photo to the left:Superman and his disciples
In most places other than Iran and the UK pluralistic societies since the enlightenment have understood that it is important that the state and the various churches operating in it should be separated. The state should remain institutionally neutral with regard to the values held by churches. It might well adopt some of the values expressed by such organisations, but there should never be a causality of the sort that whatever value is expressed by church A will become law in state A. There are all sorts of good reasons for this, but this is not the topic of today's posting. Nope, I want to tell you a bit about a smallish political sect called the Scottish Christian Party. They decided that they want Christian values to determine government policies in Scotland. Scotland will see elections to its devolved parliament some time in May this year.
Here, for the humanist and reasonably enlightened religious reader of this blog some gems from the party's website:
Bob Handyside, a retired music teacher and one of its candidates says: 'Traditional Christian family values have been undermined while minority groups are privileged and preferred before the majority.' Bob is, of course, referring to civil rights legislation saying that religious adoption agencies may not discriminate against same sex prospective adoptive parents.
A guy by the name Revd J. Hargreaves explains to visitors of the party's website what the real name of the Scottish Christian Party is: 'Our full name is in fact the Scottish Christian Party “Proclaiming Christ’s Lordship”.' So, the real government in Scotland then or in the UK, for that matter, is not the democratically elected government appointed by the citizens but some Lordship by the name Christ. Well, looks like the end of democracy is ever edging closer as da Lord is moving in on us.
Makes you wonder how they see themselves representing the people of Scotland, seeing that Scotland is the most strongly non-religious country in the whole of Europe. Explains da Lord's representative Mr J. Hargreaves: 'Furthermore, just as you would not expect to find a Conservative in the Scottish Socialist Party, those of other faiths and none cannot join the Scottish Christian Party.' So, there you have it, the Lord's crowd doesn't want you, and will almost certainly not represent your interests unless you are a Christian. Shame they haven't picked Allah as their leading light, as otherwise all they'd have to do is to move on to Iran and enjoy its version of 21st century civilisation (if they're really lucky they might even be able to participate in the public stoning to death of people alleged to be gay).
As the old Romans say in Asterix and Obelix cartoons: 'Caveat emptor' or 'Let the buyer beware.' These people are really out there, even though one can't help but think that some comedian might be behind this party and its activities. They can't be for real, or can they?
