TV jibe spurs call to revisit Scotland’s Christian past

A Christian historian is urging Scots to rediscover their nation’s heritage of faith – thanks to a comedian who mocked believers on television.

Paul James-Griffiths is a historian who is the founder and Director of Christian Heritage, Edinburgh, and Soul of Scotland Tours. Together, these provide exhibitions, videos and walking tours.

His new book, What Has Christianity Ever Done for Scotland? Challenging Today from the Past, has just been published. It was prompted, he says, by Christianity being openly mocked on TV by a comedian and their fellow-presenter.

James-Griffiths says that the question “What has Christianity ever done for us?” came up during the broadcast – and actually led the TV hosts to move on from ridiculing believers to mentioning serious things such as education and healthcare that Scottish Christians had been influential in helping bring about. “So I thought, hmm, that's the seed of the idea,” he says.

James-Griffiths says that a lot of people in Scotland today “hate” famous Reformer John Knox, “if they’ve even heard of him.” But he was “an extraordinary man… His famous prayer was ‘give me Scotland or I die, wasn’t it?’ He was like a prophet to the nation, a strong character who refused to compromise.

“And it’s because of his stand that we eventually saw strong leadership, seeing the Presbyterian Church established, which brought in a Christian democracy, which was so key, [and] would then impact the Puritans in London and then even into our British form of democracy.”

James-Griffiths also cites Patrick Hamilton, a Protestant Reformer who was martyred in 1527, as another hero from the past. “The church authorities hated him so much. They actually burnt him alive. And it took six hours for him to burn, [enduring intense agony]. He was praying for his enemies. He was blessing people. He was sharing Jesus.”

A further favourite is Mary Slessor, the 19th century Presbyterian missionary. “What an amazing woman she was. A wee woman from Dundee, poor background, very white skin, very piercing blue eyes and red hair. And she went out to Nigeria, to [Calabar]. And she wanted to go where no one else had been. What a gutsy woman she was. And she would sit in a mud hut with the chief, all his wives and slaves behind them, human skulls in the chief's hut, the witch doctor trying to obviously put her off. But she continued. And through the breakthrough that came about, she transformed that part of Nigeria by the grace of God.”