RELIGIOUS intolerance

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIX, 30 January 1936, Page 4

RELIGIOUS intolerance

IN NORTH OF SCOTLAND A wave of religious intolerance 4 the Noitli oi Scotland” writes the Scottish corns- ° xi. n “Listener. There have Gen e a host of incidents ’of which the Test is the threatened denial to a rief Presbvlcrian elder in Skye of baptism for his daughter, on the grounds that he gathered sheep on a Satmday evenin” knowing that they.were to be transported on 'the, following Sunday and that he permitted his wife to attend imr in aid of funds to build a hall that might subsequently be used f ° l dancing None of the conventional exSnations quite covers this widespread pnidemie. Literalness of biblical interpretation is no stricter than it used to be nor are small-town jealousies any more acute. One would dare to fancy that the outbreak, is rather reaction oi the older folk against the spread of the new hedonisms m these boreal parts. Tl is certainly significant that almost “Jv 01.0 oi to incidents lias ansen out of a question of dancing, and it is indeed remarkable to see how that cult has all young Scotland-fishermen and ploughmen, as well as Clydeside shipyard workers —in its grip. If blame is to be apportioned, then broadcasting must clearly accept its share of it. Few stranger things have happened to Scotland than the nightly introduction to Hebridean ‘‘black houses ’ of mellifluous strains from Bark Lane or Piccadilly and the supplanting of simple native song by the latest from Tin i an. Alley. Many of us, quite unsympathetic toward the rigidity of the Wee Free disciplinarians, are entitled to regret that local character is being so far affected by increasingly easy contacts with the nioods and fancies of the cities. On the other hand, it is impossible not to recognise that the lives of young Scots, particularly in the rural districts ,are fuller, happier and much more sober, so far as the use of liquor is concerned, than those their fathers led.