Burns ‘the Jesus of his day’: Rev

He was famous for his rebellion against orthodox religion and morality. But one of the Kirk’s most senior and respected figures has praised national poet Robert Burns for being the Jesus of his day in exposing the self-righteous.

Burns was famous for his affairs and by the end of his short life – he died aged 37 – he was said to have fathered 14 children by six mothers.

And his religion throughout his adult life seems to have been a humanitarian Deism.

He took sides against the dominant extreme Calvinist wing of the church in Ayrshire and championed a local, Gavin Hamilton, who had got into trouble with the Kirk session for Sabbath-breaking.

Now the Very Rev Dr John Chalmers says Burns “had a genius for holding a mirror in front his contemporaries and exposing their sanctimonious cant and humbug”.

“Every January for more than 40 years I have found myself, somewhere in the world, toasting the Immortal Memory of Robert Burns,” he writes in next month’s Life and Work, the house magazine of the kirk.

“Given, however, his stormy relationship with the church and a lifestyle that disturbed the pillars of the establishment I’m often asked, ‘Why the admiration for Burns?’

“For me the answer is simple enough. Every facet of our life, public and private, has to be held up to open scrutiny; examined for double standard, hypocrisy and false piety.

“Jesus exposed the hypocrisy of the Scribes and Pharisees of his day.

“Burns did the same for the self-righteous of his day.”

The Rev John Chalmers.

Portrait of Robert Burns.