These words from Psalm 124 in the Scottish Metrical Version:
“But blessed be God who doth us safely keep

and hath not given us for a living prey

unto their teeth and bloody cruelty.”

came to mind as I read in my morning paper that David Haines, who was beheaded by ISIL had asked that nobody should pay a ransom for his freedom. He must have been a very brave man. I’m less scared of death than I used to be, but extreme pain scares the shit out of me, and that’s what David Haines was facing. The manner of his death and of many others at the hands of ISIL pushes me towards notions of retribution which are contrary to my ethics of peace.

Shortly afterwards I received an email from Beth in Alaska telling me of landslides which have devastated a town and trapped some of its people. She and her husband Mark are teaching native people to set up a fish loading business and are very grieved by this incident.

The two events taken together remind me of a passage in Luke’s Gospel chapter 13.

“At that very time there were some present who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. 2 He asked them, ‘Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other Galileans? 3 No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish as they did. 4 Or those eighteen who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them—do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others living in Jerusalem? 5 No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did.’”

Two events are reported here:one a bloody murder, the other, a terrible accident, just as in my reading today.

I find it hard to read the passage without anger. What on earth was Jesus on about? How could he respond in such a blunt and unfeeling fashion to these tragedies? There’s no word here of any compassion for the victims, but rather a willingness to use their suffering as a warning. Is Jesus saying that the victims died without time to repent and that his hearers best get in some repentance before something similar happens to them? I begin to imagine how our gentle and compassionate mass media would have dealt with this matter if they had been around in Jesus’ time.

Voices shouting: Hey, Jesus, Jesus of Nazareth, Judaean Times here, Jerusalem Post wants to know, Capernaum Courier, your local paper Jesus, Tyre TV Jesus, what have you to say to grieving relatives Jesus, did you disrespect the dead?

Jesus: OK One at a time please!

Reporter 1: Judaean Times, Jesus, we want to know if you used these terrible deaths to preach a sermon about repentance….

Reporter 2.And you showed no respect or compassion, Bethlehem Bugle here.

Jesus: And of course your newspapers are models of respect and compassion?

Reporter 3: Don’t think you can weasel out of this by abusing the media. I’ve got a note that says you described the dead as just average sinners and told your audience that unless they all repented the same might happen to them. Is it true you said these words?

Jesus: Not quite true….

Reporter 4: Tyre TV….we’re transmitting this direct… we don’t want any maybes, did you say those words and if so how do you defend them?

Jesus: Those who use the death of others to make money for their companies are in no position to judge. But I’m happy to answer if you’re happy to listen instead of screaming.

Reporter 1: It better be good….

Jesus: I did not use the word repent, I said “change your ways”.

Voices: Just makes it worse, that’s appalling, he’s supposed to be a holy man, he’s a headbanger….

Jesus: The people asked me if God let Pilatus kill the men because they were terrible sinners. And I said they were no worse sinners than the rest of us. And I said the same about the people killed by the tower. I can say it again to you. These victims were the same kind of sinners as you and me.

Reporter 2: Are you saying God’s got something bad planned for us?

Jesus: Come on, grow up, these are nothing to do with God….

Reporter 4: You mean they were just accidents?

Jesus: Well, certainly our father in heaven does not control all the events of the world, but these events were not accidents…

Reporter 3: Aw come on Jesus, if they weren’t accidents, what were they?

Jesus: Pontius Pilatus ordered the massacre of the Galileans because he thought their sacrifices to God were provocative.He may have imagined he was keeping order, but he is responsible for these deaths.

Reporter 1: Maybe you want to lead people against the Romans?

Jesus: Do I look like a Jihadi? People who take up the sword die by it.

Reporter 2: But the tower falling, that was an accident wasn’t it?

Jesus: Not altogether. God didn’t build the tower, nor was it God’s duty to maintain it. So if we build and fail to maintain our buildings, who’s at fault if they fall on somebody? Remember I used to be the village builder.

Reporter 4: It was part of the Temple. You accusing the Temple authorities?

Jesus: No I’m just pointing out we live in a world that is not controlled by God. Sometimes accidents do happen. Sometimes people do evil things. That’s our world. We can only change it by changing ourselves.

Reporter 3: And if we change ourselves we’ll be free from evil or accidents?

Jesus: Unfortunately not.. But if we work with God for a different world, our deaths will not be meaningless.

Reporter 1. But the people we’re talking about, their deaths will still be meaningless?

