ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the statements by the Roman Catholic, Episcopalian, Lutheran, United Methodist, American Baptist, and United Presbyterian denominations on questions pertinent to the nuclear weapons debate as well as brief analysis of the various Churches' positions within that debate. It aims to indicate some implications of the ecclesiastical statements for the life of the Christian Churches specifically and the American public in general. While recognizing the legitimate right of self-defense for states in a decentralized international order, the Pastoral strongly condemns the direct use of nuclear weapons against noncombatants. The Lutheran Church in America's "Resolution on war and Peace in a Nuclear Age" opens with a commitment to well-informed action toward justice and peace and declares its support for a "multilateral, verifiable freeze of testing, production, stockpiling, and deployment of nuclear weapons and delivery systems as a step toward the eventual elimination of nuclear weapons. "
