ABSTRACT
War presents moral and ethical dilemmas that have evoked lively debate among religious authorities across the world and throughout history. One very broadly calculates the costs of nuclear deterrence; the other relies on two criteria offered under the just-war doctrine, proportionality and discrimination. Proponents of nuclear pacifism argue that the superpowers have placed too much emphasis on nuclear deterrence as a way of preventing a war between the United States and the Soviet Union or between Western Europe and the Eastern bloc. As early as 1968, the National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA passed a resolution expressing support for the concept of nuclear pacifism, complete with a critique of nuclear deterrence, without ever using a terminology. The Episcopal Church contends that the only morally legitimate purpose of nuclear deterrence is to buy "a little more time to work for other, more peaceful, less apocalyptic alternatives".
