The Real Victims
Since 1995 there has been a concerted campaign to portray Professor Donald Macleod as the victim of persecution. Here is this man who has done no one any harm and yet is being hounded to death by a determined group of people who are jealous of his ability and afraid of his modernising ideas. Is this the truth or is it a cleverly worked myth by which the gullible and not so gullible can be taken in?
Power
We believe that there are few more powerful people in Scotland today. Donald Macleod has wide access to the media (national newspapers, radio and television) and many close friends in these circles. The West Highland Free Press appear to the outsider to be willing to publish anything he wants and to block the publication of anything he does not want. Again, in legal spheres, amongst lawyers and advocates, he has many friends. In politics, as a prominent Labour Party supporter, he has many influential acquaintances. In the Church he has formed a large party around himself and many of them are fanatically devoted to him. When all this is combined with his own intellectual ability and gift of communication, he is hardly the sort of individual who needs our sympathy.
Hurt
Have you ever thought of the young women who will go to their graves with psychological scars? Few will defend these sufferers. What about the ministers and elders who were described as conspirators and liars? They were supposed to have procured these women and persuaded them to lie in order to destroy a fellow-minister. Will their reputations ever recover? Think of how hard it must be for them to stand up and preach knowing the cloud that hangs over them. How can they preach on the Ninth Commandment when they have been publicly called liars? It seems they have no redress apart from appeal to God’s Judgment Seat. Think of churches that have been half emptied. Think of a Church on the rocks and in danger of disintegrating. Think of the multitudes who are perishing while ministers and elders try to sort out this mess. Think of those who have had mental breakdowns as a result of all this. Who are the real victims and who are suffering most? There are many people both in the Free Church and beyond it who are in real pain today as a result of one man’s words and deeds. If the Free Church does nothing it will be held responsible before God.
The Lord Advocate
In 1994, as Dean of the Faculty of Advocates, the present Lord Advocate, Andrew Hardie, lashed back at the late Lord Morton after the judge criticised a seven-day delay by an advocate in completing a damages claim. It was a breach of natural justice for a judge to abuse his position on the bench by criticising people without giving them a chance to put their side of the case, said the then Andrew Hardie (The Scotsman 13.3.99). Then, Mr Hardie took a commendably high moral stance in relation to a judge who only “criticised” a person without giving them a chance to put their side of the case. However, only two years later, in 1996, when Mr Hardie was acting as Professor Macleod’s defence counsel, Sheriff Horsburgh condemned a number of Free Church ministers and office-bearers as liars and conspirators without giving them a chance to put their side of the case. Indeed, without even verifying whether they existed. This was a much more serious breach of natural justice. Ask yourself, who are the real victims?
Any comments or questions please E-Mail me or Rev William Macleod the editor.
[Back to Reformed Christian Pages][Back to Free Church Foundations]
[Back to Pre- General Assembly Issue]