Sectarian Riots

July 2, 2011 By Malcolm Blair-Robinson

It is disturbing to see that rioting has returned as a regular feature in Northern Ireland. Scotland has its own brand of sectarian tension which finds its expression in football rivalry. The divide is between Protestant and Catholic.

Both are branches of Christianity, yet the passions behind the tension and the acts of violence and abuse are wholly un-Christian and fly in the face of everything which the faith holds dear. They also fly in the face of any moral interpretation of a difference between right and wrong. Finally they break not one but several laws.

Yet on they go, generation after generation. Sometimes there is a lull until new activists reach maturity and stir up latent passions. Whilst both the protestant and catholic churches say the right things, they do not do enough. This is trouble on their patch, about their dogma, theology and faith and they have an over-riding responsibility to practice what they preach and take a joint lead in bringing an end to  the disorder, as well as  the warped interpretation of their scriptures which drives it. Over the decades, even centuries, the clerics have done far to little to lead their flocks to pastures of reconciliation. They need to get a move on.