Bible bashing

Written by Stuart Ritchie Saturday, 21 November 2009 13:33

Stuart Ritchie says no to a Bible in every Pollock room...

In the beginning, there was a Bible in every bedroom in Pollock, a gift from the Gideons. But in 2005, those nasty old secularists in the SRC had the highly sensible idea of barring such sectarian literature from being placed in halls. Somewhat predictably, this caused considerable wailing and gnashing of teeth in the Christian Union (CU), who tried, and failed, to repeal this decision at a EUSA AGM in 2006. That should have been the end of the matter, but history, I am afraid, is repeating itself.

The latest in the seemingly eternal game of religious whack-a-mole comes next Tuesday evening, as the CU table its latest motion, begging for permission to put their holy book back into your bedroom. What does their motion (available on the EUSA website) say? Apparently, many students ‘…have taken comfort in a Bible passage in times of distress…’ so it is exceptionally important for them to have access to a Bible at all times.

Greater hubris hath no society than this. Even leaving aside the fact that this is the 21st Century, and every single version of the Bible is available in full for free on the internet (I should be God’s PR man), the notion of a Bible in every room is groan-inducingly archaic. Edinburgh students have access to several excellent advice facilities such as Nightline or the University’s own counselling service, and I cannot imagine why anyone would not choose them over an ancient text which has arguably lost any real pertinence.
Indeed, if the CU is so concerned about the well-being and comfort of their fellow students, one would think they would be frantically advertising the University’s counselling services, since they offer all-encompassing and inclusive support, regardless of beliefs.

After all, we would want people to be at their most composed and rational before they start thinking of big concepts such as whether God exists, would we not?

In their motion, the CU throws a sop to the notion of diversity by saying ‘any group or society representing any particular point of view who wish to provide literature to be placed in every room in Pollock should be allowed to do so...’. While the image of rooms stuffed with precarious piles of books from Mein Kampf to The Da Vinci Code is highly amusing, the CU’s argument is plainly disingenuous. It knows very well that it is one of the biggest groups on campus, and no other society can possibly come close to affording books for every room. So we end up with the opposite of diversity: one group monopolising unfairly.
Here, secularism is the only way to protect diversity. Privilege no-one, then everyone’s rights are protected.

You may of course be thinking ‘what’s the big deal? A Bible in a drawer is hardly going to cause anyone any serious anguish, and Pollock students need to get their roach papers from somewhere.’ This misses the greater point, however. We live in a society which is highly tolerant of all religions; one group should not be allowed to invade peoples’ private space. The CU would dearly love to be a law unto themselves, but they must not be given special dispensation to trample over the rights of everyone else.
So at Tuesday’s AGM, consider the ways, and be wise. The only way to respect diversity, tolerance, and freedom of choice is to vote against the CU’s griping, worn-out motion. This is one time when we should definitely not turn the other cheek.

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