Brian Souter funds Christians for Independence

Sir Brian Souter has donated £100,000 to the Christians for Independence campaign in the run-up to the referendum on Scotland leaving the UK on 18/9/2014.
The Stagecoach bus company owner is an SNP supporter and he previously donated £500,000 to the SNP for each of its successful Holyrood election campaigns in 2007 and 2011.

In 2000 he funded a personal referendum aimed at banning the promotion of homosexuality in schools, costing an estimated £1 million.  Since then the SNP Government led the cross-party charge in the Scottish parliament to defy heaven and redefine marriage to include homosexual partnerships, contrary to Souter’s wishes.  In a recent appearance on BBC Question Time, Souter failed to take the opportunity to address the homosexual issue.

A former moderator of the Church of Scotland then led the interfaith charge to have an interfaith constitution for Scotland.

The Scottish government said it did not plan to change the legal status of any religion or Scotland’s churches.  However the agenda of Christians for Independence (CFI) hints otherwise.

The CFI website states: “We have organised a series of well-attended meetings and it is envisaged that such meetings will be organised to reach a wider audience as we approach the Referendum in 2014.”  Dave Thompson held a meeting in Inverness earlier this month.  About a dozen people attended.  Mr Thompson approached Sir Brian for funds to pay for campaign literature and the cost of staging meetings. The MSP said Sir Brian’s gift would allow CFI to “campaign for a commitment to protect religious freedom in an independent Scotland”.  Does Mr Thompson think religious freedom is under threat in an independent Scotland?

Scottish Christian Party
The Scottish Christian Party has been campaigning since 2007 about the effect of Scottish independence upon the Christian constitution of Scotland.  We have drawn attention to the SNP silence on the issue, and several years ago Dave Thompson could give no answer to our question.

The options seem to be 1. the status quo, which the SNP White Paper suggests, meaning that the Christian constitution of Scotland will be retained; 2. changing to a multi-faith constitution, which has support from the inter-faith lobby; and 3. changing to a secular constitution, which the aim of the British Humanist Association, and which some Christians have been too ready to concede.

Christians for Independence
Christians for Independence was established in 2009 by Dave Thompson, the SNP MSP for the Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch constituency, and on 24/2/2014 in Edinburgh’s Scottish Storytelling Centre launched a new initiative with Brian Souter’s money called Faith in Scotland’s Future.

In the Agenda column in The Herald on the same date, Dave Thompson wrote: “We want to hear the hopes, fears and queries Scotland’s Christians have about independence.”  The Scottish Christian Party is interested in hearing the answers about Scotland’s religious constitution before the Referendum.

Its website says: “Christians for Independence believe that self-governance provides the surest route to creating a civilization of love that has the dignity of the human person as a founding principle.”  CFI believes “self-governance gives Scottish Christians the best platform upon which to work collaboratively with others in building a more socially just society at home and abroad.”  “Independence is the best way to promote social justice.
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The Scottish Christian Party does not put its trust in governance nor independence, but in the Lord Jesus Christ and His mandate to His church.  It is Christians who will make the difference, not systems of government, large nor small.

Christians in the SNP have been told for years that separation from England with its corrupting influences will make it easier to evangelise Scotland, and some even blame England for the low state of Christianity in Scotland.  The Scottish Christian Party has a different diagnosis, and therefore it does not prescribe the separatist medicine.

Mr Thompson’s Agenda article continues: “And what about those hot-button moral topics such as same-sex marriage, I hear you ask? Well, as an umbrella group, Christians for Independence recognizes that on a range of ethical issues individual Christians and individual churches come to different conclusions. Therefore we have no fixed policy on such matters.”

The Scottish Christian Party has a clear scriptural policy on such matters.  “If the trumpet gives an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle?” 1Cor 14:8.

With one thing we can agree with Dave Thompson: “the Constitution of Scotland merits discussion.”  It has taken seven years for the discussion to begin on the most fundamental part of Scotland’s constitution.

The subject was debated in the annual assemblies of the Church of Scotland, the Free Church of Scotland, the Free Church of Scotland (Continuing) and the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland.  The latter two denominations supported Better Together, the Free Church and the Church of Scotland did not commit themselves.  Dr John Ross of the Free Church of Scotland supported the Better Together position.

Source: http://www.scottishchristianparty.org.uk/news/brian-souter-funds-christians-for-independence/