Jesus: The New World I work for is for all, including those who are victims of evil and carelessness. It might even include journalists……..

JC: Oh, sorry to disturb you, I was just getting some peace and quiet in this roof garden, before turning in. I’ve never been in a hotel with a roof garden before. In fact I’m hardly ever in Hotels, a B &B is more homely.

JC: It’s much the same with me. My parents had some bad experience way back, something about them always being full-up when you needed them….. But a garden’s a good place when you’ve a lot on your mind.

JC: And I do have a lot on my mind. Also I’m not as young as I used to be…

JC: Only 66,  I’m told…..

JC:  Yeah, that’s right…..hey! Wait a minute. How do you know me?

JC: Come on Jeremy Corbyn, your face has been all over the news for weeks now!

JC: You’re not one of the papparazi  are you? Cause if you are, I’m not talking to you. I’ve been in public all day, talking and giving interviews. Now I need peace. Please go away.

JC: I’m not a journalist. I just came here to Glasgow to visit Rose Gentle, she’s a friend. She was saying she likes what you’re saying.

JC: She’s a good person. How do you know her? You don’t sound like a Glaswegian.

JC: I’ve tried to give her a bit of help ever since her son was killed in Iraq.

JC: So, Mr…..Mr…. You never introduced yourself….

JC: Jesus.

JC: Well, that’s a problem….

JC: Why?

JC: Because I don’t believe in you and even if I did, I wouldn’t expect to be talking to you in a hotel roof garden in Glasgow.

JC: You don’t need to believe in me to talk to me. Perhaps there’s something on your mind you could share with someone you don’t believe in. If I don’t exist, you won’t have given away any secrets.

JC: Well, OK Mr. Jesus, I’ll tell you what’s getting to me. I’ve put forward my policies for the Labour Party and the nation as honestly as I can. Now my opponents say I’m a nice man but just out of date. My views belong to another time and are now irrelevant. And of course, I did form my views when I was younger, so maybe they are right…..

JC: I’m not a politician, but I can tell you’re an honest man.

JC:,But maybe an out of date honest man?

JC: I’m not going to approve or disapprove your policies, but never fall for that stuff about being out of date. Truth and justice are never out of date. They’ve been calling me out of date for almost 2000 years. Romans arguing that I might have been all right for 1st century Judaea; intellectuals saying I might have been useful in the Middle Ages; Richard Dawkins telling people that science has disproved me; ordinary citizens saying that it’s the 21st century and time to forget me. I’ve always been out of date.

JC: So would you vote for me?

JC: As I said, I’m not a politician, in fact I’m not even a UK citizen. I’m just saying, don’t listen to abuse about being out of date!

JC: if you’re not a UK citizen, what are you doing here?

JC: Maybe I’m an asylum seeker…. I’m often associated with people who’re in danger of being binned.

JC: I hope that’s not why you’re associating with me?

JC: I hope not too. I’ll leave you now. Good night JC.

JC: Good night, eh….JC, and thanks.

Scene: outside and inside Trumpet Foundation HQ

Security: Hey, buddy, you can’t just walk in waving that thing…

Old Man: What are you objecting to?

Security: That sharp blade over your shoulder, bit like a scythe in the old days…

Old Man: It’s harmless except to those it’s meant for.

Security: Sure, sure just stop right where you are. This is a gun and I can use it.

Old Man: I think you’ll find it’s jammed..

Security (pulling trigger) yeah,it’s jammed, (switches on his phone, shouting) Security! Red Alert! Entrance hall! Man with scythe approaching! No I’m not joking, I’ve not been drinking. Get there and see. No, I tried to follow but somehow I can’t move from this spot….

At the Welcome Desk

Old Man: Good morning Miss, I have an appointment with Mr. Donald Trumpet.

Assistant: And your name Sir?

Old Man: Time, eh, Mr Time.

Assistant: Time, no I don’t see your name here, Sir.Perhaps you’ve got the wrong day?

Old Man: No I’ve never been known to get the wrong day…

Assistant: And you’d have to leave that curved blade with security… no, your name isn’t on Mr Trumpet’s list at all.

Old Man: When I said an appointment, I didn’t mean that Mr Trumpet knew I was coming. Just that I’d been told to see him.

Assistant: I’m sorry Sir, I’ve pressed the button for Security…..ah, here they are now…

Security 1: You! Drop that weapon!

