Posted on 01/13/2006 9:13:00 PM PST by Murtyo
The leader of the Catholic Church in Scotland has caused controversy among non-Christian faiths by telling them that they needed to realise they live in a Christian country.
In comments described as "obnoxious", Cardinal Keith O'Brien said he "tolerated" people who lived differently, but added that he must "take a stand when Christianity itself is questioned in this country" reports The Scotsman newspaper.
The Church said the cardinal was not meaning to diminish the stature of other faiths as he set forward his mission to "re-Christianise" Scotland.
However, a spokesman for the Hindu Temple in Glasgow condemned the remarks that people of other faiths should realise they live in a Christian country. "I think they are obnoxious. If you go to India there are more Christians there than there are in Britain. They have total autonomy and total freedom to worship and do anything they want, even welcome people into their faith. There is no grudge against that."
He called the suggestion that Scotland should be re-Christianised as "quite offensive".
Political lobbyists such as the Muslim Council of Britain, said: "Mr O'Brien should be addressing his comments to Christians. I think Muslims are surprised that many Christians don't take their faith so seriously.
"Mr O'Brien perhaps needs to look at his own flock and question why people are not following Christianity as he would like to, rather than showing impatience with other faiths."
Glasgow Central MP Mohammad Sarwar said those of other faiths accepted Scotland had a massive Christian majority.
But he added: "I have one reservation - when he says that people should learn to live in a Christian way. I don't know what that means. It's very ambiguous. I'm a very tolerant person and we live in a democracy. People should be allowed to practise religion the way they want to."
Cardinal O'Brien chose a forthcoming BBC radio interview to repeat his call for Scotland to be "re-Christianised".
He said Christianity had been present in Scotland since St Ninian landed at Whithorn in AD397, but that the country no longer lived up to Christian standards: "I feel I must take a stand when Christianity itself is questioned in this country.
"In a re-Christianised Scotland I would certainly respect the beliefs of people of other faiths, the great world faiths, and acknowledge when they are celebrating their feasts, just as they acknowledge when we celebrate the feast of Christmas and these sort of things. But I would also like them to realise that they are living in Scotland as a Christian country."
While the cardinal says Scotland is a "multi-cultural country", he adds: "The basic core faith in Scotland I would maintain is Christianity. And I would like to think that in other countries, where other faiths are in the majority, the Christian faith would be given the same recognition as other faiths are given here."
Cardinal O'Brien is a member of the inter-faith council, which meets once every year.
In the interview, to be broadcast on Sunday, he says: "I am all for that - working together ever more effectively. But we cannot detract from the fact that Scotland is a Christian country."
Aides to the cardinal last night insisted he had made similar remarks dating back to his appointment in 2003.
A spokesman for the Catholic Media Office in Glasgow said: "The context in which he talks about re-Christianising is to try and reintroduce faith-based values in society - it is in no sense a diminution of the value of other faiths."
Hey, them Scotch-Irish were born fighting.
We need that guy over here in the U.S. !!
"They have total autonomy and total freedom to worship and do anything they want, even welcome people into their faith. There is no grudge against that."
Giant, steaming, stinking road apples.
And beside the point even if it were true.
Only because there are more people period. Nice try.
Only because there are more people period. Nice try.
I didn't read it that way. I got the impression that his comment was meant to reflect the fact that Britain, like much of Europe, has become a nation of no faith at all, despite its ostensibly Christian roots, whereas in India, as elsewhere, Christians may be a decided minority, but they are actually church-going believing Christians, not the secular society of Europe. I don't doubt that that is a large part of the Cardinal's thrust as well: the fact that there are too few practicing Christians.
I will read it again from your perspective. The Cardinal was indeed upbraiding Christians for not following their faith and reminding them it is a Christian nation, but the Indian guy took it as a offense to his religion. That is what got me.
Liberals hate this because they have tried to, and been successful to a certain degree, to erase the European identity and history just like in America.
In Europe as Christian leaders wake people up to the fact that the Left can not tolerate the sight or sound of their history and roots while celebrating all the foreigners, they may take up the identity again. Christians should never obey liberalism's pc rules. They are designed for the purpose of cultural cleansing.
Scotland was a huge center of Christian missonary work for all of Northern Europe until the pope's troops arrived.
I guess the pope liked Scotland as well. From
http://www.nas.gov.uk/about/051124.asp
"In the Wars of Independence, fought by Scotland in the 13th and 14th centuries, the Scots used the story as part of the diplomatic battle to persuade the papacy to recognise Scotland as an independent kingdom. Pope Boniface, in a papal bull of 1299, demanded that Edward I of England end the war against Scotland, and reminded Edward how Scotland "was converted, and won to the unity of the Christian faith, by the venerable relics of the blessed Apostle Andrew, with a great outpouring of the divine power".
Fascinating. Tell us more about papal troops in Scotland.
WHAT on earth are you talking about????
St. Andrew pray for Scotland.
"Culture, language, borders" also applies in Scotland, England, Netherlands, Sweden, etal.
The sooner they realize that, the sooner they'll repel being overrun by the demands of the Muslim horde.
I think it's more a rot from within that threatens western societies rather than any threat from Islam. Societies with a "fertility level" of 1.3 or 1.1 per woman have a society wide deathwish.
That, and a dying of Europe's very soul and lack of fight.
I think it was Jesus who said we would bring offense. Looks like He was right again. Hey, good for the Cardinal. Europe is sliding into a gutter full of PC Euro secularism. It's about time that these nations realize that Christianity is a part of the national heritage.
Even Arab areas like Syria and Turkey had large Christian populations until somebody killed them off. Gee, I wonder who that was?
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