Imagine a group of people sleepwalking their way towards a cliff edge and then just walking right off. Horrible right? I’ve heard that illustration used regarding people’s spiritual ignorance leading them to sleepwalk their way towards eternal oblivion. It’s also used with regards to all sorts of current challenges such as climate change, Donald Trump and my personal hobby horse: nuclear war. Most people, Elon Musk and Donald Trump aside, think nuclear war would be an awful thing. If even watching a nuclear test can be damaging to you and your children’s health then having one dropped on your city isn’t going to be good.

If ever there was a subject I would be happy to be wrong about it’s this one but the risk is growing and it’s not just me who says so.

The 2024 Nobel Peace Prize went to the hibakusha, survivors of the 1945 nuclear attacks on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Ever since then they have worked to eradicate nuclear weapons from the world. Their efforts are commendable and winning the world’s most famous peace prize is both a huge encouragement and a timely drawing of attention to the fact that we need them to succeed now more than ever. It is ironic that we are effectively rewarding perseverance over success but such is life when we it comes to the political realities of nuclear weapons.

Prior to Russia’s full invasion of Ukraine in 2021, nuclear war felt distant, and maybe it still does. Except it isn’t.

It’s not distant if you live in South Korea. South Korea is currently sheltering under the American nuclear umbrella but 70% of the population think they need their own umbrella. Can America be trusted to protect them from the nuclear armed North? Not everyone is confident. Would you be?

Now North Korea has been rattling nuclear sabres for years and regularly threatens hellfire and destruction on its enemies but there’s a new trigger now and that’s not on the Korean peninsula but the Crimean one. Almost.

Estimates suggest that 10,000 + North Korean soldiers are now in Russia and are likely to be engaged in front line action soon. This is a significant widening of the conflict. Russia has started using missiles that could carry nuclear warheads as the next stage in its escalation of actions and warnings that are designed to ward off Western nations from directly intervening in the Ukraine conflict. And as the handbrakes increasingly come off Ukraine in how it uses weapons there will only really be one step left if Ukraine is not to lose either significant chunks of territory or lose completely.

The new playbook is a game of call my bluff and so far no one thinks Putin is bluffing or at least they’re not willing to try and find out which is precisely what Putin wants. If he can use it who is to say no one else will also use that in the future?

All this means that we already are in a new nuclear arms race and one that will only speed up if people believe American power is no longer either sufficient nor reliable enough to protect them.

It’s why new books are being written that attempt to inform us about nuclear war and why the UN has approved a new study on effects of nuclear war for the first time since 1989 and why NATO is updating its nuclear readiness. Yet it would seem people are very simplistic about the use of nuclear weapons. No problem if your own side is using them but not so much if it’s the other side.

One of the things we need to remember is that it is possible for a nation to give up nuclear weapons. It’s happened before.

That has to be the goal for all Christians.

The use of nuclear weapons breaks every condition of a just war, goes against all conditions of the Geneva Convention and every single command of Jesus regarding treatment of your enemies. A Christian must be against nuclear weapons not on any political grounds but on Christian grounds. We should be, must be, a people against every and all uses of nuclear weapons no matter who uses them. And we should be for all nations, no matter who has them, working to get rid of them.