Security 2: Drop that weapon and get down on the floor!

Security 1: Now, or we’ll fire!

Old man: I think you’ll find you can’t stop me…(he walks to the elevator) Floor 23, Suite 1, I believe I’ll find him there.

(vanishes in elevator)

Floor 23 at the elevators. Old man exits.

D. Trumpet: Now who the hell d’you think you are, mister? Security just rang through about you. You got a goddam nerve busting in here, assaulting my security staff, terrorising my assistant, carrying that weapon, I bet you’re a goddam democrat or a Mexican rapist. In any case, just turn round, get back in that elevator, go back the way you came and git your ass outa here or I’ll blow you to bits with this blaster I borrowed from my dentist!*

Old Man: The weapon is useless. You can test it by pulling the trigger, see, as I said, useless.

D. Trumpet: Who are you, old man? Are you Isil, or Al Quaeda, or the People Against Golf-Courses or what?

Old Man: I think maybe you’re beginning to recognise me. Why don’t we go into your office where there’s more privacy?

D. Trumpet: Well, seeing you got this far, why not the office?

Trump’s Office

Old man: I don’t want to drag this out. I’m here to tell you that this very night your soul is required of you.

D. Trumpet: Come on buddy, I’m not getting you. Tell me in plain English.

Old man: Tonight you’re going to die, perish, snuff it, peg out, kick the bucket, shuffle off your mortal coil, hand in your dinner pail, croak.

D. Trumpet: Tonight! No more warning than a few measly hours!

Old man: Yes.

D. Trumpet: But I’m feeling fine, full of life, having fun being a candidate for the Presidency. You sure?

Old man: We never make mistakes. He’ll come for you about midnight.

D. Trumpet: Who? Who d ‘ye mean? Who’s gonna come for me?

Old man: The One you belong to, your master, Mr Horns ‘n Tail, His Satanic Majesty. You’re going to his place; they say it’s not much fun.

D Trumpet: But I don’t belong to Satan!  I’m a Presbyterian, I’m a Christian! I belong to Jesus who’s gonna take me home.

Old man: Ah the Lord Jesus! He won’t let anyone steal his people, so if you really belong to him, you should expect to see him before midnight. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ll be on my way. (he leaves)

D. Trumpet: (on phone) Cancel all my appointments. Find my wife. Get hold of my minister. Yes, you heard right, my minister. Who’s my minister? How the hell am I supposed to know. Find him, get him here! And that Giovanni Crapaldi we used to do business with, yes, yes, the Mafia man, get him here too in case he has a line with the Pope. OK? Move!

9pm

D. Trumpet: All useless! My wife is sad. My minister prayed. Giovanni said he could bribe the last Pope but not this one. All my colleagues think I’ve flipped. And as for Jesus, just when you need him, he’s not around…

Jesus: Hello…?

D Trumpet: Who’s there? Come in. Let me see you. Aw, God help me, it’s a goddam Mexican. What you doing here, Jose? You claiming asylum? Eh? Good idea, that’s what I want to do, claim asylum before I get fried.

Jesus: You wanted to see me, I’m Jesus.

D. Trumpet: Don’t mess me around, buddy, I know my Bible. Jesus is a Jew not a Spic. So go bother someone else.

Jesus: Donald, I’ve come for you. Just follow me….

D Trumpet: You got some gall, bud, to come in here and impersonate the Lord Jesus! Get out and don’t come back!

Jesus: Very well.

Later

D Trumpet: Oh, there’s a cold wind blowing out of the night and someone with very heavy steps is climbing upwards through the building. Ah he’s getting nearer. No, Go away, leave me alone, aaaarrrrrgggggghhh!

Mrs Trumpet: Donald, Donald, you were screaming in your sleep! It’s all right, you’re at home in your bed. What’s wrong?

D Trumpet: Nothing, nothing, hon, just a crazy dream….

• This is an obscure joke about dentists and lions and guns

It’s after midnight, and I’m tired but still seated at my desk, trying to deal with this thing that throws my whole life into question and makes me angry, grieved, confused, guilty, and resentful. You don’t need to know, Reader, ( if you exist ) the precise nature of this thing, because you could only, if you are a kind person, offer me your sympathy.

You think your sympathy is any good to me? You might say those untruthful words, ” I know how you feel.”

