ARMAGEDDON THEOLOGY AND THE RISK OF GLOBAL WAR - THE LIMITS OF RELIGIOUS TOLERANCE IN THE NUCLEAR-AGE

Millions of Americans, primarily premillennialist fundamentalist Christians, believe that God has foreordained a global nuclear war as the precursor to the Second Coming of Christ. Apocalyptic religious beliefs would be of less consequence were it not for the fact that after being given computer warning of an apparent nuclear attack, U.S. personnel in the midst of the electronic loop have just a few minutes to decide whether or not to launch missiles in retaliation. Early warning computer systems have malfunctioned in the past, and religious convictions about the inevitability of a nuclear war could incline a person to make the disastrous error of believing an erroneous computer warning to be correct. In the U.S. military, access to nuclear devices and authorization to participate in their "delivery" is controlled by the Personnel Reliability Program (PRP). For the sake of global safety, American psychologists and psychiatrists, under the auspices of the PRP, should be engaged in screening out personnel who are convinced that a nuclear attack against Russia would accord with God's will.