Christian beliefs

It is rather over-simplifying the issue for David Robertson (Friends of The Scotsman) to claim that “our society is rooted in Christianity” when he implies that the influence of the Christian religion in Scotland is wholly ­beneficent.

The slightest glance back into European history will remind us of the numerous judicial killings and civil wars conducted by various schisms within the Christian faith, and it is only within living memory that many churches relaxed their punitive attitude to those they considered “sinners”, including individuals who had, even unwillingly, divorced; the issue of homosexual relationships has still not been resolved.

It is a relatively small step for a country “rooted” in a religious faith to become an out and out theocracy and, as we see in ­Africa and the East, these are usually ­totalitarian regimes which regard lack of religious adherence as treason – with sinister consequences for the “unbeliever”.

I will leave the convinced secularists to fight their own corner.

However, as a religious believer on a personal rather than a corporate level, I would have been happier to support David Robertson’s argument if he had maintained that many of the societal benefits we now enjoy were fought for by individuals who personally sought to follow the teachings of Jesus about caring for the vulnerable in society, rather than those who followed the religious equivalent of a party line.

(Dr) Mary Brown

Dalvenie Road

Banchory