YOU DO NOT KNOW HOW I FEEL. Even if a similar trouble has afflicted you, you are not me, and cannot know how the thing feels to me. Yes, I could try to tell you; yes, you could ask shrewd questions, but no, we would not have eliminated the essential loneliness of human experience. It’s the same with pleasure; in the intimacy of sex, do I really know what that beloved person is feeling?

As I think these thoughts, he comes in and sits down in the chair opposite me. He is wearing jeans and a blue shirt, I observe, and carries a bottle of water in the modern way. This naff custom has always annoyed me.

“I suppose you’re going to offer me  a drink?”

He he smiles and hands me the bottle, “As you see, it’s unopened. Sometimes the wardrobe people are a bit over the top.”

His equanimity annoys me.

“Or maybe you’ve come to offer me your sympathy?”

“Do you think you deserve sympathy?”

“Oh right, you mean that if I’ve got a roof over my head, enough to eat and nobody trying to kill me, I should thank the wise creator for being better off than most of his miserable creatures? But that’s mere childishness. I’m complaining about the administration, and it’s no answer to say it’s treated others worse than me.”

“But of course I do offer you my sympathy. I know how you feel”

“YOU DO NOT KNOW HOW I FEEL! I know you’ve suffered, but how would you like it if I said I knew how you felt on the cross”

“Perhaps we can all use our unique experiences of  suffering to understand other sufferers. But in my case there’s something more: I do in fact know what you’re feeling.”

“How on earth can you know?”

“Because I am no longer limited to the earth.”

“Look, I’m not sure I need this conversation. and in any case you’re a figment of my imagination. Even your smart answers come from my own brain.”

“If you think that, why not ask me about something you can’t know?”

“Well, tell me about not being limited to the earth.”

“I was dead and behold I am alive for evermore.”

” Don’t give me that Bible crap! If you’re real tell me something real.”

“On earth there are joy and sorrow, justice and injustice, love and hate, war and peace, good and evil, life and death. In heaven there are only joy, justice, love, peace, goodness and life.”

“So from the pinnacle of perfection you can look down at our struggles and SYMPATHISE! I hope we don’t spoil your happiness….”

“I spoke only of heaven, but heaven is not separate from earth. When we are on earth, joy with sorrow is a fact and unmixed joy is a hope. When we are in heaven unmixed joy is a fact and the sorrows of earth are a commitment.”

“You mean, you have a choice whether to feel them or not?”

“On earth commitment to others is a choice, in heaven it is a fact. All your suffering is real to us.”

“That must be a nasty additive to your unmixed joy.”

“If our joy was at the expense of your sorrow it would be imperfect; but because we are committed to your victory over sorrow, it is a perfect joy.

“So. I spoke without thinking. I accept your sympathy is real. But I’m not sure it does me any good.”

“Not in itself, you’re right. But it’s only the first step. If you trust that I understand, Then accept me as a comrade in your battle. There will still be wounds but perhaps you can can begin to see them as marks of battle rather than signs of defeat.”

I looked at him as if for the first time, and saw, even as he moved to conceal it, the mark of the nail on his right hand, still raw.

TALK SHOW PRESENTER: Well I’ve introduced some big names on this show, from Tom Cruise to Donald Trump, as y’all know, but none bigger than this: Jesus Christ! No, I’m not blaspheming, I’m announcing the biggest scoop of any talk show, it’s a world first, it is my privilege to present to you, The Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God! (Jesus is shown to a seat at a table.)

JESUS: it’s not really a first you know, some Jews and Palestinians, not to mention the odd Roman were ahead of you by some 2000 years….

PRESENTER: Yeah, sure, nice one Jesus – you don’t mind me calling you Jesus, heh?

JESUS: of course not, it’s my name, well near enough my name if you don’t speak my language..

P: Yeah, right, but we don’t see much of you in these parts, far as I know…

J: No, I’m here all the time, but not so visibly. I’m with every single person who genuinely wants me. In fact I’ve just been with a black family down South…

P: We try not to get political on this show, Jesus…

J: ……a black family whose teenage son got shot in the head by a policeman…

P: This is an issue that’s likely to cause a lot of offence and I can tell you Jesus, we don’t make money by offending the good folks….

J: …maybe the good folks need to wake up and smell the coffee….

P: you just said smell the coffee, Jesus, where did you learn to speak like that?

J: You think I haven’t learned anything in 2000 years? Anyway, yes, people have to wake up and realise that their police forces are out of control…

P: Listen,  Jesus, the producer is screaming at me down the cans, to shut you up before we lose our sponsors….

