Tag Archives: religion

Free speech is an essential ingredient of any democratic society. For freedom of expression to mean anything, it must include the right to offend others. You have the right to attack my religious beliefs, political beliefs, lifestyle, sexuality and so on. You even have the right to use intemperate language, should you so wish. I have the same right to ...

  This evening Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson delivered the Amnesty International Lecture in Belfast as part of the city’s Pride Festival. Addressing people from across Northern Ireland’s political and faith communities about Scotland’s journey before and after the passing of equal marriage legislation, Ms Davidson leader outlined how equal marriage changed her own life, and those of others across the country. She praised Holyrood ...

  I’m in church. Mass will shortly be starting. I am praying, reciting the familiar words, thanking God for my life and explaining my problems. But something isn’t right. I feel I am praying to nothing, I feel an emptiness. Perhaps I have had a row with my husband or am angry at the latest homophobic outburst from some influential ...

  Yesterday the General Assembly of the United Reformed Church (URC) voted in favour of giving its local churches the right to conduct and register same-sex marriages. The motion, which required a two-thirds majority, was passed by a majority of 240 to 21, with 4 abstentions. This means that the URC is now the largest UK denomination to freely permit the celebration and registration of ...

  Politicians – and especially English Conservative politicians – have a habit of making unhelpful interventions on the subjects of sexual orientation and same-sex marriage. The latest is Andrea Leadsom, who is running against Theresa May to become the next Conservative Party leader and Prime Minister. Yesterday, she gave a rather odd interview to ITV News, in which she made ...

  One of the main positives to emerge from the Scottish parliamentary election campaign so far has been a broad consensus from the main parties on issues of LGBT+ equality. This was highlighted last week at an LGBTI hustings in Edinburgh, hosted by Stonewall Scotland, the Equality Network and the Scottish Transgender Alliance. In some respects this was inevitable and ...

Christians call the week beginning with Palm or Passion Sunday Holy Week. On the face of it, there is little that is “holy” about it. Take any of the four gospel accounts of the passion and death of Christ, and we are faced with an unremitting account of betrayal, arrest, imprisonment, torture, political and religious intrigue, violence, mass hysteria, cowardice ...

In our weekly “Belief matters” column we have taken a look at various faith issues, often within the context of how they affect LGBTI communities – or from the perspective of LGBTI people of faith. Today, being Christmas Day, we are publishing a message from the Moderator of the Church of Scotland, the Rt Rev Dr Angus Morrison. While his ...

  A Lewis man, who has interests in both astronomy and theology, believes that his research has been able to pinpoint the Star of Bethlehem. Donny Mackay, who is president of the Stornoway Astronomical Society and a lecturer and researcher with the UK Biblical Research Society, shared his findings in a radio interview with KaleidoScot’s Stuart Russell. Mackay said he ...

  The first Christmas after I was ordained nearly 20 years ago, I happened to come down sick before Christmas. My senior colleague had to take all the services instead of us sharing them and all I could do was drag myself to midnight mass and sit at the back of the church amongst the congregation. The lights were low, ...