Views from the conference
Elaine Duncan, CEO of Scottish Bible Society Cllr Kieran Turner. Cllr James Bundy
Elaine Duncan, CEO of Scottish Bible Society Cllr Kieran Turner. Cllr James Bundy
This report is not about politics, it is about policies. It does not favour one political stance over another or agree with one party or another, but instead asks those in power to think about where do we begin from? What is the lens through which you are seeing this issue? What should the founding principles of any asylum policy be?
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It is hard to be in this space of politics. It has its own rules and its own ways of working, it isn’t for everyone, and sometimes it is better left to the professionals. But we cannot allow those who take the lead to feel unsupported or isolated. I am sure I am not alone here in thinking about the verse Exodus 17:12 When Moses’ arms grew tired, Aaron and Hur brought a stone for him to sit on, while they stood beside him and held up his arms, holding them steady until the sun went down.
Last week was a big week in the Scottish Parliament. Humza Yousaf delivered his first Programme for Government which sets out the proposed Bills and policies for the coming year for the SNP/Green coalition Government. We asked some of friends to tell us whet
her they think it will deliver for Scotland.
Twenty years ago this week that Alastair Campbell famously said “We don’t do God”. On 5th May 2003 Tony Blair was giving an interview to Vanity Fair when his head of communications interrupted the interview with what was probably a throw away quip but it has gone down in history as a mantra to live by for many politicians.
Twenty years on, do politicians still not do God or have times changed?
Freedom of expression is key in our modern society and the freedom to wear symbols of our beliefs or causes that we support is also of paramount importance. No one can own or claim a colour to be their own, the gender critical movement do not own the suffragette colours, any more than the SNP own the saltire or Conservatives own the colour blue. To suggest such a thing is nonsense, and to exclude someone from public debate because they are wearing a particular colour is quite frankly outrageous.
Jesus offers a master class in compassionate leadership, underlined by the fact that the bible continues to be one of the highest-grossing books in the world (Guinness World Records, 2021). It is not surprising then that my view is that the church’s continued survival rests partly on its [albeit often painstakingly slow] ability to innovate.