This evening I had a choice of staying at home with my family or going to a talk on the necessity of nuclear arms abolition. I chose the nuclear option.
Now the Cold War is over we tend to forget that the risk of nuclear annihilation is just as horrifically present as it ever was - possibly more so. As humans I think we probably can't cope with contemplating more than, say, a couple of causes of potential total destruction at a time, so while we get our heads round pandemics and global warming, the nuclear issue sits on the back-burner. Dr Lawrence Wittner, tonight's speaker, suggests we come out of denial and take it a bit more seriously, and gave a convincing (to my mind) argument for nuclear abolition - though of course, he was preaching to the choir.
Not literally the choir, though we were sitting in a church. The lecture had been organised by local Catholics, including my neighbour who had invited me. There's a popular misconception in Britain that American Christianity is all extremely conservative and obsessed with banning Harry Potter and opposing gay rights. But there are also plenty of Christians here with a broader (and more broad-minded) agenda, and although I'm no believer I felt quite comfortable in their environment tonight.
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