With the Concerted Attack on Kate Forbes, Scotland has Become ‘The Land of the Beast’

They worshiped the beast, saying, “Who is like the beast, and who can fight against it?” (Revelation 13:5)

The concerted attack on Kate Forbes from the media, the ‘twittering class’, political opponents and her own party reveals this has to do not with mere politics but with the darkness of our nation in its hastening rejection of all that is good, holy and true. The land of the Book has become the land of the Beast and hard days lie ahead for all who will stand with, and for, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Christian and secular commentators have written on the hypocrisy of the witch hunt against Kate Forbes in the name of ‘tolerance’; the religious discrimination (and cowardice) which hounds a Christian on questions of homosexuality while walking on eggshells around a Muslim; and the absurd irony of making obeisance to the cult of ‘trans’ the touchstone of acceptability in political leadership – the very issue which finally sank Nicola Sturgeon.

Brendan O’Neill sums up the irrational derangement of the ‘progressive’ elites of our political class with acerbic clarity: ‘They have created a world in which kids can’t read the original Roald Dahl books in case they feel offended by the word “fat” but they can be read stories by drag queens with names like Flow Job. A world in which you’re more likely to do well if you believe the violent male tormentor of women is himself a woman than if you believe what the Bible says about marriage. Listen, it isn’t Kate Forbes who’s crazy.’

Quite; and if the publicity around the ‘controversial’ candidacy of someone as wholesome, honest and decent as Kate Forbes helps expose the debased thinking of those in the corridors of power, it will be a good thing. Are we really to think that truthful answers from a politician as evidence of suspicious naivety to despise, not honesty to esteem, or believing in and practising sexual chastity a mark of bigotry to discourage, not beauty to admire?

However, it is not only the political elites, but Scotland as whole, which seems to be further down the descent into what Rod Dreher has called the ‘soft totalitarianism’ of cultural Marxism than elsewhere in the UK [1]. Since devolution, and in particular during the reign of the SNP (supported by the even more extreme agenda of the Greens), Scottish society has been accelerating into a hegemony of godless paganism.

As a result, though the proverbial ‘man in the street’ sees the folly of gender redefinition on demand, there is a pervasive culture of fear such that anyone wishing to be considered ‘mainstream’ knows they must keep their head down and, at the very least, give the nod of worship to the prevailing ideology – for “who can fight against it?”

At the inaugural meeting of the Scottish Free Speech Union last year an eclectic gathering of academics, writers, campaigners and others (including Christians) gave one voice to the sense that Scottish society is the most prone to censorship and ‘cancel’ culture in the UK.

Many in the workplace experience this, the fiercest front perhaps seen in schools. Teachers have told me only those within sight of retirement feel able to voice concerns against the onslaught of LGBTQI ideology; younger teachers seeking promotion dare not rock the boat, so stifle their misgivings or, more often (particularly among the most recently trained), embrace the agenda enthusiastically.

That schools should be the front line should not surprise us; in the words of the UK Supreme Court judgment against the Scottish Government’s notorious Named Person Scheme, ‘the first thing that a totalitarian regime tries to do is to get at the children, to distance them from the subversive, varied influences of their families, and indoctrinate them in their rulers’ view of the world.’

That legislation was struck down, but the ideological driving force behind it is still at large, winning de facto what was the lost de jure in that historic ruling in 2016. That which long ago captured higher education institutions, spilling over to colonise mainstream middle-class thinking, is now well on the way to the complete takeover of schools down to the very youngest. Soon the least educated will be as ‘re-educated’ into the new ‘mainstream’ thinking as the most educated.

Writing in 1972 my father quoted Lord Hailsham saying then that ‘our country is being destroyed before our eyes by a conspiracy of intellectuals without faith, delinquents without honour, muck-rakers without charity or compassion, young men who are incapable of dreaming dreams and old men who have never known what it is to see visions’ [2]. How much more is this so today.

However, the root of the problem of a generation where there is complete spiritual blindness, where young and old alike have no vision, and cast off restraint, is not the mainstream media, but what is now called ‘mainstream Christianity’. Joining the attack on Kate Forbes were those keen to deny her views could be called ‘mainstream’ Christian, as she claimed.

The Very Reverend Lorna Hood OBE, QHC [3], a former Moderator, was quick to tweet: ‘the largest Church in Scotland, The Church of Scotland, allows ministers to conduct same sex marriage and recently the Anglican Communion voted to allow priests to bless same sex relationships. We must never forget the basic tenet of Christianity is love, respect and tolerance.’

Aside from the woeful definition of the ‘basic tenet’ of Christianity (mentioning neither Christ, sin or salvation) and misrepresentation of the ‘Anglican Communion’ (the majority of which has rejected the Archbishop of Canterbury as leader because of the Church of England’s heterodoxy), the message is quite clear: orthodox Christianity is beyond the pale,  an odious relic of ‘strict’ sects like the lampooned ‘Wee Frees’ (though former Westminster SNP leader Ian Blackford, also a member of the Free Church, dissociated himself from orthodox belief, pitching firmly for the ‘mainstream’ by calling same sex marriage ‘a marvellous thing’).

‘Who can fight against it?’ – and give a renewed vision of health, wholeness and hope to a nation that has so calamitously lost its moorings in reality, and morality?

Not a church that craves the praise of the ‘mainstream’ and cowers from the pain of martyrdom. Only a Church which knows that Jesus is Lord and, as Kuyper put it, ‘there is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry, Mine!’

‘Here is a call for the endurance and faith of the saints’ (Rev. 13:10) – and for fearless witness to the truth. The fiercer the attack the brighter will shine the light of true witness, as our Lord promised: ‘they will…persecute you…and you will be brought before kings and governors for my name’s sake. This will be your opportunity to bear witness… which none of your adversaries will be able to withstand or contradict’ (Luke 21:12-15).

There is a cost to real witness; the word itself – martureo – breathes suffering. But no prize – not the whole world, let alone the welcome of ‘mainstream’ society, or a home in Bute House – is worth the price of losing that witness, or its true reward (Mark 8:35). The deceiver of the whole world, the vile beast who stands behind every earthly accuser of our brethren, is conquered ‘by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony, [who] loved not their lives even unto death’ (Rev 12:11).

God’s call for every true Christian and Church in the firing line in the darkening days in which we live, Kate Forbes included, is that, having irreversibly fastened on the belt of truth, and faithfully cherishing the true gospel of peace, we ‘stand firm’ – whatever earthly loss may be the result. To lose with God is to win – in everything that really matters.

References

1   Rod Dreher, Live Not By Lies: a manual for Christian Dissidents (Sentinel, 2020).

2  James Philip, The corrupting influence of the mass media, Holyrood Abbey Record, April 1971.

3  She has her reward! (Matthew 6:5).

By William Philip