OUR sermon today concerns the legal judgement that support for Scottish independence is a philosophical belief that has “sufficiently similar cogency to a religious belief”.

The landmark judgment was issued at an employment tribunal in Glasgow, where Inverclyde councillor Chris McEleny claimed his former employer, the Ministry of Defence, unfairly targeted him for his views after he stood to be deputy leader of the SNP.

In accepting that Mr McEleny’s views amounted to a philosophical belief similar to a religion, Judge Frances Eccles cleared the way for his independence-worship to count as “protected” under equality legislation.

Picture Mr McEleny’s joy. He went into the tribunal thinking he didn’t have a prayer, but came out singing hallelujah. It probably came as manna from heaven, too, for Unionists who have long claimed the SNP was a cult.

Still, it should hold Mr McEleny in good stead in his continuing case, in which he is represented by Aamer Anwar, Scotland’s only lawyer. I must say, when I first heard of this business, I thought the MoD might have a point. I say that, not just because the MoD lies at the heart of my sincerely held religious beliefs, but because I thought you couldn’t take part in politics if you were a civil servant, so to say.

However, I also assumed that Mr McEleny must have held a top post like Head of Death or something. But it turns out he worked as an electrician – at a base in Beith, North Ayrshire. Still, they must have thought him “unsound”, which is not their judgment to make but that of the press.

While acknowledging the significance of the legal judgment, I’m more worried by its religious implications and possible effect on nationalist politics. Perhaps the Unionists’ “cult” jibes will become sanctified under the aegis of high priestess Nicola Sturgeon.

The signs are already there, in the halo-brandishing virtue-signalling (today’s religious equivalent of sitting in the front pew every Sunday), their psalms (“The Lord’s Tommy Sheppard, I’ll not want”), their guiding prophet Salmond – author of the Book of Ecklesiastes – and even the presence of the heretic, Sillars.

With the Growth Commission report as their bible, they might now be tempted to issue new commandments, including “Thou shalt not make any graven placards”, “Remember Burns Night, keep it holy”, and “Thou shalt covet Norway’s oil fund”.

That’s to assume the party would be Christian. There’s arguably something more paradoxically Zen about it. Nationalist but not nationalist. Seek to be out of a union yet to remain in a union. Deplore Project Fear (Scotland) and applaud Project Fear (Brexit).

All that said, surely other sincerely held political positions might also be classed as religions. While Unionism comes across as more of a mental condition, perhaps it too has a coherent philosophy, even if it was unavailable at the time of going to press.

Harken to their hymn, for example: “All things bright and beautiful/All creatures great and small/All things wise and wonderful/Westminster made them all.”

And what of the Tories, with their worship of Mammon and wilful misreading of the adage that God helps those that help themselves? In their mythology, the 5,000 are fed at food banks, the Good Samaritan was a Bolshevik, and there’s no need to worry about getting some ruddy dromedary through the eye of a needle. Just run over it in your BMW.

Their painfully over-hyped revival in Scotland took as its sermon the Book of Ruth but, lo, it came to nothing for, yea, most Scots would still like to kick them in the Ephesians.

The same might be said of Labour, though nobody can even be bothered getting hot under the dog-collar about them any more. No judge could afford Labour the privilege of a philosophy as it doesn’t believe in anything. Even if it did have commandments, they’d be written as “thou shalt/shalt not”, with the latter applying when in power and the former when in opposition.

Their leader Richard Leonard is hardly God’s gift to Holyrood and, if he has any theological significance, it is to remind us of the old adage that those whom the gods wish to destroy, they first make boring.

At least the Nats are never dull and provide plenty of copy for the Daily Smite and other mid-market madsheets. I dare say many Nats would agree that independence lies at the heart of their lives, as was averred at the aforementioned tribunal.

Others might deem it more a hobby than a theology, and find the whole thing a little nuts. Whatever the case, their representatives continue to fight the good fight in a parliament with limited powers. Or, as another old religious adage has it, the gods send nuts to those who have no teeth.