bluepeter Posted April 23, 2011 Share Posted April 23, 2011 Letters: Bombs and bias simply do not equatePublished Date: 23 April 2011THE assertion by James MacMillan (Letters, 21 April) that the bombs sent to Neil Lennon and others by some deranged criminal are symptomatic of "anti-Catholic" bias is only the latest in a long line of similar preposterous claims by Mr MacMillan.The nonsense that goes on around Scotland's two biggest football clubs is not representative of Scottish society. Contemporary Scotland has many problems but my experience tells me that bias against Catholics is not one of them. I was born and raised a Catholic. Like around half the people from my background in Scotland, I am married to a person who is not a Catholic.In 34 years of working in Scotland I have never encountered a single instance of religious or sectarian prejudice directed at me in a professional or, indeed, personal context. The only examples I can recall of people being discriminated against are teachers who are not Catholic being refused promotion in Catholic schools.There are many Catholics in prominent positions in Scottish public life. More importantly, few people care whether a particular politician, lawyer, businessman, or composer is Catholic, Protestant or an atheist. The Catholic Church is hardly marginalised.As Allan Massie has pointed out, a visitor from abroad surveying the Scottish media would be likely to identify Cardinal Keith O'Brien rather than the Church of Scotland Moderator as the leader of Scottish Christians. Finally, as a (lukewarm) Celtic supporter let me offer a word of sympathy to poor old Rangers, targets of Mr MacMillan's bile. In the past 20 years Rangers FC have moved far from the sectarianism which once characterised them. Indeed, I am fairly sure that in at least one game in the past decade Rangers fielded more Catholic players than did Celtic.Rangers fans do sing some unpleasant songs just as many Celtic fans are happy to hymn the IRA. While Rangers fans are surely wrong to sing a song exhorting Celtic fans to "go home", that song might just be a reaction to those Celtic supporters who (three and four generations in Scotland as Mr MacMillan has it) continue to assert an Irish identity and to carry the flag of a foreign country rather than the Saltire wherever they go.http://www.scotsman.com/religiousissuesinscotland/Letters-Bombs-and-bias-simply.6756457.jp Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lisburn Rangers Posted April 23, 2011 Share Posted April 23, 2011 brilliant great article Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LegendofCoop Posted April 23, 2011 Share Posted April 23, 2011 How did this get published??? Surely some editor somewhere will get the chop for this!!A lone voice in the wilderness!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carsons Dog Posted April 23, 2011 Share Posted April 23, 2011 What an outstanding letterThe author has highlighted the only remaining bastion of deiscrimination in this country - that in RC schools. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
loykore Posted April 23, 2011 Share Posted April 23, 2011 How did this get published??? Surely some editor somewhere will get the chop for this!!A lone voice in the wilderness!! My exact thoughts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Andypendek Posted April 23, 2011 Share Posted April 23, 2011 WVB posted a link to this on facebook which I followed, it was great to read the letter and the comments after Cardinal O'Brien's latest 'message'. When we occassionally lift our heads out of the Rangers it's refreshing to see that not all Scotland is religiously inclined. Thank God for Secularism. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MisterC Posted April 23, 2011 Share Posted April 23, 2011 Good find Pedro! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wearethepeople1 Posted April 23, 2011 Share Posted April 23, 2011 Most sensible article I have read in ages Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
minstral Posted April 23, 2011 Share Posted April 23, 2011 Great article. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gaffbear Posted April 23, 2011 Share Posted April 23, 2011 Buy that man a beer Excellent Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gunslinger Posted April 23, 2011 Share Posted April 23, 2011 some sense on the issue at long last Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimfanciesthedude Posted April 23, 2011 Share Posted April 23, 2011 someone better check his mail in the coming weeks, as that will not go down well with the hoards over the east side Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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