JABBA THE AGNIVORE

THE SECTARIAN ACE

Bill McMurdo has let one particular cat out of the bag; a mangy, bad-tempered brute of a feline at that. In a blog post he calls for Rangers to adopt a hymn called 'We Have An Anchor' as an official Rangers song. So what? Well, this song has been used for years by the Boys' Brigade, whose motto is 'Sure and Steadfast.' Again, so what? Well, McMurdo describes the Boys' Brigade as "another fine Protestant institution.' The main 'fine Protestant institution' of course, is obviously Rangers FC.

The word 'Protestant' is a strange one. It's way out of date and was used to describe those of a certain German denomination away back in the early, heady days of the Reformation. These days, however, it doesn't seem to refer to any denomination at all. Members of a church will identify themselves as being members of that church, whether it be Church of Scotland, Free Church, Episcopalian or whatever. The word 'Protestant' is now a negative term only used to demonstrate the fact that the person is not a Catholic.

I remember years ago I decided to join the RAF as an officer and went along to an induction day. The recruiting sergeant was in fits of laughter at some of the candidates when it came to filling in the 'denomination' part of the application form. He could not get them to understand that there was no such thing as the 'Protestant Church.' They had no idea where they were baptised, or even if they had been! I changed my mind about joining and hope to Christ that those others did too; can you imagine relying on them for the defence of our country?

Anyway, McMurdo's revelation puts the tirades of Traynor and Loony Leggat into perspective. The whole 'Joining together against the enemy' bit takes on a more sinister slant. Basically, they are trying to divide everyone along sectarian lines and will use any twisting of facts or downright lies to achieve their aim. Leggat uses the word 'Presbyterian' instead of 'Protestant' but essentially means the same thing. Certainly the Church of Scotland is a Presbyterian church but, then, so is the Dutch Reformed Church of South Africa. I doubt any of the many decent people in the Church of Scotland would be happy to be lumped in with a church that had as one of its principal tenets the belief that black people did not have souls! Leggat, however, is just using the term 'Presbyterian' as another negative dividing line, promoting a 'them and us' agenda. 

A major part of this divisive agenda is the cynical use of the crime of child abuse to score points. Up until fairly recently sexual abuse against children was a hidden crime, something that everyone pretended didn't exist. Even twenty years ago everyone was shocked about social work investigation into ritual abuse by some of the leading lights in society: judges, politicians etc. The Orkney scandal, where some poor minister was dragged into a witch-hunt, was obviously, to anyone with half a brain, a put-up job to deflect attention and discredit the social work department. Now, of course, things are different.

Organisations all over the world that involve children have been caught up in investigations. Holiday camps in France have closed down due to instances of child abuse, while the Scouts, the Boys' Brigade and churches have had their fair share of abusers exposed. The Catholic Church and the Jehovah's Witnesses have been rocked by such revelations and anyone with any decency agrees that the perpetrators should be made to pay. To the 'Protestants' of Scotland, however, there are only two places where child abuse ever took place: the Catholic Church and Celtic Boys Club!

One sick individual, posting on The Sun's website, said that nobody could take the moral high ground with Rangers as they had this 'ace up their sleeve.' Using such a thing as a stick to beat others with is probably about as low as you can get!

Now, don't get me wrong; I don't have any drum to beat for the Catholic Church and think that any priest responsible for these outrages should be defrocked and frog-marched straight into jail. I think the same for any individual that indulges their sick, base desires in this way. I am not, however, going to point the finger at the Jehovah's Witnesses or anyone else when I don't know exactly what has happened.

Away back in the old days, even up to the Sixties, it used to be thought that a bloody good hiding was the panacea for any of society's ills. Gay people were seen as doing something wrong and were beaten up accordingly. I do not wish to equate being gay with being a paedophile but that's what people used to do. So anyone accused of 'interfering' with a child would be beaten to within an inch of their life and that would be the end of it unless they did it again. From my understanding of the situation, that's what happened at Celtic with James Torbett. 

Great play is made about Celtic employing Torbett in another capacity and not doing anything else. Was this a 'cover up' as many suggest, or was it something else? If Torbett had been sacked and the police notified then I can imagine all too well what the reaction of certain sections of our population would have been. A poor 'Protestant' man being picked on by the Taigs and he would have become a cause celebre for the likes of Leggat. You can't possibly win with these people!

The major irony is that if Celtic had followed the same kind of sectarian policy as Rangers then Torbett would never have been in any way associated with Celtic. The 'Protestants' go on and on about hating Catholics, calling them Fenians, Taigs, Tarriers etc. and then suddenly turn round full of crocodile tears for poor Catholic children abused by priests and Catholic lads abused by Torbett. Their ire and thirst for justice never extends beyond Celtic and the Catholic Church, which tends to negate any arguments they come out with about caring for victims!

So please, let's leave child abuse to the authorities and religion to the pious souls that actually attend church. The main issue is football and what Rangers did to themselves, nothing else!