Washington (WP)--
More than 100 religious leaders -- Roman Catholic, evangelical and mainstream Protestant and Jewish --have urged presidential candidates to repudiate the increasingly popular theory that a nuclear war with the Soviet Union, leading to the day of Judgment is foretold in the Bible.
The religious leaders said Tuesday they feared the political implications of the theory that is prevalent among much of the Christians right wing. If carried to its logical conclusion, arms negotiations would be pointless because nuclear war with the Soviet Union is seen as inevitable. The nuclear Armageddon theory is a perversion of the Holy Scripture and a danger to the security of our republic, " the religious leaders said in a statement released at a news conference.
Signers of the statement include officials of the National Council of Churches; several Roman Catholic bishops and heads of Roman Catholic religious order; the heads of two Protestant denominations, the United Church of Christ and the American Baptist Churches, USA, and several rabbis and assorted clergy and lay leaders.