J: But I’m giving you a scoop by presenting myself in this form, shoes pants and jacket, and I’m only doing so because I decided to warn you in person…

P: ….but exactly who are you warning, like be specific, Jesus…..

J: I am warning the people of the United States, to lay aside hysterical hatreds and learn to live together in peace…..

P: So now you’ve done it. you’ve done what you wanted to do. But if you say any more on that topic we’ll turn off the mics and cameras….

J: Well now Mr Presenter, you might turn them off but are you sure they’d go off?

P: What d’ya mean, Jesus, why would they not go off?

J: ( smiles)

P: Uh sure …Uh maybe…

J: But I don’t want to cause trouble for you. Why don’t you ask me one of the questions you have prepared?

P: Yeah, that’s very kindly of you…

J:,I am a kindly man usually…..

P: Now there’s been a lot of speculation this week because our scientists found a planet outside our solar system, which is very like earth ; it’s solid, near but not too near its star, and it might have water…

J: You mean Kepler 186 F …?

P: Duh, heh, I think, sure Kepler 186F it is! But how did you know that, Jesus?

J: I saw the report on my tablet…

P: Wow, you use a tablet!

J: You may remember my father invented tablets, back in Moses time…. But you wanted to ask me something?

P: Well, the issue people are talking about is intelligent life. Is there intelligent life outside of this earth?

J: You think there’s intelligent life on this earth?

P: Now, really…

J: Sorry, that was a joke. I’m sorry, I can’t tell you anything about intelligent life in the universe.

P: You tellin’ me you don’t know. You must know if you’re the son of God!

J: I didn’t say I didn’t know. I said I can’t tell you anything.

P: But why not?

J: When your ancestors discovered the native Americans what did they do?

P: You sayin’ you don’t trust us with this information?

J: Not yet. You know if I announced the existence of intelligent beings nearby, the chiefs of staff of the armed forces would be in the Oval Office before you could say Donald Trump….

P: But if they did exist, you’d have been there, wouldn’t you. Like if you’re a universal saviour, you’d have to go there as well!

J: But just think, if the intelligent life is in the form of twenty foot tall spiders, then their son of God would have to be a twenty foot spider also…

P: Well, Mr. Jesus, that brings us to the end of this interview because the evangelical churches of the USA have denounced you as an impostor, and armed police have arrived to arrest you……yeah here he is boys, he never fooled me for a minute, yeah over here….. Duh, where is he? he was here this second and now he’s simply, he’s simply vanished………..

Desperate Dan who heads this blog flourished for years in the Dandy comic, produced in Dundee but of world-wide circulation. He is a well-built cowboy who eats gigantic cow pies but he is never guilty of any cruelty or aggression to man woman child or beast. A gentle strongman and good role model, he is a good contrast to American dentist Walter Palmer who killed Cecil a Zimbabwean lion that was friendly towards humans. He shot it with an arrow leaving it dying in pain for over forty hours. The pictures of him and a pal celebrating the kill of another lion show them grinning moronically over a dead beast that was certainly more noble and probably more intelligent than them. I’m sure that genuine hunters will despise this slaughter as much as I do, but it does raise a question about our relationship to the earth and its creatures.

The Christian tradition has been not altogether helpful in this matter. The book of Genesis is anthropocentric in its basic assumption that humanity is superior to animals, albeit responsible for their welfare. The fact of the inter- dependence of human beings and all living things was unknown to the Genesis writer.

Nevertheless, the Genesis account of the garden of Eden envisages some kind of vegetarian diet for the human beings and maybe also for animals. Once human beings are expelled from Eden, they are permitted to eat animals. Indeed there is a hint that death is one of God’s second thoughts, brought in to limit the amount of evil one person can do, but opening the door to killing, which becomes a feature of human life almost immediately. It’s reasonable to say that killing animals for food is permitted by the God of Genesis because human beings are a mixture of good and evil.

The Hebrew bible gives us a prophecy in Isaiah chapter 11 which speaks of a messianic time when all wrongs will be righted and all conflict will cease. Animals that prey upon each other will be reconciled, and all living creatures including humanity will be at peace. This “peaceable Kingdom” is one of the Bible’s most moving visions, but it never became a major part of Jewish or Christian theology.

