COMMENT
Notwithstanding Monday night's narrow decision allowing Kirk congregations to seek lottery funding, the Board of Social Responsibility yesterday reaffirmed its opposition to gambling in all its forms.
Perhaps it didn't think that all those people who queued to record their dissent were enough. Those who, like me, voted the other way, can find the moral leadership exerted by the Board on this and other issues such as abortion and euthanasia, to be rather intrusive and one-sided.
It percolated the entire report, sprinkled as it was with umpteen bold headlines stating THIS IS THE ENVIRONMENT OF THE BOARD, rather like a tobacco health warning, giving notice that nothing is exempt from the Board's moral oversight. It did stop short, however, of a portrait of Mrs Ann Allen with the slogan: ''The Board is watching you!''
On second thoughts this might be a good idea, since Mrs Allen is not only photogenic but has proved a feisty moral campaigner, as indeed was her predecessor, Rev Bill Wallace, whose pronouncements on sex once earned him the title of ''The Nookiphobe of Wick'' from an Aberdeen minister.
The Board clearly thinks that binding together its formidable range of social work and pronouncements on moral issues boosts credibility. I feel it is counter-productive, making it inevitable that controversy will dominate and schemes such as the Board's excellent home support service will be overlooked.
The Committee on Church and Nation, which reports today, provides a forum in which social and political issues are aired, but its conclusions are not enforced as commandments or laws of the church - thankfully. It would not take much to include moral issues within this report, thus allowing debate and diversity of opinion.
Alas, the Kirk, like many other churches, seems unable to resist the temptation to tell everyone how to behave.
One area where it would be appropriate to exercise more oversight is among those applying for the ministry.
A splendid fly-on-the-wall BBC programme last Sunday showed just how tricky it is to accept people's assessment of themselves, or what they say God has told them they must do. Three of the five featured applicants were turned down and reacted as if they had a right to get what they wanted.
Talking yesterday with several ministers, a horrifying picture emerged of how difficult it is to pull a square peg out of the ministerial production line.
Perhaps the amalgamation of the committee for education for the ministry with the board of ministry will improve matters.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article