The command to "love your neighbour" has deep implications for how we perceive the present crisis in the Middle East. Christianity is not the faith of the Jew or the Muslim but we have to see all the issues of the world in the light of the words of the carpenter of Nazareth, and not just the frightened people of that city today who have discovered they are within range of Hizbullah's rockets. If Christians have anything to say it can only be in the light of Christ.

Jesus requires us to make the leap forward from our usual selfishness until we reach the point where we can see clearly that the safety and welfare of our neighbours and our enemies is the only reliable basis for our own safety and welfare. This has come into sharp focus for me as I hear the pre-Christian rant of some Israelis (echoed by George W Bush) which demands that Muslims should disarm in the cause of peace; and just trust the Israelis to look after their interests. It is equally distressing to hear some Islamists demand that the "UMMAH" (the world of Muslims) should occupy all the lands of the Prophet. That requires the elimination of all Jews and Christians (and non-practicing Muslims, for that matter) from the Middle East by any means whatsoever.

Why does this impass create a painfull dilemma for all Christians in the United Kingdom now?  We have no power save the power of prayer, but if we dare to follow the spiritual logic of what prayer does to the praying person, we cannot pray for peace without working for peace. And how can we work for peace and keep Trident?

I can construct only one argument  to defend the nuclear defence choice. I present it in stark language. Britain and the USA (and maybe the French) are the only nations to be trusted with these weapons because we can be trusted not to use them. But we can look as if we might, and that is enough. Any other country is unreliable and might lose its head in an emergency and press the big red button.

That kind of thinking was normal in the days of the British Raj. Can you think of any good book or film about India from the mid-18th to mid-20th centuries which did not assume something like this? Its more comfortable if you delete the memory of furious British soldiers loading screaming Sepoy prisoners into the muzzles of their cannons and firing them at terrified civilians. This was after the Indian mutiny. Yes, its much more comfortable if you forget that episode.

The theology is this: It's not enough to love your neighbour, you need to trust him or her too. That means trusting with your whole future. Holding something back as a "reserved matter" is not an option. I am no fundamentalist, but there is something very fundamental about our faith when you apply it to the newspapers today.

Rev Ainslie Walton
17 July 2006

The Church of Scotland Newsroom has a copy of the Rt Rev Alan McDonald's speech given as Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland at Renfield St Stephen's Church, Glasgow, with Cardinal O'Brien. Please follow this link to read the Moderator's speech.