STICKS and stones may break your bones. And apparently, silent prayer brings to bear “psychological harm”.

So asserts the Lord Advocate, in a recent submission to the UK Supreme Court.

The Lord Advocate joined those, including Nicola Sturgeon, in backing prayer-banning “buffer zones” outside of abortion facilities across Scotland. The proposal would ban offers of financial and practical help being given to women in crisis where they need it most. And it would ban prayer, even silent prayer, within up to a 250m radius.

For St Mungo's Cathedral, that’s difficult.

As our oldest, largest place of worship, the Cathedral sits on the direct outskirts of the Glasgow Royal Infirmary, landing it in the crosshairs of the prayer ban and in perhaps the most ludicrous position for a house of worship that there ever was in the West.

Censorship zones are advocated as a solution to harassment. Of course, we can all get behind a ban on harassment. Luckily, it’s already in place. In Scotland, if someone is engaging in harassment, they can be subject to a non-harassment order. If that order is breached, it’s an offence with up to two years' jail time. And in any case, a home office review clarified that such instances of harassment outside of abortion facilities are rare.

So why go further and ban an offer of help, even a silent thought?

It might sound like dystopian folklore pulled from Orwell's 1984. But officers have already proven themselves unafraid to police thought. Take the case of 76-year-old Rosa Lalor. The Liverpudlian grandmother was arrested for being on a silent prayer walk near an abortion facility last winter. She was detained and fined after telling an officer she was “walking and praying” as part of her daily lockdown exercise. She successfully overturned that fine with support from ADF UK. But censorship zones will multiply these instances, eroding the fundamental freedom of religion and of expression carried by every person by virtue of basic human rights.

Could silent prayers like Rosa’s make someone “uncomfortable”?

Possibly.

But in a fair democracy, everyone sometimes feels discomfort when confronted with a different idea. Part of upholding an equal society is allowing for a diversity of opinion.

“Lord, let Glasgow flourish by the preaching of thy word and the praising of thy name”, goes the city motto. It’s as old as the 5th Century, coined by a son born of rape, to a mother in crisis hiding in a boat off the coast of Fife. That boy grew up to become Saint Mungo, the namesake of the to-be-censored Cathedral.

The miraculous stories of his prayers adorn the city coat of arms. If we’re looking to flourish with democratic tolerance, we don’t need to shut down speech. Prayer isn’t sticks and stones. We don’t need to be protected from conversation – let alone thought. If People make Glasgow, then we can live comfortably in the good discomfort of democracy where all people are free to share their opinions and beliefs.

Lois McLatchie is a writer for ADF UK, an international Christian think tank