The Jesus tradition adds little to the Hebrew bible in this regard. Although he says that God is concerned at the death of a sparrow, he goes on to say that the Father is even more concerned about human welfare. The tradition credits him with destroying a herd of pigs in the course of curing a demon- possessed man, so the view that humanity comes first and other creatures a long way back, is if anything reInforced by Jesus.

Classical Christian theology, as for example the writings of Thomas Aquinas, denies that animals have souls or can be any part of God’s salvation. The great figure of St Francis with his love for all creatures may seem to contradict the mainstream theology, but his witness has no lasting effect on Orthodoxy, Catholic or Reformed traditions. We also know that Christianity  encountered throughout its history other kinds of religion in which the inter-dependence of all life was asserted, and animals given a more important place, but it rejected all these as primitive and degrading.

It’s not surprising therefore that Christian civilisations have been fairly careless about the welfare  of animals,  except those they regard as pets. Lack of respect for the lives of other creatures and of the enlightened self-interest that might protect the web of life that supports human life, are so common that to challenge them is considered extreme by most “Christian” societies.

This where we need to ask a theological question: if the Jesus tradition is held to provide everything necessary for salvation, that is for our rescue from evil, and it contains nothing about the welfare of other creatures or our common environment, does that relegate concern for the earth and its creatures to the margins of Christian morality? Or can we judge our tradition and Jesus himself to be deficient in this matter?

Jesus himself and the Jesus  tradition have encouraged human beings to see their interdependence with each other, and to learn how to live in “partnership” with each other, across the barriers of terrain, race and culture. It therefore does not seem to me unreasonable to extend this partnership to our fellow creatures. But it would be a very radical change in our thinking and living. Not only that, it would place this theological development amongst the “truths” into which Jesus expected the spirit to lead us, and our comprehensive care for the earth among the “greater things” that Jesus expected us to do.

In this case, Jesus’ “extremism” is not in his teaching but in his clear insistence that his teaching and example would not provide all that his followers needed for their salvation. Now a religious leader who denies that he has the whole truth, is a real extremist who should command our trust.

Such a change would align Christianity with contemporary science which has jettisoned the misunderstanding of evolution as the survival of the fittest and considers  that any species that destroys its environment, destroys itself. Biology and the Earth Sciences emphasise the myriad interconnections of all living things with each other and with the  planet.

As for Mr. Palmer and those who share his pleasure in killing, we should explain to them patiently as to idiots, that we cannot let them kill our animals, but that we could give them a decent reservation, maybe in Syria, or North Korea, where they can hunt and kill each other, to their hearts content.

Rev. David Robertson, Free Church minister in Dundee, and Moderator of the Free Church Assembly, is a man who has often aroused my admiration. His witty rebuttal of Richard Dawkins, for example, was good at exposing the naive and unsupported assumptions made by that crusader against religion, while his frequent sorties into the public prints to defend traditional Christian ethics are often admirable and always vigorous.

So at first sight I found lots I could agree with in his attack on the mass media, and especially the BBC for badgering the new leader of the Liberal Democrats, Tim Farron, about his acknowledged Christian faith. I too found John Humphries’ tone overbearing, designed more to bully the interviewee than inform the listener. He kept asking him whether God would tell him what policies to support, while Farron insisted that he was praying for wisdom not answers. David Robertson comments that it is unlikely an atheist leader would be similarly badgered about his lack of faith. He also notes that while faith is routinely treated with scepticism by the BBC, all forms of sexual orientation are treated as holy.

Now this last point is true enough- a little more scepticism about say, trans-lesbo-bi-ness might be in order- but it reminds me that David Robertson is one of those opposed to same-sex marriage, not out of prejudice (perish the thought!) but ultimately because the Bible tells him so. He along with many Christians, thinks that the Bible is inerrant, that is, it can’t be wrong. Unlike other books written by human beings it is so directly inspired by God, that once you’ve worked out what it says, you can’t argue with it. I italicised those words because of course, all language, even the language of God, requires interpretation, but that’s another argument. The point I’m making here is that if the Bible duly interpreted says homosexual acts are sinful, well, there’s no room for argument; God is right and you are wrong.

Now that seems to me dangerously near idolatry, in that the Bible has taken on the characteristics of God Himself. Perhaps the great British media are not too bothered about idolatry, but if some politician has a magic book that tells him infallibly what is right and wrong, that might be a legitimate area for scepticism. I don’t know that Tim Farron holds this view of the Bible, but if he does, I would no more vote for him than for a Muslim who believes the Noble Qur’an was dictated by Allah.

