JABBA THE AGNIVORE

BIGOTRY

Years ago on of my dad's friends came up to see him. The guy was in the Masons and the Orange Lodge and many times, at parties at his house, he and his friends would stick on the Orange LPs and belt out Derry's Walls and the rest. 'It disnae mean anyhin,' they always assured my dad. On the occasion of his visit to my dad's house, my brother was in his bedroom listening to music. He put the new Pogues album, Rum, Sodomy and the Lash, on, causing my dad's friend to complain. 'Ah didnae think ye'd hiv music like that playin' in yer hoose!' he declared, storming out in the huff.

What made me think about this was a story in the Daily Record and the reaction to it of a couple of posters on Bill McMurdo's blog. The story concerned a 'sectarian thug,' who physically attacked another passenger on a train. The 'sectarian thug,' a seventeen-year-old girl, was on her way back from a Celtic match and was singing. A woman told her to stop singing bigoted songs and the girl attacked her, calling her an 'Orange b-' She was spared prison, purely due to her age. The comments on Bill McMurdo's blog, however, contend that only 'Protestants' are found guilty of sectarian crimes. It made me wonder what the girl had been singing!

Straight off, let me say that there is no excuse for violence and the girl should have had a heavier penalty, despite her age. But one does wonder what 'bigoted' songs she was singing. As far as I know, there are no songs in the Celtic repertoire wanting to be up to the knees in Protestant blood, promoting the death of a particular denomination or slandering a religious leader. Yes, the girl might have been singing songs about the IRA but there is nothing bigoted about such songs, even if they are insensitive and provocative. You don't hear many such songs nowadays so, more than likely, the woman took offence at the girl singing Celtic songs and possibly The Fields of Athenry. While the girl certainly deserved to be charged and penalised for assault and breach of the peace, maybe the only one guilty of sectarianism was the woman that was attacked!

As for the contention that only 'Protestants' are found guilty of sectarian crimes, it has been a while now since the disgraceful display at a Trigger's Brush FC match, where 'The Billy Boys' and other bigoted favourites were belted out with gusto. The television commentator had to apologise to the audience. And what has happened since? Has there been any action taken by our footballing authorities or the police? No, is the simple answer. The police seem too concerned with 'pest control' at Celtic Park while Vincent Lunny is far too busy following Neil Lennon about with a pocket watch in his hand!

So what actually constitutes bigotry? I watched Ian Paisley Junior on Question Time the other night. He was speaking against gay marriage and condemned gay practices. Is this bigotry? I would say not. Protestant churches claim to take all their authority and doctrine straight from the Bible. The Bible is unequivocal in its condemnation of homosexuality so, really, is Paisley to be condemned for his faith? If anything, it's the Protestants that support gay marriage that are in the wrong, as far as Protestant doctrine is concerned, not Paisley!

Bigotry, to me, is all about prejudice; condemning people without reason. For example, I've seen plenty of commentators condemning the Catholic Church and Islam for being homophobic. Such commentators usually claim that they are atheists or humanists. Why, then, do they not condemn the same views coming from the likes of Billy Graham? One extremist Protestant minister has even claimed that the recent tornadoes in Oklahoma are some kind of Sodom-and-Gommorah punishment from God for tolerating homosexuality. Why no condemnation of this from these atheists and humanists? Equally they are scathing of the child abuse scandals in the Catholic Church, while ignoring the same problems occurring in Protestant churches around the world. The even castigate the Catholic Church for being against abortion, ignoring the fact that the Protestant majority in Northern Ireland have made sure that it is the only part of the United Kingdom where abortion is unavailable. So, in reality, these commentators are not pro-gay, pro-abortion or standing up for the rights of children; they are merely looking for a stick with which to beat the Catholic Church. In other words, they are not reasons for their hatred; they are rationalisations.

These people really need to take a good, long look at themselves. The doctrine of the pre-ordained salvation of the Elect, which is part-and-parcel of Calvinist Presbyterianism, has led to a strong superiority complex. Look at the Presbyterians of Northern Ireland, Scotland, America and South Africa; the common thread is always prejudice and bigotry. Nowadays the churches have moved on and left a lot of the hatred behind. Quite often if you go to Mass on a Sunday you will find a Church of Scotland minister in the pulpit, while the Catholic Priest is down the road, conducting the service at the Church of Scotland. Many people in Scotland never go near a church of any denomination, but they still maintain that sense of superiority that the Church has left behind. Education is the only hope!

The big problem is, however, that bigotry and prejudice are learned in the home. I taught a young lad, who when the class was doing a project on places of worship, was not allowed to visit the local Catholic Church or the Mosque. This was down to the prejudices of his parents. The boy himself was quite happy-go-lucky, wasn't really that interested in football or religion. In fact, he wasn't really that interested in anything much! He could get himself into trouble on occasion but, on the whole, was quite a nice lad. These days he has his Facebook page filled with Rangers, Orange and Loyalist paraphanalia. He uses words like 'taigs' and 'tarriers' and brags about being over in Belfast to fight with the police over the Union Flag business. I certainly didn't teach him to behave like that, and I doubt any other teacher did either!

Anyway, back to football. Congratulations to Bayern Munich for winning the Champions League. Unfortunately the win is tainted. Trigger's Brush FC were no in the competition so the title of Best Team in Europe has no real meaning!

And good luck to both teams in the Scottish Cup today. Obviously I would like Celtic to win but there is a part of me would like to see Hibs break their hoodoo. How many finals have they been in? Still, there's one thing. No matter who wins it remains untainted. Trigger's Brush FC had their chance, sneaking through against the mighty Forres Mechanic, only to be brought back to Earth with a bump by Dundee United!