‘I think that to suggest that God might intervene to protect us from the corporate folly of our practices is as unchristian and unbiblical as to suggest that he protects us from the results of our individual folly or sin,’ he said.

‘This is not a creation in which there are no real risks – our faith has always held that the inexhaustible love of God cannot compel justice or virtue – we are capable of doing immeasurable damage to ourselves as individuals, and it seems clear that we have the same terrible freedom as a human race.