Several pastors I have heard fear we are heading to nuclear war.
I fear not being at ground zero when a missile hits. Just make it like tearing off a bandage.
The hamburger flipper down at the local McDonald's also says that we are headed for nuclear war - and his opinion is at least as valid as that of your "several pastors." Actually more valid, since he is a veteran with actual battlefield experience.
"Local pastors" have been riding that horse since 1945. It's namely good for church attendance.
Regards,
My point is that your referencing pastors having any opinion about nuclear war is about as relevant as the opinions of any random hamburger-flipper, real estate agent, or vacuum cleaner salesman on the subject.
Unless the given person has some special expertise on the topic - e.g., by virtue of a background in geopolitics, military history, East European Studies, etc. - they should keep their worthless speculations to themselves. Unless they can expound at length about U-235 enrichment by means of the high-speed centrifugation of uranium hexafluoride, or declaim on the subject of Kesselschlachten, or are certified Kremlinologists, they should keep their traps shut.
I've chatted with clergymen who were fond of making "dark allusions" to impending nuclear war - clergymen who couldn't tell a nuclear silo from a hole in the ground. Their "understanding" of the subject was based upon a half-remembered Readers Digest article from the 1960s, and a couple of episodes of "Lost in Space."
I do not go to such people to hear their pronouncements on subjects in which they do not possess expert knowledge.
Regards,