It is wrong to ignore the evidence of debate among republicans on the abandonment of force, and the opportunity for negotiation should not be allowed to be lost now, according to an editorial comment in the Church of Ireland Gazette.
The editorial questions the feasibility and acceptability of the security crackdown advocated by some politicians, and says it has been tried for 25 years and has failed.
"Violence breeds more violence, and those who contend that more security is the right course have not bothered to read the lessons of the last quarter-century.
"There is no level of security that is guaranteed to create permanent stability, without dire side-effects for society and the political future.
"Those who advocate putting the main emphasis on gearing up the security response do so in the sale knowledge that it is not likely to happen. Even if such an approach were generally acceptable in the North, on the assumption that it was feasible, would it be accepted by those expected to provide the troops and military hardware: the taxpayer at large?"
There was an opportunity for negotiation that had never existed before, it said.
"Instead of denouncing the efforts to bring Sinn Fein into the talks, it would be wiser to recognise that, by testing violent republicanism and finding it incapable of acknowledging political realities like the loyalist organisations have done, the differences between violent and non-violent nationalism have been formalised as never before."
The editorial praises the agreement between Mr David Trimble's UUP and the SDLP of
Mr John Hume which enabled the inter-party talks to begin moving.
It says: "For the first time the leaders of the largest two parties in Northern Ireland, together representing more than half the electorate, have acknowledged in public and jointly what they have, of course, long recognised in private: that politics is their function, and there is no alternative to negotiation between sensible men and women if violence is to be overcome."