The Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, the Rev Alan McDonald, was joined by the president of the Bishops’ Conference of Scotland, Cardinal Keith Patrick O’Brien at a packed meeting in Glasgow Tuesday evening.
As the one year anniversary of the 2005 Make Poverty History Campaign approaches, Rev McDonald challenged Chancellor Gordon Brown over the huge cost of a Trident replacement, asking how many lives could be saved if the £25 billion needed to renew the nuclear warheads programme went to aid or debt relief instead.
“Precisely how obscene is it to spend £20 million to simulate a nuclear weapon when so many of the 6 billion inhabitants of earth still exist on less than a dollar a day?” asked Rev McDonald.
“The statistics about Trident are chilling,” said the Kirk Moderator. While each submarine can carry 16 missiles, each missile can be armed with up to 12 nuclear warheads with a range of 6000 miles. Meanwhile one Trident submarine can carry the equivalent of 750 Hiroshima atom bombs.
“The potential for the indiscriminate destruction of countless men, women and children is almost beyond belief. The threat to the future of creation is beyond imagining,” he warned.For people of faith this is no way to love our neighbour.
Rev Alan McDonald, Church of Scotland Moderator
In his speech, the Kirk Moderator went on to warn however that even if the Trident replacement were free, the UK should reject it.
