirmed its support for the European Union - a position it has held for 20 years.