IN THEORY:Ongoing nuclear debate

As a boy, I moved often because of my father's occupation. I was forever "the new kid;" a target of every adolescent ne'er-do-well that you can imagine. Believe me, I tried words, and words were fed back to me with bloody lips. Here we're talking about entire bully nations that have no sense of Western civilization; that would just as well blow us up as speak to us, and liberal religious groups are asking that we just talk nicely to them so that they will change their disposition and join us in our efforts to bring earthly harmony?

Please, nukes are out of the gate. Should we wish to achieve world peace, we'll do so by being a taloned eagle, not an idealistic clay pigeon. If we present ourselves as declawed, I can guarantee that we'll soon be extinct.

We don't live in a world where man is essentially good, despite the opinion of religious cults, but in a world of murder and terrorism, ideological falsehood over Biblical truth, and every other result of the fact that mankind is essentially prone to evil. It's this fact that brought Jesus to us.

He came that we might have peace with God, not necessarily with one another (Matthew 10:34).

If everyone would embrace Christ, only then would we have reason to hope for peace by virtue of our common brotherhood.

In the meantime, forbid totalitarian regimes such weapons, arm democracies to the teeth and pray the silos are never opened.

THE REV. BRYAN GRIEM

Senior Pastor

MontroseCommunityChurch.org

Barring discussions from national security advisors, ambassadors and secretaries of foreign affairs, there is only one simple, clear answer. There is no moral defense for nuclear weapons. We as a people and as a country can promote peaceful resolutions not based on the use of nuclear weapons.

Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard wrote in "Dianetics," "Man is now faced, by these pyramiding hatreds, with weapons so powerful that Man himself may vanish from the Earth.

There is no problem in the control of these weapons. They explode when and where Man tells them to explode.

The problem is in the control of man … Insanity does not exist without a confusion of definitions and purpose.

The solution to the international problem does not lie in the regulation or curtailment of weapons nor yet in the restraints of men.

It lies in the definition of political theory and policy in such terms that there can be no mistaking the clear processes; it lies in the establishment of rational goals toward which societies can collectively and individually work; and it lies in an inter-social competition of gains so great that none become dispensable to the other."

Faith-based diplomacy brings calm and rational solutions. Clergy leaders can do more than offer opinions on foreign policies or defense. Setting the stage for international peace may well be the religious challenge of the 21st century.

CATHERINE EMRANI

Volunteer Minister

Glendale Church of Scientology