Three Thousand Versts of Loneliness

Free P tub-thumper David McIlveen and DUPe gospel singer and occasional MP, David Simpson, have called on Translink to ‘respect the feeling of Christian bus drivers’ by allowing them not to drive buses with humanist adverts on the side. I wonder do they wish to establish a new principle whereby employees can vet all the advertising carried on the side of public transport? Perhaps conscientious objectors should have been exempt from driving buses with those noxiously disingenuous ‘that’s why we need a Bill of Rights’ adverts resplendent on the side. Maybe temperance advocates should be allowed to opt out from promoting Harp lager by means of 12 feet high pints on the back of double-deckers. There’s no reason Christians should get special treatment after all! My feeling is that whilst drivers are entitled to their convictions equally the company is entitled to carry legal advertising without consulting each employee. If the rigours of someone’s conscience are incompatible with free...

I have refrained from too much comment on the Iris Robinson controversy as I believe that her remarks speak for themselves, and indeed are indicative of the strain of condemnatory Christianity which infests the DUP. A couple of bloggers’ thoughts are worth reading however. Brian Crowe on Burke’s Corner argues from the perspective of more mainstream Christian churches that Robinson’s hate filled rant is aberrant to genuine Christian teaching. I am in no position to comment on Brian’s contention that, “the Christian tradition has a responsibility and obligation to act with respect towards gay people - a responsibility and obligation that flow from foundational Christian beliefs with regards to creation and redemption”, but it does confirm to my mind that Robinson’s Christianity is of a particularly virulent strain, and although she does not belong to the Free Presbyterian Church herself, that organisation, which still exercises a hugely influential role in the DUP, is characterised by...

We do not need any great reminder of the influence of fundamentalist evangelical Christianity in Northern Ireland. After all our largest political party is rotten with those who believe they are being guided by God. In fact our outgoing First Minister, who is accustomed to preaching the most virulent form of Christianity, will shortly be replaced by Peter Robinson, who attends with his wife the revivalist evangelical Whitewell Metropolitan Tabernacle, one of the largest church congregations in Europe. It is quite an indictment of the nature of the party when Robinson is considered to be on the godless secular wing of the DUP. In case we needed another reminder of the influence of fundamentalist Christianity, 30,000 people (that is thirty thousand people) from our little province of 1,500,000, attended rallies featuring the evangelist Franklin Graham in Belfast’s Odyssey Arena over the weekend . Of course, in the United Kingdom, people are entitled to freedom of conscience and free...