Bishop highlights marital differences

AS SOMEONE who disagrees with the Catholic Church on several matters, nonetheless I object to the implication of your editorial (8 October) which portrays the Church as some kind of ecclesiastical bully out of touch with modern society, which must be resisted.

I find it interesting that whenever any Church figure speaks about poverty, social justice etc, it is generally welcomed in the mainstream media, but let the Church dare to challenge any of the shibboleths of the self-styled guardians of “modern and progressive” Scotland, and suddenly it is demonised as a tyrant.

It is also interesting that your editorial seeks to portray this as one Church (the Catholic) on one hand, against “other religious leaders” on the other. Yet this is a false picture. The religious leaders cited earlier in the week included the Metropolitan Church (a tiny group of a couple of gay churches), the Quakers, the Liberal Jews and the Pagan Society. They are entitled to their views but they are a tiny percentage (less than 1 per cent) of religious groups in Scotland, the vast majority of which have come out against same-sex marriage. It is disingenuous to cite them as some kind of equivalence.

Sadly, most of the media are entirely missing the point as regards the current same sex-marriage debate. It is not about “equality under the law” as regards marriage; it is about “redefining marriage” so that it is no longer what it once meant.

It may give “equality” (whatever that means), but it is not marriage. That is what concerns the Catholic Church and many others. The lack of rational, intelligent discussion on this subject and the refusal to countenance any other point of view is a clear enough indicator that it is the “liberal” elite, rather than the Catholic Church, which is seeking to speak with an omnipotent voice within Scottish society.

DAVID A ROBERTSON

Solas Centre for Public Christianity

St Peters Free Church

St Peter Street, Dundee

I GREW up in the West of Scotland, where my first experience of sectarianism was being told that I was going to attend a separate school from two of the children I played with on a daily basis. I subsequently lost contact with them.

How baffling it is that the organisation which consistently advocates segregated education is now sorely aggrieved at the level of sectarianism in Scottish society. And how baffling that anyone can find homophobia less hateful than sectarianism.

EWAN BLAIN

Craiglockhart Park

Edinburgh

IT WOULD appear that the meeting between Bishop Tartaglia and the First Minister was a non-event. Few will be surprised. The prelate was sent packing with a few metaphorical trinkets in a bizarre twist to the way missionaries used to quieten down troublesome natives.

It could hardly have been anything else. The head of the Catholic Church in Scotland, Cardinal O’Brien, has all but campaigned for the Nationalists and sitting close to Bishop Tartaglia in your photograph (8 October) was the Church’s head of media, Peter Kearney.

In Mr Kearney’s previous existence, he was an SNP activist and stood for the deputy leadership of the party. So much for rendering unto Caesar: this was religion and naked politics side by side.

There was hardly likely to be confrontation in these circumstances.

ALEXANDER McKAY

New Cut Rigg

Edinburgh

WHEN 1.2 billion people currently earn less than a dollar a day, it is sad to see the Bishop of Paisley putting his efforts into a campaign aiming to prevent a few thousand people celebrating their stable and committed relationships by getting married.

The majority of Scots not only support same-sex marriage, but also want to live in a tolerant and forward-thinking country. Scotland has moved on and it is time the bishop recognised that.

COLIN MACFARLANE

Director, Stonewall Scotland

Howe Street, Edinburgh