Faith in the public square
by Duncan MacLaren
In all the hullabaloo about SNP candidate for First Minister, Kate Forbes, saying that she would have voted against same sex marriage and would not have supported gender self-ID, we seem to forget that political parties follow agreed manifestos about what they will do if they get into power. Unless the vote is a conscience vote, MSPs or MPs on a party ticket will support the manifesto commitment (with an occasional rebel), no matter what their own personal opinions are.
Media pundits have used the attack on Ms Forbes’ socially conservative personal views as an excuse to attack her membership of the Free Church of Scotland and, by doing so, the role of religion in in the public realm. They ignore the fact that she distinguished between her personal views and the need to take forward the democratic and settled will of the Scottish Parliament through legislation. It is naïve to think that all MSPs or MPs in a governing party support every piece of legislation one hundred per cent even if they are whipped, and this is the same for every political party.
But the furore raises questions about the role of religion in public life. I hope Kate is an advocate of Catholic Social Teaching, which has been supported by socially aware evangelicals in the US and elsewhere. It was taught by my old tutor in New College, the Church of Scotland minister and political theologian, the late Professor Duncan Forrester.
When the late Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI visited London, he was fêted in Westminster Hall, the oldest part of the House of Commons. He gave a speech there which touched on the subject of the place of religious belief within the political process which I think is relevant to the current debate.
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Dr Duncan MacLaren is a former Executive Director of SCIAF and Secretary General of Caritas Internationalis. He lectured at the Australian Catholic University in Catholic social ethics and International Development Studies and was made a Knight Commander of St Gregory the Great by Pope Francis for his services to the Roman Catholic Church. He started off as a researcher for a political party in the House of Commons. He is a lay Dominican.