Sir,
The ongoing campaign by the Free Church of Scotland citing human rights’ legislation in support of evangelist Franklyn Graham’s right to free speech should be contrasted with a statement made by the same church five years ago. Then, it claimed the desirability of a blasphemy law "trumps all talk of rights of free speech.”
On January 13, 2015, in a statement still on its web site, the Free Church of Scotland admitted it had tried to invoke Scotland's blasphemy law in 2005 to curtail freedom of expression by shutting down performances of Jerry Springer the Opera.
In the same statement, one of its former moderators opined that 'freedom of speech has rarely been regarded as absolute and open-
This exemplifies the hypocrisy of the Free Church of Scotland, demanding that free expression be curtailed when it suits its purpose, and then demanding it isn’t curtailed when it’s to its benefit.
It appears that old adage about religious edicts, “don’t do as we do, do as we say,” is still with us.
Alistair McBay
Methven
Letter: Freedom of expression
12 February 2020