So let me get this straight before I go on. Scotland is up to its neck in a sectarian crisis, so much so that national summits are required to resolve it. All this religious fervour and passion. In Scotland in 2011? A country that is overwhelming secular?
Not quite. I’ve made my position clear before but I best do it again before proceeding. I used to be heavily involved in the Church and had a faith until my 20s. I don’t anymore however and the overwhelming evidence suggests that the country is aligned with me. I do not dispute that Scotland in the early part of the 20th Century and late 19th Century had a genuine sectarian issue with passionate support from both churches and incidents of debates and rallies leading to riots. This is history. As far as the Old Firm fixture is concerned it is badge wearing pantomime and you know, we all love a bit of tribal history.
Violence surrounding an Old Firm fixture occurs for the same reasons as violence in big football matches all over the world. Inherent social problems with anti-social behaviour are exacerbated when given combustion from the most popular sport on earth. This is especially true in smaller countries with only two or three sides of note. I don’t doubt the historical context but people aren’t fighting in the name of Jesus, they are fighting in the same way they do in Rotterdam and Amsterdam; they are football rivals. It means a lot.
Sectarianism requires two sects in conflict, most obviously religious ones. With such a serious decline in church activity the Scottish media, government and most recently the Church of Rome, are asking us to believe that this is a genuine issue. It’s one that Rangers find themselves high and dry with. In complete contrast to the organisation and fighting spirit of the RC Church and its cultural manifestations, those traditional foundations of Protestantism in Scotland have withered leaving Rangers FC as some kind of bastion of Luther, looking a touch hallow. These days may seem dark to the many that have follow followed for generations but on the contrary, there may be a golden opportunity here.
One sect against the other. Remember, the evidence does not show this to be true. Rangers are being represented as something of a straw man in this farce and they can easily side-step it by saying that we believe that in 2011 religion should play no part in sport and for that matter all parts of public life including education. We recognise the historical context within which the club has existed but we do not have any association with a religious group.
That is not to say that a cultural celebration of Protestant history is wrong or even irrelevant. The main success of the Glorious Revolution, and 1690 et al, was not religious at all; it was the growth and flourishing of liberal democracy outwith the grip of Rome. This is something never to be forgotten but us joining a religious debate in this day and age? No thanks. Us aligning ourselves with the Church of Scotland - Why would we? What does that have to do with football in the modern world, our priority number one?
This will touch a nerve I’m sure. There will be those, there have been those as I’ve read them, calling on the Church of Scotland and the Reformed Churches in general to ride their white horses to our rescue the way the RC Church has to their side. I’ll give you benefit of the doubt and call it ironic satire because they aren’t riding anywhere and if they did, it would make the situation a whole lot worse. It would be genuine sectarianism. One sect against the other: Still something of a strange paradox, given the evidence, but a genuine sectarian conflict nonetheless.
There is an opportunity which is seemingly being missed. Remind yourselves again who you are being targeted by here: The Roman Catholic Church. Granted that in Scotland this seems to have been missed, but in the rest of the UK, the US and the Western World in general at the moment, I can think of no institution that at best is thought of as a joke or at worst hated to its very core. And this is the organisation that is stepping into the spotlight to fight RFC? Risky, padre: very risky.
On this note I wouldn’t have the Club say a word. This isn’t an issue for a football club. But fans groups, media outlets, political pressure groups? Why can’t we take the same fight to this Church the way the rest of the intelligent, rational secular world has been doing? It is NOT sectarian for a rational person to look at the Catholic Church and rip it to shreds, even to hate its very existence. This is an organisation who has told Africa that condoms spread AIDS. This is an institution that is, to its very core, anti-women and anti-homosexual. This is an organisation whose HQ is worth billions of dollars while supposedly preaching the humility of Christ while millions starve. This is a Church which for centuries kept the poorest poor by taking their money in the guarantee that their souls will rest easy in the afterlife. It keeps the un-educated ignorant by the very same token. And last but not least, it has perpetrated and covered up an almost incomprehensible level of child abuse. THIS is who we are up against? They simply do not have a moral platform to take. It is not sectarian to stand up against this.
Remember the difference between anti-Catholic against the individual and the institution. One is bigoted intolerance and the other is completely justified. This isn’t racism, it’s not ethnic xenophobia. Religion is a choice and like anything else in the Western World, you can express that belief but have to field the criticism. If in the 'free world' you are free to shout ‘F*** the USA’ and ‘Down with Capitalism’ then ‘F*** The Pope’ should be no different. They have no protection against valid and free criticism whether that be through the eloquence of Professor Dawkins or the perhaps more robust sentiment shared in a public place such as a football stadium.
Some have complained that a recent judgement has stated that IRA songs are not sectarian. They aren’t. This is not a religious issue, it is a political one. As much as those songs disgust me to the core, as a believer in liberalism and democracy I would defend their right to be sung. What I would also expect is an intelligent and critical media to take those sentiments apart. And for that matter any support of the UVF.
They are all thugs, intent on making their point through the violence and murder of innocents. But this isn’t the issue at the moment and neither is the more ethno-political use of the ‘f word’. We know what the score is with that and how badly its correct use needs to be publicised. Any good argument from our side would also know that any complaints about anti-Irish sentiment in Scotland would be instantly put into context with anti-British or anti-English xenophobia too.
They want a full debate on sectarianism: so let’s have it. But we, and again I repeat supporters groups and political pressure groups rather than Rangers Football Club, need to take the secular ground, even if it goes against the grain. It is the only way to tackle the RC Church without being written off, and rightly so, as being partisan and genuinely sectarian. There is huge opportunity there if we grasp it. A full, rational and moral argument to ask the Roman Catholic Church - this oppressive, deceitful, science-denying, woman-fearing, gay-hating, child-raping, fortune-stealing institution, just who the hell they think they are to moralise on anything or anyone? They literally do not have a prayer.