IN pursuance of her argument that Christianity, as much as other religions, is very much to blame for persecution, Caroline Lynch, former Chair, Scottish Secular Society, lists many nations whose religions persecute Christianity (Letters, October 6). But she mentions only countries and continents and fails to give us any examples of intolerant religions.
Any belief system can have its fanatical bigots. But one would like to see listed those "faiths" for whom fanaticism is key. Had Ms. Lynch done so, it might have been possible to point out that the "competing religious ideology" of which she speaks is overwhelmingly, though of course not absolutely all, drawn from the extreme branches of those religions and not from their moderate and tolerant core.
By contrast, Communist ideology, which took root in vast swathes of territory within living memory, has atheism at its very centre. Nazism nominally embraced Christianity but allowed only a crude demagogic travesty of it throughout its empire. In the words of Sir Charles Grant Robertson, Vice-Chancellor of Brimingham University in 1936, Hitler was "Lord-Chief-Justice and Arbiter of the fate alike of Evangelical and Catholic Christianity".
Rightly understood in its all-embracing nature, Christianity is bound to reach out and provide for all in need. It is very much encouraged to do so. Only last week Pope Francis said (in marked contrast to Caroline Lynch's belief) that the dangerous temptation to doubt that the Holy Spirit can work in those who are not "part of our group", who are not "like us", is actually a block to conversion. Not only that, but it is a perversion of true faith.
Bob Simans,
301 Churchill Drive, Glasgow.
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