I don’t believe in books you can’t argue with, any more than did Jesus, who argued with the inerrant Book of his people. I love the Bible, write a Bible blog (emmock.com) every day in life, and try to allow the living God to speak to me through its pages, but this only happens if I treat it, in all its magnificence, as human, and therefore, fallible.

In his defence of Tim Farron, David Robertson does not deal with this issue, but it is germane: would you trust a man who has a magic book? I’ll try to let David Robertson know about this blog, and invite his comments.

Desperate Dan pictured above in his Dundee statue, was a creation of the Dandy Comic, made in Dundee and read throughout Britian until recently, when it went online for lack of readers. DD was clearly an American cowboy but survived his comic exile in Scotland. There were never any complaints that the cow pie- eating hero did not share Scottish or British values. He was universal in his appeal.

David Cameron has once again targeted Muslim citizens as being insufficiently opposed to the thugs who claim Islamic justification for crimes against humanity, and insufficiently militant in favour of “British values”. He has never defined fully these values but has mentioned respect for the rule of Law and recognition of pluralism as the basis of society.

The roots of a pluralistic UK go back to the seventeenth and eighteenth century philosophers who opposed the notion of one religion for all citizens of the state, and proposed that people of differing faiths could have a common interest in recognising each other’s faiths as legitimate. They took it for granted that a person’s primary allegiance would be to his own God, but that a genuine civic allegiance could be offered to the laws of the state including those that permitted mutual toleration of religious groups. Vestiges of the older notion of one approved religion lingered in the establishment of the churches of England and Scotlland, and in laws excluding Roman Catholics from certain positions of state.

Given the understanding that religion might determine the eternal destiny of the soul, no-one expected that anyone’s first loyalty would be given to the state; and even non-religious moral convictions, such as those that kept Bertrand Russell out of the First World War, were recognised as legitimate acts of conscience.

Now the Britisn Prime Minister is harassing one religious group to declare their allegiance to Britain and Bristish values as if adherents of all other religious groups had already declared such allegiance and were paid up members of the Britsih Values Club.

This is based on the apparently world-shaking discovery that some kinds of Islam are “ideological” meaning they say things about the real world, including the foreign policy of the UK and the USA. Much of what is expressed is crude and wrong, being designed to justify violence. The Government therefore should enter into public debate and prove them wrong. But asking Muslims to treat British (government)  values as of equal importance to their faith is foolish and very unlikely to succeed.

One aspect of this harassment is particularly insidious: the identification of widely-held Muslim views on the status of women as one aspect of the “extreme ideology”. It is true that many Muslims hold views on this topic which I think are pernicious but which my great grandparents would have taken for granted.The idea that anyone who holds to such primitive beliefs and does not welcome with open arms the wonderful UK culture that sexualises girls from the age of three, is a proto- terrorist, is so loopy and self-defeating that it can only come from a politician. In fact, one of the successes of Isil propaganda is the way it makes young women feel wanted and given a key role in the coming caliphate. Their propaganda is a lie, but it will not be countered by urging British versions of female equality which are immediately refuted by pictures of naked and semi- naked women everywhere. In any case lumping socially conservative Muslims with terrorists is surely poor tactics.

Although the critique of British Foreiign policy by Isil is sectarian and anti- Jewish, it is not utterly without substance. Why has the UK engaged in violent conflict in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya, and why is it considering  armed action in Syria? The answer has less to do with fundamental values than with perceived opportunities of national interest. One of the most powerful answers to Isil would be a very public review of our part in these conflicts.

Above all however we should show trust that adherents of one of the  world’s great religions will be able to oppose a bunch of heretical thugs without constantly being harangued by people who have little understanding of their or any faith. As a Christian believer I have opposed much of British foreign policy in the name of Jesus and am critical of the laissez faire economic values of this government. I guess that makes me an extremist, radicalised by the cunning ideology of Jesus Christ, and even worse, a person with a warped narrative about my country.

I hope that Christian citizens whose allegiance to Jesus comes before allegiance to the state, and who may also be critical of our foreign policy, will publicly defend their Muslim brothers and sisters from

government interference in their faith, and will encourage them to find resources in their own faith to dismiss the violent pretensions of Isil.

We are a pluralistic society because we consider that many religions express values which do not be long to any one culture or region, and will therefore oppose sectarianism and nationalism. We should have confidence that the Muslim citizens of Britain are already doing this in ways that no Government can prescribe.