John Hull, emeritus professor of religious education at the University of Birmingham and honorary professor of practical theology at the Queen's Foundation in Birmingham, explains why he is joining the Trident blockade on Sunday.
"If you had asked me a year ago about the Trident missile system, I would have replied, 'What's that?' My attention was drawn to it by a friend last April. I then realised that the government was thinking of renewing the UK nuclear deterrent, and with a group of friends from my local church I began to study it.
The result, after four months of enquiry, was a 5,000 word report setting out the six main arguments against the possession, and consequently the renewal, of Trident: the weapons are of little or no military use, of doubtful political significance, enormously costly, illegal, unethical and blasphemous. Any one of these arguments would be strong; taken together, they were overwhelming.
In the course of the investigation, I came across Faslane365, a proposal to blockade the naval base on the Clyde where the submarines that form the platform for firing the missiles are based. The intention was to start the series of peaceful protests on October 1 2006 and to keep them going for 365 days, in the knowledge that the use and the threat to use strategic nuclear weapons is a crime against humanity and a sin against God.
At that stage, I couldn't really see myself actually taking part. Faslane is a long way from Birmingham, and I am a busy person. In addition, I am in my seventies, I am asthmatic and totally blind.
Then I received an email inviting me to join a seminar that a group of university academics were proposing. The group would set up tables outside the base, sit on chairs, with a flip chart, a loudhailer, and a group of attentive students, and present papers on various aspects of the legal, military, economic and moral objections to nuclear missiles. I signed the declaration of support, but I still felt unsure.
And then my son, Thomas, offered to take me all the way and bring me back, if the police did not detain me too long. Tom is a primary school teacher and has to be back in Birmingham the next day.
I believe it is my duty as a citizen and a churchgoer to take a stand. What about getting arrested? Well, I don't care about my CV - only my obituary."
What do you think?
