Wrong message

Published on 27/12/2012 00:00

Your reports of the Queen’s Christmas message (26 December) failed to mention her evangelism. She may be head of the Church of England, but she has no 
special knowledge of or insight into the Bible, or the Gospels in particular.

Nevertheless, she assured a largely sceptical and irreligious country that God sent Jesus “with the power to forgive” (don’t we all have that power?) and urged everyone to find room in their lives for God’s message 
of love.

Her uncritical acceptance of the Gospel message, but without any real understanding, is evident.

Apart from the fact that Jesus’s message was primarily about repentance from sin – not love or forgiveness – is it the place of the head of state to preach?

Should she not make allowance for the fact that some 40 per cent of her subjects do not even call themselves Christians and that most are not as religious as she is?

Indeed, shouldn’t she leave preaching to the Archbishop of Canterbury, who declared in his Christmas sermon that the purpose of the Christian message is not to defend religion or even to make the Church credible?

Steuart Campbell

Dovecot Loan

Edinburgh