It has been reported that an employment judge has upheld a ruling that an SNP councillor’s belief in independence is similar to a religion.
According to The Herald here, Ministry of Defence lawyers appealed the decision in a discrimination case brought by Chris McEleny, but a judge has rejected the legal bid.
A summary of his case stated: ”
“The claimant submitted that he was not claiming to believe that Scottish independence could improve the lives and economy of Scottish people.
His belief that decisions regarding Scotland should be made by the people of Scotland regardless of the outcome will never change.”
In response, the Ministry of Defence said:
“It [independence] does not impact on people in a general sense and provide a moral and ethical code by which people choose to live their lives. Regardless of its importance to the electorate of Scotland, Scottish independence and the SNP have no substantial impact on the lives of citizens in for example Tanzania, Peru or India.”
He told The Herald:
“I very much welcome the decision and thank everyone for the support shown to date. Naturally, as I am sure people will understand, I will refrain from further comment until after the full conclusion of proceedings.”
Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you the UK Justice System. Now, where’s that facepalm emoji?
Mad, Gone and World
LOL. Just a question. If belief in Independence is like a religion does that make Nicola Sturgeon like God ? Probably not a good idea to mention it to her !
Or is Alex Salmond god and Sturgeon more of a Jesus character?
OMG!! What a total load of b******s!!
All a total load of twaddle!!
This is a crisis. A large crisis. In fact, if you’ve got a moment, it’s a twelve-storey crisis with a magnificent entrance hall, carpetting throughout, 24-hour portrage, and an enormous sign on the roof, saying `This Is a Large Crisis’.
I thought he was a cunning linguist !
I’m afraid not, Lieutenant; I’m just off to Hartlepool to buy some exploding trousers.
Don’t hang any monkeys while your there !
I hadn’t heard about this and I refuse to read about it so I won’t know about it.
And that is all I have to say about it.
Yes me too!
I started to click on the Herald link as I’m a bit “confused” by the whole thing and thought sod this!
This is the secular world’s inability to handle competing ideals and claims to truth. If equality is the only god, then every wickedness which is commonly held will eventually be granted equality with what we call good. If equality is the only truth, what of right and wrong? Who can live like this? What country can survive such schizophrenic beliefs?
Kicking Christ out of the country has directly led to the rampant post-modernism we see today that is slicing up the country in to competing victim groups that seem to hate each other. Moreover, I’m fairly certain the spate of knife crimes, depression and self-harm we’re experiencing stems from the vacuum of purpose and conflicting values kids are being exposed to. We can squash it with more policing but the underlying problems will remain and fester.
I know many will disagree but I would have thought it self evident that if a country is united, however imperfectly, around a common story, a common ideal and a common pursuit then it would have an agreed point from which to measure purpose, right or wrong and identity.
Let us assume that Jesus and the Bible are mythos – this isn’t true, today we know with almost near certainty that historically speaking the events (not necessarily the theological interpretations) of the New Testament are factual – but let us assume they are myths.
Is it better to live in a county of conflicting values, conflicting truths, conflicting aspirations, conflicting subcultures and conflicting morals because of our conflicting doubts – or to live in a nation united by a common mythos? We can agree to disagree about the truth claims of the New Testament and Jesus but no-one doubts the strength, grace and integrity of the man.
His is the model of humanity that civilized the bog worshipping, child sacrificing cannibals of Northern Europe; that converted the raping and pillaging Vikings of Scandinavia in to the models of peace and justice we know today and which infused the Greco-Roman legal system with compassion for the weak, the poor and the downtrodden when previously order was imposed by slavery, exploitation and death.
Would not our nation, however imperfectly, aligned with the myth of Jesus be more purposeful, more united, more harmonious, more peaceful than the status quo? Would not the vision of the man Jesus – bold, self-sacrificing, utterly truthful, unfailingly compassionate and unswervingly committed to humanity even to death – be a better role model than the footballers and rappers our youth idolise today? Do they not identify and emulate image of the reality, modern days myths of wealth and success and perfection?
It is merely my opinion but my strong impression is that we have lost a lot more over the last 50 years in unity, purpose, morality, hope and direction than we have gained in freedoms.
I don’t think things are going to change but I think they should.
“I know many will disagree but I would have thought it self evident that if a country is united, however imperfectly, around a common story, a common ideal and a common pursuit then it would have an agreed point from which to measure purpose, right or wrong and identity.”
Bullseye.
If you need a mythical sky pixie to tell you right from wrong, then your moral compass is broken.
Rob T: It is a story, a very powerful one. Jesus was real. He died, and the religion he started went on to accomplish such things as the abolition of the slave trade in 1807. That single fact should be enough to sustain a moral compass.
You completely missed Nath’s point I’m afraid there old bean.
His entire point is that the ‘moral compass’ that you speak of, has evolved directly from the teachings of Christianity over the centuries since it was established in modern Europe.
I’m atheist, but I couldn’t agree more that Christianity has shaped our views of right and wrong. More so than modern norms and culture do.
Uhh uhh. The, 10 commandments are from old testiment and are preachings and values shared with islam and Judaism… Who also use the old testiment as an ideological teaching tool.
I think the original issue is the courts compared his views to an ideology that is so engrained in his belief system that its not something that can be switched on and off and is certainly something that represents belefs that individuals, rightly or wrongly, are entitled to have.
Ideologies always however get messy when they step across the hate divide.
P
I don’t think faith, Christian or otherwise, or a lack of faith, has much impact on the question of Scottish independence.
People were much more religious and god-fearing 800 odd years ago when William Walllace tried to fight a war for independence.
Well done Nathan for articulating the flaw in western post-modern ideology & pointing people towards Christ. He is my Lord & Saviour.
I’m baffled at what the article is about having not seen any context from other news items to understand it. MOD V SNP? Wibble indeed.
Yes, but does my belief that his belief is similar to religion mean that my belief about his belief is also similar to religion? I think we need some more court time to resolve that one.
Honestly, when I first read this I had to do a quick mental check that it wasn’t April 1st.
You’re confusing me even more now Julian.
Confused.com
Should be shot for wanting to break up the U.K.
the tribunal does have a valid point…..
Most of the mutants voting for independence are being indoctrinated into
the SNP cult of Kim jun Sturgeon and Co!!
Christianity seemed to be quite happy with slavery between 0 AD and 1807.
What Judge Eccles said was “The claimant has persuaded me that his belief in Scottish independence has a sufficiently similar cogency to a religious belief as required by Justice Burton in Grainger to qualify as a philosophical belief.”
So it qualifies as a philosphical belief.
Amen to that.
At the risk of sounding immodest, I consider myself an intelligent and well educated man but I haven’t a clue what this article is about