Sunday, January 15, 2017

Distressed


I noticed a little story on the BBC site today about a church in Glasgow, Scotland that held a service earlier in the month and invited some local Muslims. In order to be inclusive the service included a reading from the Koran, so far all sounds perfectly reasonable. Since then the church has received numerous complaints as well as abusive messages via social media, it seems that the move upset many "Christians" involved in that particular religious sect (Scottish Episcopal). 

It's difficult not to read a story like this without a smidgen of schadenfreude; as an atheist one has to quickly learn to turn the other cheek when it comes to being preached too. Hardly a day goes by when I don't hear one form of Christian preachment or other, on TV, radio or simply in conversation; especially when visiting other more religiously soaked countries such as the USA or the Middle East etc. At the end of the day you can read Harry Potter and enjoy it without believing in wizards and there are much worse things in this world than hearing ideas you disagree with (ask people in Aleppo). Perhaps the Christians involved in this dispute should think about showing some tolerance and imagination, perhaps even imagine travelling a mile in someone else's shoes before they play the "offended" card so readily and over such a trivial matter, sticks and stones etc.

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