Bible thumped

Training for the parish ­ministry, I spent a great deal of time on that classic duo: the problem of evil and whether biblical Christianity has any place for free will.

None of the great theologians (Augustine, Aquinas, Luther, Calvin) was much help on the first and they all seemed to regard free will as a largely irrelevant human affectation.

Of course moral philosophy studied in a seminary is a vacuous activity and a pastor only ­arrives at workaday ethics dealing with real people and real problems in a parish.

In the General Assembly I heard the “unctuous, creepy and synthetically sympathetic” arguments against those with the “wrong” God-given sexual ­orientation.

More of the same will doubtless be forthcoming when the debate turns to assisted dying and any notion that we have a degree of autonomy over our mortality will be denied.

I like to think a compassionate God would not demand ­extreme and prolonged suffering in order to authenticate his ultimate control – but I suspect that too is “unbiblical”.

(Rev Dr) John Cameron

Howard Place

St Andrews

The Church of Scotland’s latest affirmation that it rejects biblical Christianity should remind us all that a group of nice people singing hymns in a building with a pointy bit at one end, led by a person in ecclesiastical garb, does not necessarily constitute a church.

There are still many local Kirks where the message of Christianity is faithfully preached, but it has been substituted by a bland and worldly moralism in many others.

The Christian answer to sin is forgiveness and transformation, not redefinition and accommodation.

In the words of Jesus: “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness… it is no longer good for anything.”

Richard Lucas

Broomyknowe

Edinburgh