Baptising the Status Quo, Then and Now.
By Carl R. Trueman, First Things.
With the election of Humza Yousaf as leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP), it is likely that the recent flurry of writing on the significance of Kate Forbes and her faith will come to an end. Forbes, an SNP politician who was running against Yousaf, recently came under fire for her opposition to gay marriage. Of all the pieces written on this, likely the most interesting is that by an old friend of mine, Dr. Fraser MacDonald, for the London Review of Books. Of all who commented on the issue (including myself) MacDonald offers the most significant contextualization of the affair in terms of the history and culture of Scottish Highland Presbyterianism. We are on different sides of the issue, but his article adds an important dimension to the discussion.
He also gestures toward what has become a commonplace of current debates about the attitude of Christians and their churches to LGBTQ individuals: Christian churches’ past support for slavery and in some cases present tolerance for racism. He does not press the point because his main concerns in the article are with the difficulty of holding strong opinions on, say, same-sex marriage, that do not comport with the law of the land or the general sentiments of the age. Yet his article reminds us that the past sins of the church on the matter of slavery do have significance for current church struggles over sexuality and gender.
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