FIND US ON
ICAN-UK patron Bishop Stephen Cottrell on the urgent need to ban nuclear weapons
A chance to rid the world of a terror
There are 23,000 nuclear weapons in the world today. By a strange coincidence, there are almost the same number of churches in this country, 16,000 of them in the Church of England.
It is a chilling thought: next time you are driving through the English countryside, passing spire after spire, consider this: for every church, there is a nuclear weapon, and just one of them could cause unimaginable devastation.
Only if you come from Hiroshima or Nagasaki is it imaginable. They are still living with the consequences of the last time one was used.
Some will argue that, because they have not been used since then, they have somehow contributed to the virtual peace we enjoy today. But there are still wars across our world, and there are more and more countries wanting to develop nuclear weapons.
At present, the UK has four Trident submarines, each carrying up to 48 nuclear warheads. One of these warheads has an explosive power of up to 100 kilotonnes — eight times the power of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.
Despite public opposition to Trident and the fact that many senior political and military figures are now questioning its value, the British Government still plans to replace these weapons. Why is this, when so many other countries manage without them, and when everyone agrees that nuclear weapons cannot solve any of the serious problems our world faces?
Whether it is climate change, hunger, poverty, or terrorism, nuclear weapons are useless. No one really knows how much the renewal of Trident will cost. It could be as much as £76 billion over the next 30 years. That money could be better spent — on schools, hospitals, green energy, or even different military priorities for the different demands our armed forces now face.
Yet, despite the recent deal between the United States and Russia to reduce the number of nuclear arms, both the Labour Party and the Conservatives have decided to exclude Britain’s nuclear weapons from the forthcoming Strategic Defence Review.
Meanwhile, opinion polls suggest that a substantial majority of people are against replacing Trident. Were our Government to listen to these voices, it would set an inspiring precedent and provide real momentum to President Obama’s and the UK’s stated goal of a world free from nuclear weapons. This is an important issue for Christians, especially during the General Election.
There is a window of opportunity before us to hasten the end of nuclear weapons. Next week, representatives from 189 countries will gather in New York for a review of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Many people believe that if this led to a Nuclear Weapons Convention (NWC), we would be much closer to achieving what we all desire: the abolition of nuclear weapons.
The idea of such a convention has worldwide support. The secretary-general of the UN, Ban Ki-Moon, and the majority of the UN General Assembly, including nuclear-armed China, India, and Pakistan, all support a convention.
Jayantha Dhanapala (a former under-secretary general for disarmament of the UN) says that an NWC is “the simplest and most direct route” to a world free from nuclear weapons. Yet, despite its support for this goal, the UK does not currently back a convention.
The Government argues that it would be “premature” to press for an NWC, and that it would “distract attention” from the NPT review. But pressure is growing, and this is where Christian people can be involved.
Several churches, including the Church of England, the Church of Scotland, the Methodist Church, the Baptist Union of Great Britain, and the URC already support an NWC.
Moreover, groups such as the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) and more than 150 MPs are calling on the Government to support an international convention at the NPT review conference.
It is the Church’s task to take a moral lead in these issues. The report The Church and the Bomb recommended in 1983 that the UK unilaterally renounce its nuclear deterrent.
Although the General Synod rejected this recommendation, an amended motion said that, while the Church should not determine the country’s defence strategy, it was to give a moral lead to the nation by asking those ethical questions that need to be addressed before a decision is taken.
In the more recent General Synod debate about Trident in 2007, the Archbishop of Canterbury said that there were certain kinds of weapons “whose use is so intrinsically indiscriminate that it becomes impossible to mount a case for their proportionate use”.
For Christians, whether they favour a multilateral or unilateral solution, the question of proportionality is central to the just use of force. If we believe chemical and biological weapons and even landmines cannot be used for this reason, it is impossible to support the use of nuclear weapons.
Since even those who support their value as a deterrent also long to see their abolition, a Nuclear Weapons Convention is a way of bringing everyone round the table and starting to find ways of preventing their continued development, testing, and, ultimately, possession.
Campaigners across the world will be holding events for Nuclear Abolition Day on 5 June (www.nuclearabolition.org) to call for an NWC, and to show that there is global support for abolishing nuclear weapons now. This is also something Christians can be part of.
The spires of our churches call us to worship, but also point beyond themselves to a larger reality and a different set of values. May they help point the world in the right direction.
This article first appeared in the Church Times, 30th April 2010
The Rt Revd Stephen Cottrell is Bishop of Reading, and Bishop-designate of Chelmsford, and a patron of the UK branch of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (www.icanw.org.uk).
Talk by Rt Revd Stephen Cottrell, Bishop of Reading
Rethinking Trident and the International Campaign for the Abolition of Nuclear Weapons
7.00 pm, Wednesday 9th June 2010
Reading International Solidarity Centre, 35-39 London Street, Reading, RG1 4PS
For more details contact Nuclear Information Service: office@nuclearinfo.org
